Turkey's President Abdullah Gul arrived in Iraq on March 23, becoming the first Turkish president to visit the country in 33 years, where he was warmly welcomed by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani. Gul's visit to Iraq was originally scheduled for December 20, 2008 but a... MORE

Recent opinion polls and a local election on March 16 have shown that two stars are rising in Ukrainian politics. The time remaining until the January 2010 presidential election should show whether the two, far-right Oleg Tyahnybok and liberal economist Arseny Yatsenyuk, will prove viable... MORE

On March 17 Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev addressed a session of the Ministry of Defense board in order to outline a large-scale rearmament program which will commence in 2011, designed to give the Russian armed forces a "new look" Medvedev used the occasion to pointedly... MORE

Novruz, marking the arrival of spring and beginning of a new year, is being celebrated in Turkey between March 20 and 24, along with other Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. This year's celebrations in Turkey showed that this cultural event still remains highly contested... MORE

Russian energy companies have intensified their efforts to boost their presence in Central Europe, giving cause for concern that Moscow plans to continue using energy as a foreign policy tool to tighten its grip over the region. Just prior to the last energy crisis in... MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev received last Friday the Russian-American Public Dialogue Group co-chaired by Henry Kissinger and Yevgeny Primakov and confirmed that he was looking forward to the first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama and expected "a real exchange of opinions regarding all issues"... MORE

As the prosecutors deepen their investigations into the Ergenekon criminal network, they have found interesting evidence that indicates two opposing camps within the Turkish military. Recently, the neo-nationalist daily Cumhuriyet's Ankara correspondent, Mustafa Balbay, was detained on accusations of being a member of Ergenekon. Balbay... MORE

Moldova's Social-Democrat Party is being led by the tandem of former Prime Minister Dumitru Braghis (1999-2001) and young businessman-politician Eduard Musuc in these elections. The party targets both Moldovan and "Russian-speaking" voters. Accordingly, it promises to seek an association agreement with the EU, a strategic... MORE

Apparently panicking in the run-up to the April 5 elections, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has hoisted the white flag of surrender on Transnistria in return for a pre-election endorsement from the Kremlin. The president can not run for a third term of office but his... MORE

Russia's independent natural gas producers (IGPs) account for a growing share of domestic output, but they are now facing turbulent times amid the global financial crisis and the subsequent domestic economic downturn, as well as problems with sales and gas transit. The role of independent... MORE