With Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s direct backing, Gazprom and other Russian energy companies have embarked upon an effort to co-opt Croatia into their projects, including a fanciful South Stream gas transport project. Putin has personally offered a package of energy projects to Croatia’s Prime Minister... MORE

Turkish President Abdullah Gul paid an official visit to France on October 7-9 to attend the celebrations as part of the Season of Turkey, which served as a venue to re-evaluate the current condition of Turkish-French relations, and induce a new degree of economic rationalism... MORE

Recent developments in Kazakhstan clearly indicate that the human rights record and its press freedom are worsening as the country prepares to take hold of the Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) next year. On September 4, the Balkhashinskiy district... MORE

On October 6 the French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Astana on a state visit and met his counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev. During his one day visit he also held talks with Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev and the Minister of Economics and Budget Planning Bakhyt... MORE

Local elections were held across Russia on October 11, with Chechnya and Ingushetia holding municipal elections for the first time. Opponents of the Kremlin said that the elections, held in 75 out of Russia’s 83 regions and won overwhelmingly by the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir... MORE

Since the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement in August concerning the implementation of measures to resolve the Kurdish question, the debate over the government’s Kurdish initiative has intensified (EDM, August 14, 21, September 10, 21). One of the major criticisms of the Justice... MORE

Since last month, the Kyrgyz public has been able to watch China’s CCTV channel broadcasting in the Russian language. For now, the channel broadcasts only in Bishkek. But the Chinese government is ready to invest in digital receivers for the southern parts of Kyrgyzstan, in... MORE

Authorities in Tiraspol are watching the political deadlock in Chisinau with barely concealed satisfaction. Moldova’s political and constitutional crisis since April has further deepened the freeze on both tracks of negotiations on the Transnistria conflict: the international 5+2 format and the bilateral right bank –... MORE

One of the trends surfacing in news reports about the North Caucasus insurgency this year is the presence of Azeri fighters within the rebel ranks. Chechnya’s president Ramzan Kadyrov also pointed a finger at Azerbaijan in a recent interview, claiming: “Most of the ammunition warehouses... MORE

Shootouts between insurgents and police and other violent incidents have been reported across the North Caucasus this week, a week which also marked the second anniversary of the proclamation of the Caucasus Emirate, the notional Islamic state declared by the radical Islamist wing of the... MORE