Ex-Soviet first deputy foreign minister Vladimir Petrovsky, reincarnated as UN under-secretary general, agreed yesterday in Geneva with Russian deputy prime minister Valery Serov on a plan to establish official direct links between Moscow-based "CIS integration structures" and "the UN's Geneva-based structures." The two will prepare... MORE

Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati's visit to Baku -- officially to deliver an invitation to Azerbaijani president Haidar Aliev for the next Islamic Conference Organization summit in Tehran -- turned instead into an occasion for the two countries to air their differences. Velayati admonished... MORE

In a joint statement the United Tajik Opposition's political leadership and field commanders have expressed "shock" over the detention of opposition supporters in Garm and Tavildara and over the killing of four opposition fighters just east of Dushanbe. The opposition demanded investigations of these incidents... MORE

At a special April 22 session of Kazakstan's National Security Council, President Nursultan Nazarbaev ordered a major reorganization of security and law enforcement agencies with a view to intensifying anti-crime measures. The president announced at a briefing that the State Investigations Committee is being enlarged... MORE

Moscow welcomed Chinese president Jiang Zemin yesterday at the start of a five-day "summit" viewed by both sides as a symbolic reflection of their improving relations. The event will feature the signing of a joint Russian-Chinese political declaration. Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin greeted Jiang... MORE

Russian Communist Party (RCP) leader Gennady Zyuganov dodged a group of youths who tried to pelt him with tomatoes and laid a wreath at Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square yesterday. Zyuganov reiterated his opposition to the idea of removing Lenin's embalmed body from the... MORE

The president of the Russian Hockey Federation, Valentin Sych, was shot dead yesterday morning as he and his wife were leaving their country house outside Moscow. He is believed to have been the victim of a contract killing. Russia's Independent television said Sych may have... MORE

Lithuania's elite Iron Wolf motorized brigade has completed the first phase of the Amber Valley 97 war games, designed and supervised by U.S. Army instructors and using U.S. equipment specially flown in. The theme of the exercise is defense of a city by infantry troops... MORE

Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian was cited yesterday as telling a news conference that Armenia had "won the issue" of obtaining Russian ratification of the treaty on Russian military bases in his country, despite recent revelations of clandestine Russian arms deliveries to Armenia. However, the "fuss"... MORE

Ukrainian-Azerbaijani negotiations ended yesterday in Baku with an agreement to begin experimental transport of Azerbaijani oil to Ukraine via Georgia and the Black Sea as early as next month. The decision marks a first step, ahead of schedule, toward implementing President Leonid Kuchma's and President... MORE