By empty (10/27/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Federation Council on 27 October approved the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that seeks to restrict emissions of the gases widely believed to contribute to global warming, Russian and international media reported. The vote was 139 in favor, one opposed, and one abstention. The Duma voted to ratify the protocol on 22 October.

By empty (10/27/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Mintimer Shaimiev on 25 October criticized one aspect of President Putin\'s proposed political reform to replace the direct election of governors with a system under which local legislatures confirm candidates nominated by the president. Under the proposal, the president would have the option of disbanding a local legislature that twice declined to approve his candidate. Shaimiev argued that \"parliaments are elected by the people.

By empty (10/27/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The opposition Artarutiun bloc convened a meeting on 26 October outside the parliament building in Yerevan to mark the fifth anniversary of the massacre in which eight senior officials were gunned down, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. In a statement read out to the estimated several thousand participants, leaders of the parties aligned in Artarutiun alleged that President Robert Kocharian and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian \"are directly responsible not only for not preventing the 27 October crime but also for obstructing the search for its masterminds and covering up the crime.\" Kocharian, Sarkisian, and other senior officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in the killings.