Approximately 1,000 delegates from all former Soviet republics, including a disproportionately large Russian representation, yesterday attended a Congress of the Peoples of the USSR. It was the third such congress initiated by Russian Communists, and the first to be held outside Russia under Belarusan president... MORE

Meeting in Chisinau, the Ministers of Internal Affairs of CIS member countries agreed in principle to upgrade the CIS Coordination Bureau for Crime-Fighting Activities into a "regional" Interpol Bureau for CIS Countries. Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs is to draft the new Bureau's by-laws. The... MORE

In his remarks to Russian media chiefs on March 14 (see Perspective section below), Boris Yeltsin intimated that the U.S. has played a smaller economic role in supporting Russian reform than have France, Germany, Britain, and Japan. A day later presidential press spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky... MORE

Russian president Boris Yeltsin has told his government that the present manner in which food procurement for the military is funded is "unacceptable." The presidential press service said Yeltsin had responded to an appeal from Defense Minister Igor Rodionov by ordering the government to adopt... MORE

Ambassador Nikolai Ryabov yesterday suggested that Moscow would "reconsider" providing natural gas and nuclear fuel to the Czech Republic should it join NATO. He also said that Moscow was concerned about losing former Warsaw Pact members as customers for Russian arms, a potential development that... MORE

Uzbek customs have confiscated a consignment of 25,000 Uzbek-language copies of the New Testament, sent by the Russian Bible Society as a gift to its counterpart in that country. Uzbekistan's government department on religious affairs upheld the confiscation on the grounds that the country's secular... MORE

Bahrom Sodirov, co-leader with his brother Rizvon of an armed detachment that the government had earlier tried to unleash against the opposition, was captured over the weekend with 21 of his fighters near Obigarm in a joint operation of government and opposition forces. The unprecedented... MORE

With the countdown on to this week's Russian-U.S. summit meeting in Helsinki, Russian president Boris Yeltsin used two separate media events over the weekend to do some tough talking on the subject of Russian-NATO relations. In remarks to Russian media chiefs on March 14, Yeltsin... MORE

On the second and third leg of his tour of Central Asia, NATO secretary general Javier Solana conferred with the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Kyrgyz president Askar Akaev, Foreign Minister Roza Otunbaeva, and military leaders discussed with Solana the participation of Kyrgyzstan in the... MORE

Russian defense minister Igor Rodionov has confirmed charges that the ministry delivered 84 T-72 tanks and 50 infantry-fighting armored vehicles to Armenia in 1994-1996 without government clearance, an action that defrauded the state budget of 270 billion rubles. A special investigative commission mandated by Rodionov... MORE