The Ukrainian parliament voted last week to end tax breaks for foreign direct investors. (AP, April 9) The legislation approved the revocation of a two-year tax holiday for foreign or joint ventures with more than $50,000 in foreign capital invested, and would require foreign investors... MORE

Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov mediated a five-hour negotiating session among top Moldovan officials and Transdniester leaders in Chisinau on the night of April 10-11. Primakov and the Chisinau and Tiraspol leaders told a post-midnight news conference that agreement was reached on resuming negotiations aimed... MORE

Following lengthy and heated debates on the recently revealed Russian arms deliveries to Armenia, Russia's Duma adopted on April 11 a toothless resolution. It urged President Boris Yeltsin to ensure compliance with existing legislation on arms exports, to take legal action against violators in general,... MORE

Tajikistan has become the first CIS member country to host a Russian military advisory mission, Defense Minister Sherali Hairulloev announced yesterday. A first group of 14 Russian officers, out of the mission's 72, will officially start working in Tajikistan's Defense Ministry on April 19. Ranging... MORE

Col. Burkhardt Kuehnapfel, identified as German military attache in Tashkent, announced at a news conference there that the Bundeswehr is embarking on a long-term program to train Uzbek officers. The first trainees, including tank, artillery, signals, and air defense officers of junior and senior ranks... MORE

Miners in Anzhero-Sudzhensk in Russia's main Kuzbass coalmining region, who blocked the Trans-Siberian railway for 16 hours this week to protest wage arrears, have ended their protest after receiving assurances that some of the arrears would be paid off. (Itar-Tass, April 10) Earlier in the... MORE

The executive committees of the Worldwide Congress of Tatars and the Worldwide Congress of Bashkirs are joining forces to campaign against proposals to abolish Russia's national republics such as Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Once supported only by nationalist politicians, including Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the administrative reform has... MORE

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov, who was expected to leave Chechnya this week to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, has postponed his trip due to pressures of work. (Itar-Tass, April 10) Duma Group to Promote Better Ties with NATO.

A new group is reportedly forming in the lower house of the Russian parliament that will seek to counteract the Duma's "Anti-NATO" group. The deputies behind the move call themselves the "Atlantic" group and seek to promote dialogue between Russia and NATO. The new group... MORE

Russian defense minister Igor Rodionov will pay an official visit to China on April 14-18, military sources in Moscow said yesterday. Rodionov's itinerary includes meetings with Gen. Liu Huaqing, deputy chairman of China's Central Military Council, and with Chinese Communist party leader and president, Jiang... MORE