Latest Monitor Articles
YELTSIN APPOINTS LIVSHITS TO PRESIDENTIAL STAFF.
President Boris Yeltsin has appointed Aleksandr Livshits to the post of deputy head of the presidential administration. (Itar-Tass, March 19) Earlier this week, Livshits lost his job as deputy prime minister and finance minister, the latter post going to Anatoly Chubais. Livshits had been finance... MORE
LEBED SAYS NATO ENLARGEMENT AIMED AT RUSSIA.
Aleksandr Lebed, who to date has been one of Russia's most moderate critics of NATO enlargement, charges in a recent newspaper interview that enlargement is actually being driven by a secret agenda aimed at ousting Russia from Europe. "The USA needs NATO to control Europe,... MORE
ANOTHER SENIOR OFFICER CHARGED.
Col. Gen. Anton Terentyev, deputy commander of the Russian Ground Forces, has been charged with fraud and abuse of power. An official in the military prosecutor's office said he had used forged documents to register military apartments in Moscow as his property. The commander of... MORE
UKRAINE WINS AN ARMS CONTRACT AT GULF EXHIBIT.
Ukraine has apparently beaten Russia to the punch in landing an arms sale at the International Defense Exhibition currently underway in Abu Dhabi. Russia is displaying 500 exhibits at the show, including such weapons as the T-80 tank and the Ka-50 attack helicopter. However, the... MORE
LITHUANIA HOLDING WAR GAMES.
Lithuania's largest-ever military exercise, Spring Wind-97, began yesterday near the north-central city of Panevezis. The main theme of the exercise, which involves more than 2,000 soldiers and the air force, is defense of Lithuanian territory against a foreign invasion. (BNS, March 18) Estonia Subsidizes Russian... MORE
ESTONIA SUBSIDIZES RUSSIAN CITY.
Foreign Minister Toomas Ilves stated yesterday that Western countries have praised the Estonian government's decision last week to grant the Russian city of Ivangorod the equivalent of $2.5 million in nonreimbursable aid. Situated just across the border from Estonia's city of Narva, Ivangorod was deeply... MORE
CLANDESTINE EXPLOSIVES FACTORY UNCOVERED IN ESTONIA.
Estonia's security police have discovered in the city of Tartu an underworld "bomb factory" that had been working on orders from Russian criminal groups. Remote-control and time bombs were selling at $700 each and are known to have been used in Russia only. (BNS, March... MORE
U.S. OFFERS REASSURANCES TO NATO ASPIRANTS.
Against a background of hard-line statements out of the Kremlin on the subject of NATO enlargement, U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright yesterday did some tough talking of her own. During a briefing for reporters in Washington, Albright underlined that NATO's expansion would go forward... MORE
SHEVARDNADZE ANGERED BY MOSCOW’S PARTIALITY IN ABKHAZIA.
President Eduard Shevardnadze yesterday told the country on radio that Russian border forces are using "absolutely incompatible double standards" by shooting at Turkish fishing boats in Georgian waters while allowing cargo ships to ply regular trade with Abkhazia. "Russian border forces totally ignore elementary norms... MORE
TURKMENISTAN DISTANCES ITSELF FROM MOSCOW IN TALKS WITH NATO LEADER.
On the final leg of his Central Asian tour, NATO secretary general Javier Solana conferred with Turkmen president Saparmurad Niazov, Foreign Minister Boris Shikhmuradov, and military leaders in Ashgabat. Clearly distancing itself from Moscow, the Turkmen side announced that it has no objection to NATO's... MORE