On December 16, deputies of the Belarusian House of Representatives agreed unanimously that the date of the 2006 presidential elections in Belarus would be March 19. The date took many people by surprise, because it had been widely anticipated both within and outside the country... MORE

The December 27 resignation of Andrei Illarionov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser, is yet another sign of Russia's departure from the liberal economic path. In the meantime, Illarionov's exodus also marks an end to insider criticism of a number of Kremlin policies, including a... MORE

The controversial deal that brought an end, at least for now, to the acrimonious gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine (see EDM, January 5) appears to reflect a contradictory mix of interests that shape Kremlin energy policies. While Russia failed to attain most of the... MORE

The international community has always believed that public opinion in Armenia and Azerbaijan must be prepped for painful concessions before the conflict over Karabakh can be resolved. Yet no such efforts seem to be taken in either country despite the apparently significant progress made over... MORE

Since the Andijan massacre in May 2005, Uzbekistan has made little headway with its recent attempts to use pro-Western contacts to establish a way forward for its military and security agencies. Now Uzbekistan's armed forces are the subject of widespread Soviet-style efforts to prop up... MORE

After their humiliating losses during the November 6 parliamentary elections, Azerbaijan's opposition has entered a predictable period of in-fighting and collapse. Many local analysts had predicted that with no tangible successes during elections for the past 12 years and with no apparent ability to organize... MORE

Russian security officials stepped up their activities in the North Caucasus during the last two months of 2005. Officials in Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan proudly declared they had captured or killed scores of insurgent rebels in each republic, while Ingushetia struggled with cross-border raids from Chechnya.... MORE

Afghanistan's new parliament convened on December 19 in the presence of U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney. Among the items on the opening agenda, the legislators had to select chairmen for each chamber of parliament, and they opted for two former resistance leaders. The upper house elected... MORE