Word: retainers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...small secretariat that would coordinate the policies of what would be in effect independent nations. Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan, favors a confederation, to be called the Free Union of Sovereign Republics, so loose that it would have no central parliament or Cabinet of Ministers at all. Moscow would retain responsibility for only a handful of functions, including border protection, communications, interrepublic transport, and carrying out a joint foreign policy that would be formed in consultation with the republics. About the only resemblance that this creation would bear to the present Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is that the Cyrillic...
...Monday the conspirators finally called a press conference to introduce themselves. Their performance was a disaster. Far from coming across as a take-charge group, they appeared nervous and half apologetic. They gave a preposterous excuse for assuming authority (Gorbachev was too tired and ill to retain command); stressed that the coup was a constitutional devolution of authority to Yanayev, although it clearly was not; and proclaimed a highly dubious devotion to continued reform. Junta member Vasili Starodubtsev sniffled continually, and Yanayev seemed twitchy. As Gorbachev later commented, "They said I was sick, but they were the ones whose hands...
Most disgraced of all, the KGB is likely to be broken up. It may retain its foreign intelligence functions, but will see its domestic security apparatus turned into a separate, smaller organization. Other portions may be reorganized as an immigration and customs service and as a security organization for officials, similar to the U.S. Secret Service. The Interior Ministry's OMON special forces, the so-called Black Berets, are almost certain to be disbanded...
...momentum confronts Switzerland with an immensely difficult choice: to join, thereby yielding some power to Brussels, and benefit directly from the dynamism of the new Europe, or to stay out and retain its jealously guarded independence. A third option involves the talks now under way with Brussels to create an economic area in which goods, services, capital and labor would flow freely, thereby according Switzerland many of the benefits of E.C. membership but without a loss of sovereignty. The price of that compromise is that Switzerland would not have a strong voice at the table where decisions affecting its future...
...brought about by gay activists pursuing a political agenda. They had no grudge against the official. Many professed to admire him. But they were determined to embarrass the Pentagon about its exclusion of gays from the armed services. To them, it was hypocritical for Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to retain a high civilian official, knowing -- or at least not caring -- that he was gay, while continuing to enforce antigay rules that apply to the uniformed ranks...