By Greg ShtraksOne hundred and five years and one week after the peaceful marchers led by Orthodox priest Father Gaston were fired upon by Tsarist troops, another mass protest, this time in Kaliningrad, threatened to undermine the ruling regime of Russia. “Bloody Sunday”, as the... MORE

By Giorgi KvelashviliOn February 1, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was asked during a press conference to comment on the pro-Russia Georgian opposition’s latest “proposal that if Russia renounces its recognition for South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia will renounce joining NATO.” In response, Lavrov said,... MORE

By Jiri KominekFor those readers who have a fresh, firsthand recollection of public protest in Russia, the formula is quite simple. A few hundred anti-government protesters turn up to peacefully vent their dissatisfaction with the government, and the Kremlin responds by sending in an exponentially... MORE

(Photo: RFE/RL)By Tammy LynchAs debates go, the Ukraine Presidential debate on February 1 was lacking fireworks or drama. Of course, it’s hard to have fireworks and drama when only one candidate shows up.As noted in last week’s blog, presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych previously declared his... MORE

By Giorgi KvelashviliOn January 22 2010, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a press conference to sum up his country’s foreign policy activities in 2009. As it has already become a peculiar tradition for top-level Russian leaders, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry... MORE

By Tammy LynchOn February 1, Ukraine’s two presidential candidates will meet for their first and only official debate. Or at least that’s the plan, according to the Central Election Commission.In reality, it's highly likely that one of the candidates – Viktor Yanukovych – will skip... MORE

By Giorgi KvelashviliAs it has already been reported, Georgia’s former prime minister who now leads the opposition Movement for a Just Georgia, Zurab Noghaideli, visited Moscow several times in December 2009 (https://jamestownfoundation.blogspot.com/2010/01/former-prime-minister-zurab-noghaideli.html). During one of his visits to the Russian capital, he was received by... MORE

By Jiri KominekSpy scandals involving Russian intelligence successfully penetrating or attempting to penetrate the upper echelons of government in NATO-member states that recently joined the alliance have made headlines on numerous occasions.In the tiny Baltic state of Estonia, authorities arrested Herman Simm, the former head... MORE

By Tammy LynchUkraine’s presidential election campaign took an odd turn on Monday, when a printing press responsible for producing ballots was bizarrely raided.As the video above from Ukrayinska Pravda demonstrates, a group of plain-clothed men smashed windows and pushed through the doors of the printing... MORE

By Giorgi KvelashviliThe Georgian and Russian churches have long found themselves heavily involved in political antagonism affecting almost all segments of the broad divide between pro-Western Georgia and increasingly isolationist and irredentist Russia. During the war between the two countries in August 2008, the Georgians... MORE