The March 12-13 incidents in the Black Sea, in which Russian warships attacked Turkish fishing vessels in Georgian waters and a Ukrainian warship acted similarly in Ukraine's economic zone (though short of killing any fishermen), highlighted both Ukraine's increasing ability to protect its own waters... MORE

The brouhaha in the West over Dolly, the cloned Scottish sheep, has apparently left at least one Russian researcher unimpressed. According to a Russian radio broadcast, a Dr. Nikolai Kuznetsov successfully cloned two dogs from a third dog back in the mid-1970's. The cloning was... MORE

Tim Guldimann, the Swiss diplomat who heads the OSCE's mission in Chechnya, testified in Washington yesterday before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. A correspondent for the Monitor attended the hearing and reports that Ambassador Guldimann expressed guarded optimism about future relations... MORE

Russia successfully launched its second international bond yesterday, a seven-year eurobond denominated in German Marks. The issue -- only the second Russia has made since the 1917 Revolution and the first to be denominated in DM -- raised DM 2 billion ($1.2 billion). The issue... MORE

Russian leaders continued to talk tough on the issue of NATO enlargement yesterday, but also signaled their readiness to bargain with the Western alliance during and after Boris Yeltsin's March 19-20 summit meeting with U.S. president Bill Clinton. Russian presidential press spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky told... MORE

Amid continuing speculation that Defense Minister Igor Rodionov could be one of those to lose his post in Boris Yeltsin's impending government reshuffle, a Russian daily reported on March 11 that responsibility for top appointments in the armed forces will soon be transferred from Defense... MORE

That shake-up appears already to have gotten underway in Russia's navy. An unnamed Defense Ministry source reports that Adm. Feliks Gromov, who has headed the Russian navy since August 1992, is to be replaced before the middle of next month. Gromov will not reach the... MORE

The introduction of anti-dumping duties, or the threat thereof, is becoming an increasingly important barrier to Russian and Ukrainian export growth. (Itar-Tass, March 11; Lvov Infobank, March 6) Vladimir Lisin, an official of the Novolipetsk metallurgy plant in Russia, recently told an international metallurgical conference... MORE

A group of Tajik teenagers in Dushanbe today gunned down a Russian Lieutenant-Colonel of the 201st Division. (Itar-Tass, March 14) Nothing Sheepish About These Dogs.

Lt. Gen. Valery Grin was yesterday appointed commander of Russia's Military Space Forces. He had been acting commander since the dismissal of his predecessor last October. (Interfax, March 13) Ukrainian Warship Detains Turkish Boats.