Last week the official Russian defense ministry publication Krasnaya Zvezda carried a three-part article devoted to the American officer corps and its professional experience. The article placed the American officer corps within a civil society, addressed the unique professional isolation of the officer corps, but... MORE

The recent election in Greece resulted in a convincing victory for George Papandreou’s Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). Despite the fact that Turkish-Greek relations were not a major issue during the election campaign, Ankara closely monitored the election. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stated that Turkey... MORE

Chechnya yesterday (October 5) marked two holidays simultaneously: the birthday of President Ramzan Kadyrov, who turned 33, and Grozny City Day. In 2008, Grozny City Day was moved to coincide with the Chechen leader’s birthday. As the Kavkazsky Uzel website pointed out, Chechen officials explained... MORE

Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, fresh from the resounding victory of his party in the Japanese Diet elections, traveled to New York in late September and met (among others) with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. At their meeting... MORE

On October 1 the fall military draft began in Russia with the defense ministry publicizing its “serious reorganization of the enlistment offices system,” while admitting that recruitment levels had been adjusted downwards to 271,000. The scale of this change is staggering, which has provoked many... MORE

In response to a question as to whether Ankara and Moscow have reached a deal to recognize Abkhazia and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated: “Russia will not enter a deal implying the recognition of Northern Cyprus in... MORE

The Secretary of the Kyrgyz Security Council Adakhan Madumarov and the Chairman of the National Security Service (SNB) Murat Sutalinov recently proposed legalizing capital punishment. Both officials reject standards promoted by Western organizations such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) (www.akipress.kg,... MORE

With the Adygeya jamaat announcing their intent to swear loyalty to Dokka Umarov, the chain of regional underground resistance groups has been completed and now spans the North Caucasus continuously from the shores of the Caspian to the Black Sea. The announcement came after years... MORE

President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had a rare face-to-face meeting on the evening of September 30, about which no official information was provided apart from stating that they discussed the “social-political situation in the country.” There is indeed plenty to discuss, as... MORE

Istanbul is hosting the annual International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) summit on October 2-7. It is expected that around 15,000 delegates including the finance ministers from the G7 will attend the summit. World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IMF Managing-Director Dominique Strauss-Khan... MORE