Gloom descended as leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States ended their summit meeting in Kiev last week without managing to defuse a situation that threatens the already fragile structure of the nascent organization: the growing rancor between Russia and Ukraine.
Their relations deteriorated two weeks ago when Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk announced that he was halting the transfer of tactical nuclear weapons to Russia. Kiev had pledged to hand over all such weapons by July, but so far, only around half of the roughly 2,500 tactical weapons have been shipped. In Moscow, Boris Yeltsin retaliated by creating his own defense...
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