Nezavisimaya gazeta is calling on other Russian newspapers and on TV networks to impose an immediate and indefinite blackout on media reporting on the activities of ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky. (Nezavisimaya gazeta, May 12) The move follows Zhirinovsky's May 8 assault on two journalists, one... MORE

Swedish minesweepers and Latvian coastal guard cutters yesterday began a demining operation in the Irbe Strait and off Latvia's port of Ventspils. The operation aims to find and destroy World War II mines that still cause hardships for commercial shipping. A similar exercise is scheduled... MORE

Prime Minister Andris Skele has dismissed Defense Minister Andrejs Krastins and forced the resignation of the state secretary for defense, Einars Vaivods. They are accused of having approved a fuel supply deal for the Latvian military which benefited a private company but defrauded the state.... MORE

The presidents of Turkey and Turkmenistan, Suleyman Demirel and Saparmurad Niazov, yesterday attended the inauguration of a pulp mill worth $180 million and a textile factory worth $67 million. Both were built and equipped by Turkish companies in kindred Turkmenistan. The textile factory is the... MORE

Company Wins Bid for Kazak Oil Giant.

A peace treaty and agreement on the principles of relations between Russia and the Republic of Ichkeria (as Chechnya prefers to be known) was signed yesterday in Moscow. "We have signed a peace deal of historic dimensions, putting an end to 400 years of history,"... MORE

Russian first deputy premier Boris Nemtsov said yesterday that President Boris Yeltsin would soon sign three extremely important decrees. The one that Nemtsov expects to provoke the greatest uproar is that requiring civil servants and their families to file and publish income tax declarations. But... MORE

Among the natural monopolies in Boris Nemtsov's sights is Russia's massive railway system. The nation's 19 railway companies, with their 2.2 million workers, remain under the control of the Ministry of Railways. They are also still the backbone of the country's transport system, accounting for... MORE

A senior Pentagon official yesterday discounted an article carried by the Washington Times which claimed that Russian strategic missiles had on several occasions recently shifted to "combat mode" because of equipment malfunctions. The article purportedly was based on a classified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report.... MORE

According to Azerbaijan's senior presidential adviser on foreign policy, Vafa Guluzade, changes demanded by Moscow to the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty are "alarming to a number of newly independent countries." Writing in the current issue of Baku's leading weekly, Zerkalo, Guluzade observes that... MORE