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

A senior U.S. diplomat has caused a stir in America's relations with Turkey and Armenia by publicly declaring that the 1915-1918 killings of some 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was "the first genocide of the 20th century." The statements by Washington's ambassador in... MORE

The protracted case of detained scientist Yuri Bandazhevsky continues to solicit international attention and serves as a reminder of how sensitive the Chernobyl issue remains for the Lukashenka regime. Recently the opposition newspaper Narodnaya Volya focused on the life of Bandazhesvky, the nuclear scientist and... MORE

On March 1, non-governmental activists staged two simultaneous demonstrations in Kyzylorda and Shymkent, crisis-ridden cities in south Kazakhstan, to call attention to the environmental threat allegedly posed by projects of PetroKazakhstan Inc., a Canadian oil company that has worked in Kazakhstan for seven years. Around... MORE

By all accounts, events in the Middle East are moving in a direction that could lead to significant breakthroughs in Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel-Palestinian relations. Yet Moscow, while claiming support for them, seems eager to undermine these moves toward peace and democracy in order to... MORE

A specter is haunting Russia's political class -- the specter of Ukraine's Orange Revolution. The Putinists seem hell-bent on preventing any repetition of Ukrainian or Georgian events in Russia. On March 1, the pro-Putin youth movement Walking Together announced that it "had launched a new... MORE

It was inevitable that radical, democratizing reforms would be launched within the Ukrainian Interior Ministry (MVS) after the appointment of Yuriy Lutsenko as interior minister. Already, the new atmosphere inside the MVS has contributed to progress in the Gongadze murder investigation (see EDM, March 2).... MORE

Armenia's governing coalition has been thrust into fresh turmoil by a bitter row between two of the three political parties represented in it. The row between the Republican Party (HHK) of Prime Minister Andranik Markarian and the Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) party led by... MORE