The mysterious death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania did not trigger an immediate political crisis as feared, but the incident has drawn additional attention to the continuing backstage discord in the ruling party. President Mikheil Saakashvili had to take this intra-party drama into consideration... MORE

As maneuvering continues around Russia's major oil and gas pipeline projects, Russian experts seek to clarify trends in the ongoing multilateral energy game. There appears to be a consensus that Siberia's hydrocarbon riches are set to become an important source of energy supplies for Northeast... MORE

On February 10 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko visited the heavily industrialized and densely populated Donetsk region, whose representative, Viktor Yanukovych, finished a disputed second in the 2004 presidential election. Yushchenko has been notoriously unpopular in Donetsk, scoring around 3% there both with his Our Ukraine... MORE

In recent months, Moscow has launched several foreign policy initiatives as part of an effort to recapture something of its vanished influence in the Middle East. Since 1991 Russian officials have periodically claimed that Arab leaders have solicited Moscow's return to the region to counterbalance... MORE

Recently police in the small town of Kentai, Kazakhstan, discovered a cache of books and leaflets propagating the ideas of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an Islamist radical organization. The extremist literature, hidden in the attic of a private house, was printed in Uzbek, Russian, and Kazakh. While police... MORE

As Ukraine's newly formed government prepares to thoroughly revamp the moribund socio-political system it inherited from the corrupt Kuchma administration, Russia is warily pondering its policies toward a new Ukraine. While a group of liberal-minded experts argue that Kyiv's Europe-oriented political course is not inimical... MORE

Since the December election of President Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's Prosecutor-General's Office has launched a variety of new investigations, some already leading to criminal charges. One of Yushchenko's fundamental reforms will be institutionalizing the rule of law in a country that had continued the Soviet tradition... MORE

With almost no public notice, Turkmenistan has virtually ceased deliveries of gas to Russia since January 1 due to disagreement over the price (Vremya novosti, February 9). Gazprom did not acknowledge the problem publicly until yesterday (February 10). The company's chairman, Alexei Miller, held talks... MORE