1. The fundamental reason is that great changes had by then taken place in the Soviet Union and East Europe.

2. The former Soviet republic is strategically important to the West because it hosts oil and gas pipelines that bypass Russia.

3. Eventually the site proved to be too expensive and technically challenging for Samara, the Soviet reserve capital during World War II.

4. The Caspian's offshore borders have been in limbo since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

5. The Soviet Union has announced the catastrophic failure of its latest space mission, with the crash of Soyuz 1 and the death of the cosmonaut on board.

6. They realize that by attempting to transform former Soviet republics into " unsinkable aircraft carriers, " the US presence in Central Asia could have great impact upon Russia.

7. He added that Russia's location next to Iran and former Soviet Muslim republics in Central Asia made it particularly vulnerable.

8. It too still maintains many elements of the Soviet central planning and investment system.

9. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Russian chief of state Boris Yeltsin visited Israel after they left office.

10. The CIS is an alliance of 12 former Soviet republics that was put together following the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.