The mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, says the city may bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Earlier this year, St Petersburg failed in its attempt to host the 2004 games. Moscow hosted the Olympics in 1980. (Itar-Tass, May 18) Ukrainian-Polish Summit Marks New Chapter... MORE

President Aslan Maskhadov of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria, who doubles as prime minister, has appointed Khizir Akhmadov as foreign minister and Elza Sharipova as justice minister. Maskhadov's cabinet is now virtually complete. (Interfax, May 19) Promotion for Russia's Agriculture Minister.

The chairman of the State Property Fund in Crimea, Oleksiy Holovizin, was shot dead outside his home in Simferopol on May 16. Holovizin was an ally of Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma. An economist, he became active in politics when he served as Kuchma's campaign organizer... MORE

Armenian finance minister Levon Barkhoudarian told a news conference in Yerevan on May 12 that official IMF approval for the release of the first $25 million tranche of the extended structural adjustment facility (ESAF) for this year will be forthcoming in June. (Noyan Tapan, May... MORE

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov is planning visits to a number of CIS states this summer, during which Chechnya may sign treaties on economic and cultural cooperation. Originally, Maskhadov was said to be planning visits to several Middle Eastern states, from whose leaders he had received... MORE

President Yeltsin's spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, has indicated that the president has little choice but to sign into law a controversial bill on restitution of cultural treasures brought to the USSR by the Soviet Army at the end of World War II. The effect of the... MORE

Presidents Mintimer Shaimiev and Aslan Maskhadov, of Tatarstan and Chechnya, respectively, will sign a treaty of friendship and cooperation tomorrow in Kazan. An accompanying economic agreement calls for Kazan to provide assistance in restoring Chechnya's economy and in training students from Chechnya in the universities... MORE

The IMF announced on May 16 that it will resume payments to Russia under the $10.1 billion Extended Fund Facility agreed upon in March, 1996. The sum of $700 million, equivalent to two monthly loan payments, will be released shortly. The credit tranches for January,... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin yesterday met in the Kremlin with a group of lawmakers in an effort to win parliament's approval of the NATO-Russia political agreement finalized in negotiations on May 14. Yeltsin told the group, which included the chairmen of both houses of parliament... MORE

Citing the country's Foreign Ministry, press reports out of Japan indicated yesterday that Tokyo is prepared to back Russia's bid to become a full member of the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrial nations. Japan had heretofore reacted coolly to the proposal, but, apparently under... MORE