The Ukrainian government has simplified the procedure allowing the special services and police to procure confidential information about citizens. Ukrainian human rights activists and Internet providers believe that the government violated the constitution by legalizing widespread surveillance, giving the secret services almost unlimited access to... MORE

On October 27 Azerbaijani law-enforcement agencies announced they had foiled a terrorist plot targeting the U.S. and British embassies, as well as the Baku offices of several major oil companies. The plot was discovered following a theft in a Defense Ministry military unit. Lieutenant Kamran... MORE

As Turkey continues to mull its options against elements of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq, the center-right daily Milliyet has been running a series of interviews with former leading Turkish commanders evaluating the costs and benefits of a cross-border military operation... MORE

Billionaire businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili has turned his Imedi Television, which broadcasts across the country, into a stronghold of political opposition to the government. Along with that move in 2006, he sold a 49% stake in Imedi TV to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. In October 2007,... MORE

Kazakhstan’s military cooperation with the NATO Alliance appears to be progressing steadily, despite the problems emerging between NATO and Russia. On October 31 Robert Simmons, NATO representative for Central Asia and South Caucasus, met Kazakhstan’s Defense Minister Daniyal Akhmetov in Astana. An official press release... MORE

Friday, November 2, was the last day that the Our Ukraine-People’s Self Defense (NUNS) bloc could collect signatures to support a “democratic” (orange) coalition with the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc (BYuT). BYuT deputies have openly expressed their fear that disunity in NUNS will lead to an... MORE

Following the national referendum in Kyrgyzstan on October 21, the Kyrgyz constitution and electoral law have been amended, leading to the dissolution of the parliament and government. Although the legitimacy of the referendum has been contested due to allegations of widespread electoral fraud, Kyrgyz President... MORE

Russian political analysts and other observers are watching the power struggle inside Russia’s security and law-enforcement establishment. The conflict broke out into the open in early October with the arrest of the head of the operational department of the Federal Narcotics Control Service (FSKN), Lieutenant-General... MORE