Yesterday was the deadline for the parties to the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty to ratify the 1996 updating document on flank quotas. However, four countries continue to register objections and reservations stemming from the presence of Russian forces in flank areas on... MORE

Aleksandr Shokhin, deputy speaker of the Russian Duma, has denied that he told the newspaper Kommersant-daily earlier this week that, if the Russia/Belarus union results in a new state, Boris Yeltsin could stand for president of the new entity and thereby win a third term... MORE

Less than 24 hours after NATO and Russia had successfully concluded negotiations on an historical political agreement, squabbling broke out yesterday over Russian president Boris Yeltsin's interpretation of the document. A series of statements made by Yeltsin during a May 14 television interview were at... MORE

The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, has decided to set up a new TV channel devoted to life in the provinces. To be called "Regions of Russia," the new channel will cost an estimated $120 million and will be paid for... MORE

Israeli police on May 3 arrested Grigory Lerner, an alleged Russian mafia boss, on suspicion of laundering over $80 million in illegal currency transactions. (NTV, May 13; Itar-Tass, May 14) Lerner left Russia in 1990, having served time in jail in 1983. In 1992 he... MORE

Addressing Armenia's parliament yesterday, Prime Minister Robert Kocharian suggested that "serious consideration" be given to attaching Karabakh to Armenia as an administrative-territorial unit. However, Foreign Minister Aleksander Arzumanian took the floor to reply that Armenia is committed to OSCE decisions whereby Karabakh's status will be... MORE

A group of Russian politicians is launching a petition to demand a referendum on the proposed union of Russia and Belarus. (Itar-Tass, ORT, May 15) The initiative comes from Duma member Nikolai Gonchar, a passionate supporter of union, and the Democratic Party of Russia. They... MORE

In a nationwide radio address this morning, Russian president Boris Yeltsin said he was determined "to do away with a situation where civil service is a source for enrichment." (Itar-Tass, May 16) A decree signed by Yeltsin earlier this week will require top government officials... MORE

Russia's Communist-dominated Duma has adopted a bill outlawing any reconstruction of the facilities located in Moscow's Red Square. The aim is to forestall the threat, voiced earlier this year by President Yeltsin, of removing Lenin's embalmed body from its mausoleum and burying it. (Moskovsky komsomolets,... MORE

U.S. defense secretary William Cohen and visiting Russian defense minister Igor Rodionov announced in Washington on May 14 that the two countries had agreed to expand bilateral military cooperation. Cohen said that contacts are to be established between the Russian General Staff and the U.S.... MORE