According to the Ministry of Statistics, more than 6,600 non-state industrial enterprises were operating in Ukraine during the first quarter of 1997. These firms constituted 71.5 percent of the country's total number of industrial enterprises, and accounted for 52.4 percent of industrial production. These figures... MORE

The VCIOM organization conducted a nationwide poll to test attitudes toward the government's budget sequestration plan. Thirty-six percent of respondents thought that the government should increase tax rates or improve tax collection rather than cut spending. Only 12 percent favored taking on more international loans,... MORE

Japanese foreign minister Yukihiko Ikeda will arrive in Russia on May 23 for three days of talks that will include meetings with President Boris Yeltsin and Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Japanese government sources announced on May 10. The trip was said to be aimed at... MORE

Bulgaria's state gas company, Bulgargas, said on May 11 that Russia is charging too much for its gas and that Bulgargas intends to start shopping around for cheaper suppliers. An official for the company said that Bulgaria is paying $10-15 more per 1,000 cubic meters... MORE

A number of Ukrainian parliamentary deputies, notably from Dnipropetrovsk region, denied over the weekend that they had joined the "Ukraine outside NATO" group. Socialist and Communist deputies had announced the formation of that group on May 7, the day of NATO general secretary Javier Solana's... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov met in the Kremlin this morning and signed a Treaty on Peace and Principles of Mutual Relations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. (Itar-Tass, May 12) Yeltsin's decision to press ahead with... MORE

A Russian TV crew made up of correspondent Yelena Masyuk and two male companions -- a cameraman and a sound engineer -- was kidnapped by masked gunmen on May 10 near the western Chechen village of Samashki. (NTV, May 11) NTV correspondent Yelena Masyuk is... MORE

Chechen deputy prime minister Shamil Basaev reportedly met with maverick field commander Salman Raduev over the weekend and persuaded him to forswear the use of terror. Raduev, who last month claimed responsibility for fatal bombings in Armavir and Pyatigorsk, is said to have promised to... MORE

The presidents of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, Ruslan Aushev and Akhsarbek Galazov, met in Nazran on May 7 and signed a declaration of intent to resolve the conflict dividing their republics. (Interfax, Itar-Tass, May 7) In October, 1992, interethnic conflict between Ossetians and Ingush in... MORE

Following a meeting on May 9 between Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov and Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, Russia's Foreign Ministry released a statement claiming that Iraq is cooperating with the UN on disarmament and that the UN should therefore consider expediting the removal... MORE