On March 2, Elmar Huseynov, editor of the popular weekly Monitor, was shot to death while returning home in Baku around 7 pm. Politicians and ordinary citizens alike were horrified by the violent attack on the 37-year old journalist. President Ilham Aliev immediately convened a... MORE

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has appointed General Abdur Rashid Dostum as his Chief of Staff for Military Affairs. The appointment is seen as appealing to ethnic Uzbek demands to have a stronger say in the government. General Dostum was previously military advisor to the president... MORE

Russia's nuclear policy has once again become the stuff of controversy. On the one hand, domestic right-wingers, darkly suspicious of rumored U.S.-Russian agreements to put Russia's nuclear arsenal under some form of American supervision or control, are attacking the regime for selling out Russian sovereignty... MORE

On March 4-5, President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc transformed itself into a political party, the People's Union "Our Ukraine." The original boc was formed after parliament's April 2001 no-confidence vote removed Yushchenko's government. The bloc, consisting of 10 liberal and center-right parties, came first... MORE

Experts in Kazakhstan had wondered if economic and political relations between Kazakhstan and Ukraine would diminish after Viktor Yushchenko became president of Ukraine. But Ukrainian State Secretary Alexander Zinchenko's March 3 visit to Astana dispelled this pessimism. Moreover, the Ukrainian guest assessed his first trip... MORE

March 8 is an official holiday in Russia to mark International Women's Day. It is one of the most popular holidays on the calendar, with men buying flowers and chocolates for the "fairer sex" and doing some symbolic cooking and cleaning. Although Valentine's Day has... MORE

While a proposal to sell Georgian gas trunk lines to the Russian gas giant Gazprom remains on Tbilisi's agenda, the Georgian government has made a different move that would increase Russian control over the Georgian electricity system. On March 5, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli... MORE

Unified Energy Systems, the Russian electricity giant, has pledged to capitalize on China's fast growing energy needs by exporting Siberian electricity to China. In the meantime, Russia's pro-active approach to energy projects in Central Asia has begun to take on geopolitical dimensions. UES says its... MORE