The fifth round of the security talks between Georgia, Russia and Georgia's breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was off to a rocky start on Monday, May 18, when the Russian delegation, citing Abkhazia's refusal to participate, pulled out from the negotiations along with... MORE

The senior Jamestown analyst Pavel Felgenhauer agreed to give an exclusive interview to the Jamestown Foundation Blog on Friday, May 15. Here is the condensed summary of that interview.Jamestown Foundation Blog (JFB): How would you assess the chances for the improvement of U.S.-Russian relations under... MORE

According to a report in the Iranian news agency Press TV, Tehran is now contemplating to buy the HongQi-9 (HQ-9) long-range surface-to-air missile systems recently offered by China for export under the name of FD-2000. As the Press TV report suggests, Tehran's shift of procurement... MORE

On May 7, in an interview with the Japanese news agency Kyodo Tsushin, NHK television channel and the newspaper Nihon Keizai (Nikkei) on the eve of his trip to Japan, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin explicitly linked the progress in the negotiations over the... MORE

Kazakh President Approves the Construction of a New Gas Pipeline to RussiaOn May 15, in a snub to the Nabucco pipeline project, the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law the trilateral Russian-Kazakh-Turkmen agreement on the construction of the 1,600 km-long pipeline along the... MORE

Following the formal launch of the Eastern Partnership Initiative on Thursday, May 7, the Czech government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, hosted another high-profile event - the Southern Corridor-New Silk Road Summit - on Friday, May 8. Attended by the heads of states... MORE

On Thursday, May 7, the Czech Republic, the current EU president, hosted a half day summit of the Eastern Partnership Initiative, which was originally conceived by Poland and Sweden and which is aimed at deepening ties between the EU and six former Soviet Republics -... MORE

Russian Defense Minister on Israeli UAV DealThe Russian mainstream newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta published an interview with the Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov in which he makes comments regarding the $50 million Russia-Israel UAV deal. According to Serdyukov, the first batch of Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)... MORE

[Photo Credit: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili speaking to surrendered mutineer soldiers at the Mukhrovani military base. Mukhrovani, Georgia, May 5, 2009. Photo courtesy of Times Online.] On May 5, on the eve of the crisis response exercises, which commenced today and which are held under... MORE

[Photo Credit: The separatist leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Sergei Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity (left and right respectively) with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (center). The Kremlin, Moscow, April 30, 2009. Photo courtesy of the Presidential Press and Information Office/President of Russia Official Web... MORE