Presidents Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia and Robert Kocharian of Armenia met informally on April 1-2 in the Georgian mountain resort of Gudauri, without media coverage. Their agenda included the situation in Akhalkalaki, where two recent rallies by local Armenian residents aired political and economic demands,... MORE

Regional protests continue to spread across Russia. Late last year, the residents of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, a region in the western portion of the North Caucasus, demanded the resignation of Mustafa Batdyev, the local president. After a week-long standoff, the opposition dropped their demands in return for... MORE

Effective April 1, the Russian government has imposed a definitive halt on oil shipments by the Yukos company's remaining units to the Mazeikiai refinery, Lithuania's largest economic entity. Yukos is the majority owner and operator, and the Lithuanian government the minority stakeholder in Mazeikiai. The... MORE

Moscow has revealed possible plans to supply crude oil to Pyongyang, although expanded cooperation and trade ties between Russia and North Korea remain a distant vision. In March, Gennady Fadeyev, head of the state-run Russian Railways company (RZD) mentioned that Russia is considering oil deliveries... MORE

In the wake of last week's democratic revolution in Kyrgyzstan, top officials in Kazakhstan have launched what appears to be a wave of spectacular political reforms, at least on the surface. On March 29 the National Commission on Democratization and Civil Society convened in Astana.... MORE

Afghanistan's parliamentary elections have once again been postponed. According to the 2001 Bonn Accords, the elections were scheduled to be held concurrently with the presidential polls in June 2004. When the presidential election was moved to October 2004, the parliamentary vote was slated for April... MORE

Backstabbing, intrigue, and corruption continue to plague Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's government, despite its repeated statements about centralizing power and eradicating corruption. To the delight of Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili, on March 27 the Prosecutor's Office arrested Zurab Khutsishvili, deputy chief of logistics at the... MORE