Russian deputy foreign minister Georgy Mamedov claimed yesterday that Boris Yeltsin will arrive in Denver for the July G-7 summit with other group leaders, and that Russia will take part in all of the G-7's discussions -- political and economic. Mamedov was speaking after a... MORE

Russian deputy foreign minister Viktor Posuvalyuk held talks in Syria yesterday on the first leg of a trip that will also take him to Lebanon, Jordan, and, possibly, Israel. According to Russian diplomats, Posuvalyuk raised with his Syrian counterpart, Rislan Allouch, proposals that had been... MORE

The "Zvezda" shipyard near Vladivostok has been picked to repair the Kilo-class diesel-powered submarines that were sold to China several years ago. A Chinese naval delegation recently inspected the enterprise and said they would expedite the contract once they returned to Beijing. The shipyard is... MORE

Russia's Black Sea Fleet yesterday began a large-scale exercise involving some 50 combat and auxiliary ships, naval aviation, coastal artillery, and marine infantry. The maneuvers were launched in a central area of the Black Sea and will end on April 25 with a landing exercise... MORE

President Leonid Kuchma has offered "clear assurances" to Israel's visiting Trade and Industry minister, Natan Sharansky, that Ukraine will not supply turbines to Russia for use at Iran's nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Russia and Iran had sought the Ukrainian turbines for the controversial plant,... MORE

A fourth round of talks in Moscow yesterday between NATO secretary general Javier Solana and Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov apparently did little to resolve differences remaining between the two sides in their efforts to draft a NATO-Russian political agreement. As has been the case... MORE

The news that President Yeltsin has sacked Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Vavilov is being seen as a further sign that the Kremlin is serious about liberalizing Russia's economy. Vavilov's post is going to Aleksei Kudrin, a close associate of First Deputy Premier Anatoly Chubais. (Financial... MORE

General Pyotr Deinekin, commander-in-chief of the Russian air force, has belatedly denied Ukrainian charges that Russian warplanes had violated Ukrainian airspace last month. He called the accusations "groundless." The Ukrainians had accused the Russians of flying within 2-3 kilometers of Ukraine's Serpent Island in the... MORE

An independent Russian expert warned on April 4 against excessive optimism in the country's arms export community, arguing that Russia's rising earnings from arms sales could peak and then begin falling soon after the year 2000. According to Ruslan Pukhov, Russian arms exports may indeed... MORE

Justice Minister Serhy Holovaty has made public a decree just signed by President Leonid Kuchma on combating official corruption. Described by Holovaty as a "rapid-response measure," the presidential decree attempts to address rampant corruption taking into account recent recommendations from the Council of Europe and... MORE