Coal mining, and especially coking coal, has been a very problematic industry in Ukraine -it is highly inefficient due to outdated machinery and the depth of its mines. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), "The average mine depth is more than 700 meters; in... MORE

There has been a fresh wave of insurgent attacks and shootouts between rebels and security forces across the North Caucasus as the security situation in the region remains highly problematic.A bomb went off on a railroad bed in Dagestan today. No one was hurt in... MORE

On September 10 General Motors, partly owned by the U.S. government, changed its position and allowed its ailing German subsidiary, Opel, to be "rescued" by a Kremlin-controlled consortium. The German government strongly pressed for the Russian solution in preference to an American one. The issue... MORE

The topic of power-sharing inside the rather peculiar duumvirate of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has long since lost its news value, but in the last couple of days it has suddenly acquired new currency. Personal relations between the co-rulers are beyond... MORE

Turkish tax authorities have imposed a record tax fine, totaling 3.755 billion Turkish Liras ($2.5 billion), against the Dogan Media Group, (DMG), Turkey's largest media group and the publisher of influential newspapers including Hurriyet, Milliyet, Vatan, Radikal, Referans, Hurriyet Daily News, and owner of widely... MORE

The Turkish-Armenian agreement on September 1 to start political consultations aimed at establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries has once again raised concerns in Baku. It is only four months since the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Baku and assured Azerbaijani politicians... MORE

In an interview that appeared in Izvestiya in Moscow on August 27, the Belarusian President, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, maintained that the results of the 2006 presidential elections were falsified. However, rather than raising his total, Lukashenka had allegedly demanded that it be lowered to appear more... MORE

Dagestan's President Mukhu Aliev has denounced a claim by two leading Russian human rights activists that Dagestan has illegal prisons and extrajudicial killings.On September 8, the Memorial human rights center made public an open letter signed by its head, Oleg Orlov, and Lev Ponomarev, head... MORE

On September 9 the United Nations General Assembly condemned the "forced displacement" of the population from Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia territories, strongly upheld the displaced populations' right to return there, and defined these territories as parts of Georgia.Georgia had initiated the General Assembly's resolution... MORE

As the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has been working on a comprehensive plan to resolve the Kurdish issue, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has broken its self-declared unilateral ceasefire and resumed its terrorist attacks. In two days, PKK attacks claimed ten Turkish... MORE