The Russian Defense Ministry's top personnel officer, Col. Gen. Grigory Kasperovich, said on March 28 that roughly one-half of the military officers whose contracts expire in the next two years will not sign up for another tour. He also said that 22 percent of the... MORE

The Russian government breathed a sigh of relief on March 27 when, instead of the 20 million demonstrators predicted by the trade unions, fewer than two million workers took to the streets to protest wage and pensions arrears. And, instead of the 7 million strikers... MORE

Russian and Chechen delegations led by Security Council secretary Ivan Rybkin and Chechen acting first vice-premier Movladi Udugov began negotiations in Nazran, capital of Ingushetia, on March 29. The draft peace agreement between Russia and Chechnya and an intergovernmental agreement on economic questions are on... MORE

On March 29, the North Caucasus Military District's "Redut-97" command-staff exercises in North Ossetia were completed. The drills were held after Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov visited the Northern Caucasus. Russia's General Staff chief, Viktor Samsonov, flew down from Moscow especially for the event. The exercises... MORE

Russia yesterday extradited the former Prime Minister of Azerbaijan, Suret Husseinov, who is wanted in Baku on charges of leading -- or participating in -- several coups d'etat as well as for trafficking in drugs. Senior Azerbaijani law enforcement officials flew to Russia to take... MORE

The governments of Georgia and Moldova have both scored recent successes in improving their external creditworthiness and attracting new sources of investment. (Infotag, March 21; FWN, March 16; Itar-Tass, March 20, 26) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on March 25 for the second year in... MORE

Meeting in Moscow yesterday, the Council of Heads of Government of CIS member countries adopted a Concept of CIS Integrational Development in a watered-down version that apparently fell short of its Russian drafters' expectations. The chief drafter, Russian deputy prime minister Valery Serov (responsible for... MORE

Russia's deputy chief military prosecutor, Lt. Gen. Stanislav Gaveto, revealed yesterday that crimes involving corruption and embezzlement in the military had almost doubled over the past 3 years -- to more than 6,000. Speaking at a conference devoted to that issue, he said that the... MORE

The Council of Foreign Ministers of CIS member countries met yesterday in Moscow for last-minute preparations before today's CIS summit. Most participants found themselves in consensus -- as CIS executive secretary Ivan Korotchenya admitted after the meeting -- that the CIS has "created a huge... MORE

A conflict appears to be brewing over what precisely was promised to President Boris Yeltsin on the question of Russia's participation in the Group of Seven (G-7) during last week's Russian-U.S. summit. In a March 26 address to the Russian people in which he defended... MORE