Last week President Viktor Yushchenko took steps to re-affirm Ukraine's desire for Euro-Atlantic integration. "Ukraine is a European country. I will never accept the idea that it is not," he told London's Royal Institute for International Affairs on October 17 (UPI, October 17). Western governments... MORE

On October 20 in Ashgabat, Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov reassured the visiting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, on two counts: First, Turkmenistan will continue to under price the gas it sells to Russia; and, second, it would only sign a long-term gas... MORE

Gyorgy Frunda, chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe's (CEPA) Parliamentary Assembly, paid a get-acquainted visit to Latvia on October 17-19 and caused political uproar in the country. Frunda, who is also one of the leaders of the Hungarian minority's party in... MORE

Late on Wednesday, October 19, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli announced the dismissal of Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili. Nogaideli, who was forced to postpone a scheduled trip to the United States because of the situation, said that he had experienced "a very difficult conversation" with... MORE

Interviewed in the October 17 issue of the Kyiv daily Den, Georgia's National Security Council Secretary Gela Bezhuashvili underscores a point that many in Russia and some in international diplomatic chancelleries seem disinclined to acknowledge openly: Georgia has succeeded in "de-freezing" the conflict-settlement processes regarding... MORE

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's trip to Central Asia on October 20-21 reinvigorated the already lively discussion over the true nature of Russian-U.S. interaction in the strategic region. Most Moscow analysts tend to view Lavrov's quick regional tour as the Kremlin's "asymmetrical response" to U.S.... MORE

Meeting October 3 Luxembourg, the European Union Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs voted to impose sanctions against Uzbekistan. They banned the sale of weapons and military equipment to Tashkent, specifically anything that the army could use for "internal repressions," and sought to also reduce... MORE

In addition to developing the Aktau seaport on the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan is also putting more emphasis on developing domestic and international rail lines. In recent years the government has made significant strides toward reducing Kazakhstan's dependence on the Russian transport network. A railway line... MORE