NO FUNDS FOR NATO PARTNERSHIP.

The commander of Russia’s IFOR peacekeeping brigade, General Leonty Shevtsov, said March 23 that Moscow’s participation in the NATO Partnership for Peace program is being impeded by a lack of funding. Shevtsov suggested that the Defense Ministry did not want to finance participation from the regular defense budget and that the government had still not allocated the necessary funding. (Interfax, March 23)

Tokyo Concerned over Duma Vote.