The Russian Duma's Defense Committee chairman, Gen. Lev Rokhlin, indicated yesterday that Russia's clandestine deliveries of military hardware to Armenia had involved more routes and more personnel than hitherto assumed. Rokhlin revealed in a televised interview that the deliveries were carried out by air from... MORE

Tajik government-opposition negotiations on the country's post-war political system opened yesterday in Tehran, but promptly broke down over Dushanbe's execution of two opposition prisoners and the Russian authorities' arrest or attempted arrest of 11 opposition members. Both actions contravene the amnesty announced at the preceding... MORE

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma yesterday appointed Serhii Tigipko, a banker from Kuchma's home town Dnipropetrovsk, as deputy prime minister in charge of economic reform. Tigipko takes over from Viktor Pynzenyk, who resigned on April 7 in protest against the slow pace of reform. Tigipko, 37,... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin will soon issue a decree establishing procedures for public discussion of the Treaty of Union between Russia and Belarus, signed on April 2, and of the accompanying charter initialed the same day. Yeltsin's decree is expected to set up a commission... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin yesterday accepted the resignation of Fuel and Energy Minister Petr Rodionov. One of a dwindling number of cabinet associates of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Rodionov had held the post less than a year. His ouster was apparently provoked by his failure to... MORE

Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov arrived in Paris yesterday for two days of talks. He is to meet with French president Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Alain Juppe, Foreign Minister Herve de Charette, and parliament chairman Philippe Seguin. The agenda will reportedly be wide-ranging, and will... MORE

In meetings with President Boris Yeltsin, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, and other Russian leaders on April 7-8, Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri won condemnation of Israel's plans to build housing in East Jerusalem and a pledge that Moscow would play a more active role in... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday said it agrees with the U.S. that peace in the Persian Gulf depends on Iraq's fulfillment of UN Security Council resolutions. But a ministry spokesman criticized what it called Washington's "tendency to link any easing or lifting of sanctions against Iraq... MORE

China is buying 30 Ukrainian aircraft engines to power the new "Karakoram-8" trainer and light attack aircraft that it is jointly developing with Pakistan. Oleksandr Havrishenko, an official of the "Progress" plant in Zaporizha, said his company would deliver 10 AI-25TLK engines to China this... MORE

Izvestia claims to have discovered the real reason why President Yeltsin last week sacked his foreign policy adviser, Dmitry Ryurikov, and shelved the version of the treaty documents with Belarus that Ryurikov had drafted for a shorter version. (Izvestia, April 8) Initial speculation held that... MORE