The violent unrest spreading across eastern Uzbekistan may symbolize the second, and final, stage of the Soviet Union's collapse. Russian strategists appear divided as to what Moscow's response should be to the ongoing geopolitical transformations. While the liberal minority suggests Russia would be well advised... MORE

On May 16 the separatist Kavkazcenter website published a decree from Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, the new Chechen rebel leader after Aslan Maskhadov's death in March. Sadulaev ordered the insurgents to establish a new front in the North Caucasus. According to the decree, the "Caucasus Front" will... MORE

As details emerge from the military crackdown in Andijan, Uzbekistan, the foreign governments giving security assistance to Uzbekistan are assessing the implications. Comments offered by senior defense officials in neighboring Kazakhstan suggest that Tashkent needs further military reform, especially for promoting speedy progress towards professionalizing... MORE

While there seems to be no connection between Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev's unusually extensive tours to southern and western Kazakhstan in recent days and the riots in Andijan of Uzbekistan, the Kazakh strongman is obviously more concerned with his uncertain prospects for retaining power in... MORE

As the Kremlin sides with Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov over the recent uprising in the Central Asian state, official Russian media outlets have linked up to back this point of view. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Karimov discussed the situation by telephone on May 14... MORE

Ukraine's presidential administration and government are multiplying emergency measures in response to severe fuel shortages and prices hikes by an informal cartel of Russian suppliers (see EDM, May 18). Yesterday [May 18], President Viktor Yushchenko signed the legislation adopted on the preceding day by parliament,... MORE

U.S. President George W. Bush's emphatic endorsement of Georgia's 2003 "Rose Revolution" and its consequences was meant to demonstrate U.S. support for similar change elsewhere in the world. But it exposed a fundamental contradiction in his administration's stated pursuit of democratization across the South Caucasus... MORE

On May 17, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada passed a government-submitted bill eliminating import duties on high-octane gasoline and diesel fuel. The legislation aims to stimulate such imports in response to artificially induced shortages and steep price hikes by the informal cartel of Russian oil-product suppliers in... MORE