Russia's second Eurobond issue, which was floated in mid-March, had yielded some DM 2 billion in receipts by March 26, First Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Vavilov said on March 26. (Interfax, March 26) However, Nicolas Hagerty, director of the Dutch ABN Amro Bank's Corporate Finance... MORE

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin announced more cabinet appointments yesterday. But while the premier said the government is now "virtually complete," significant gaps remain and suggest that a struggle is still going on between Chernomyrdin and his two new first deputies, Anatoly Chubais and Boris... MORE

Kiev has launched an international tender for engineering firms to plan and design an oil transit route from Azerbaijan to Central Europe via Georgia and Ukraine. The concept involves a pipeline from Azerbaijan to Georgia's Black Sea coast, a ferry line to a port near... MORE

Apparently reacting to concerns expressed by Kazakstan's Security Council chief, Beksultan Sarsekov, over the experimental deployment of Cossack irregulars on the Russian-Kazak border (see Monitor, March 26), Moscow said yesterday that it will actually expand that practice. Col. Gen. Aleksandr Yeryomin, deputy commander of Russia's... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin yesterday assured Russia's military personnel that reform of the armed forces will be launched soon and that their own living conditions will begin to improve. Yeltsin promised that overdue wages will be paid, that high level corruption will be punished, and that... MORE

The latest round of talks between Russia and Ukraine on the transfer of the 40 Soviet strategic bombers inherited by Ukraine ended yesterday in Moscow without an agreement. A Russian Air Force spokesman said that the two sides could not agree on the planes' value.... MORE

Addressing the Association of [Soviet-era] Deported Latvian Children on the Memorial Day of Victims of Communist Terror, President Guntis Ulmanis called on Russia to return to Latvia the archives that document Soviet repression. Ulmanis expressed concern that the archives may be destroyed in Russia, to... MORE

Security forces were on alert this morning as workers across Russia began a day of protest over unpaid wages and pensions. Tens of thousands of workers demonstrated this morning in the Far East. Trade union leaders said they expected 20 million people to take part... MORE

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin appealed for calm in advance of today's planned protests. He told a press conference yesterday that the government would pay $2 billion in wage arrears to public sector employees by the end of this month (about one-fifth of what is... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin has ordered government offices to sell off their coveted western-made BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes and to buy Russian-made cars instead. (Itar-Tass, March 26) The move comes in response to a jibe from First Deputy Premier Boris Nemtsov, who has called on... MORE