Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, having recently reaffirmed his support for the military reform and modernization program, has declared that the country's economic challenges will not derail this process. Several factors have now emerged as key to this reform agenda, focussing on increasing the combat readiness... MORE

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has pulled back at the last moment from the brink of a separate deal to put Russia in the driving seat of negotiations on Transnistria. The March 18 joint declaration by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Voronin, and Transnistria leader Igor Smirnov... MORE

The joint declaration by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, and Transnistria leader Igor Smirnov, signed in Moscow on March 18 (EDM, March 20, 25, 26), is serving Smirnov well as a negotiation-breaker. Citing points in that declaration, Smirnov is now calling openly... MORE

Turkish President Abdullah Gul's visit to Iraq might be regarded as a turning point in Turkey's Kurdish issue, perhaps more than its implications for improving Turkish-Iraqi ties (EDM, March 24). On the plane to Baghdad, Gul reportedly used the word "Kurdistan" to describe the Kurdistan... MORE

President Mikheil Saakashvili's announcement on March 4, reshuffling the leadership of Georgia's armed forces has caused widespread surprise. Colonel Vladimir Chachibaia, Chief of the Joint Staff resigned, after holding the post since only November 2008, with General Devi Chankotadze appointed as his replacement (Inter Press... MORE

The intensity of energy-political conflicts in Europe has been subsiding since the Russian-Ukrainian "gas war" in January, but last week Moscow launched a new offensive aiming at three crucial targets: Turkey, Turkmenistan and Ukraine. Leaders of major European states paid scant attention, focusing instead on... MORE

On March 17, Congressmen Adam Schiff, George Radanovich and Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairmen Frank Pallone and Mark Kirk introduced a resolution to the U.S. House of Representatives co-sponsored by over 70 House colleagues to recognize the Armenian "genocide" of 1915. The resolution is identical to... MORE

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev on his recent visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) praised China's involvement in an important joint $7.5 billion transnational road construction project as an example of their partnership. He said Kazakhstan started the construction of its section of the 3,000... MORE

The Ukrainian - EU agreement on renovating the main Ukrainian gas trunk pipeline signed in Brussels on March 23 was greeted with a virulent reaction from Moscow. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who runs his countries gas sector with an iron fist, threatened to "review"... MORE

Discussions over the replacement of the current NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, scheduled to step down on July 31, has intensified, ahead of the Alliance's April 3-4 Summit. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, supported by key European allies, has emerged as the... MORE