Tatyana Paramonova has reportedly lost her job as deputy chair of Russia's Central Bank. No reason has been given. Paramonova was acting chair of the Central Bank from October 1994 to November 1995. (Ekho Moskvy, April 20) Guldimann Leaves Chechnya.

Swiss diplomat Tim Guldimann left Djohar-gala on April 19. He had headed the OSCE's Assistance Group in Chechnya since January 1996 and his powers expired two weeks ago. Danish diplomat Rudolf Thorning-Petersen, who is to succeed him, is leading an OSCE delegation to Belarus at... MORE

According to Georgian military sources, the Russian command plans to move to Armenia troops and equipment currently stationed at the Vaziani military airport and Shavnabada army training center, both situated outside Tbilisi. The planned move forms part of the reorganization of the Russian Group of... MORE

Police in many Russian cities were on heightened alert yesterday in anticipation of possible terrorist attacks timed to coincide with the first anniversary of late Chechen president Djohar Dudaev's death. In the event, the occasion passed relatively peacefully. A powerful bomb went off early yesterday... MORE

On April 18, the deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, Boris Berezovsky, held talks with Chechen first deputy premier Shamil Basaev. During the meeting, the question of releasing the Russian journalists and the payment by Moscow of monetary compensation to Chechnya for the material... MORE

A congress of Chechens and Kumyks living in Dagestan's Khasavyurt District met on April 20 in the district capital, also called Khasavyurt. The district borders on Chechnya. The congress was convened in response to the conflict provoked by the results of the elections for Khasavyurt... MORE

Professor Valery Bykov, the scientist in charge of preserving Lenin's embalmed body, has suggested that cloning might be used to make a genetic copy of the Bolshevik leader. Bykov voiced the proposal yesterday in an interview with the Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet. (Itar-Tass, April 21) The... MORE

Russia's deputy minister for atomic energy, Nikolai Yegorov, has characterized an account by a Russian disarmament expert of a 1993 theft of two nuclear warheads as "idiotic" According to Yegorov, no nuclear warheads have ever been stolen in Russia. The expert, Vladimir Orlov, is reported... MORE

At a time when Russo-Chinese military relations are booming, navy commander-in-chief Adm. Feliks Gromov has warned that the current border talks between the two countries could give China an outlet onto the Sea of Japan -- a development that has the potential, in Gromov's view,... MORE

The Baltic states' possible admission to NATO would be as provocative to Russia as the 1962 deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba was to the U.S., according to Anton Surikov of Russia's Defense Studies Institute, writing in Pravda's weekend issue. Baltic entry into the alliance... MORE