Several days before Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev presented the draft law "On the Introduction of Changes and Additions to the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic" for public discussion, a number of local national movements raised the question of elevating the status of the Kyrgyz language... MORE

This November the Georgian government, including President Mikheil Saakashvili, has repeatedly emphasized the urgent need to improve the country's business environment. The rekindling of this issue hints at the government's increasing concern about the worsening socio-economic situation in the country. Already independent analysts are warning... MORE

The presentation of the first annual Failed States Index – a joint project of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Fund for Peace – provided considerable fodder for the Russian media. The authors used 12 different indicators, from demographics and regional contrasts to... MORE

On November 11 Armenia's parliament approved the national budget for next year. The budget volume is due to exceed $1 billion for the first time in the country's post-Soviet history. The administration of President Robert Kocharian presented the planned 22% increase in government spending as... MORE

Despite Ukraine's September political crisis and the subsequent fall of the Yulia Tymoshenko government, the Tymoshenko bloc in parliament is still a fairly reliable ally of President Viktor Yushchenko's People's Union-Our Ukraine (NSNU). Other allies from the Orange Revolution, including the Socialist Party (SPU) and... MORE

On November 10, Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced for the first time a causal link between Moldova's pro-Western orientation and Russia's refusal to withdraw its forces from that country's territory. The Ministry's CIS Affairs Department Director Vyacheslav Kovalenko began a special news briefing that... MORE

The massive October 13 rebel attack on the city of Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, diverted attention from the equally tense situation in the eastern part of the North Caucasus, specifically the republics adjacent to Chechnya: Dagestan and Ingushetia. Nevertheless, the endless battle between the... MORE

The long-overdue results of the September 18 Afghan parliamentary elections still have not been announced because of complaints and problems with the counting process. The UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) had planned to release the final tally on Wednesday, November 9, only to once... MORE