Summing up the main events of the widely hyped "Year of Russia in Kazakhstan," policymakers on both sides of the border have good reason to be disappointed. Even on the secondary level of inter-parliamentary contacts, leaders are not pleased with the state of bilateral ties.... MORE

The effective nationalization of Yuganskneftegaz, formerly the embattled Yukos oil company's main production unit, was completed on New Year's Eve, when the state oil company Rosneft announced that it had paid for a 76.79% stake in Yuganskneftegaz and become its legal owner. A Yukos source... MORE

Vladimir Putin's icy silence on Viktor Yushchenko's victory in Ukraine's marathon presidential race likely reveals the Kremlin's current strategic predicament. With the Orange Revolution triumph in Kyiv, Moscow faces a two-fold problem: how to reconcile itself with the political outcome it was striving to prevent... MORE

The ruling centrist and oligarchic elites that supported President Leonid Kuchma over the last decade are now rushing to adapt to the reality that Viktor Yushchenko is Ukraine's new president. The Supreme Court and Central Election Commission threw out complaints by his opponent, former prime... MORE

Already the opposition victory in the presidential election in Ukraine has had repercussions in neighboring Belarus. In turn, the Lukashenka regime has taken several repressive measures against real and perceived opponents in Belarus. Several observers have made the link between the events in Kyiv and... MORE

Some Western commentators have already called 2004 Russian President Vladimir Putin's annus horribilis. This year has seen the Kremlin's political failures in the Caucasus and Ukraine as well as Putin's recent loss of credibility throughout the world. While some Kremlin-connected foreign policy experts appear ready... MORE

Authorities are investigating whether the December 14 attack on a regional branch of the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) in Nalchik, the capital of the North Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, was the work of a Jamaat, or underground Islamic paramilitary group. They are also trying... MORE

A left-of-center coalition government took office in Lithuania on December 15, capping complex power-sharing negotiations in the wake of the October parliamentary elections. The coalition includes two mainstream, "establishment" parties, the Social-Democrats and New Union/Social Liberals, governing jointly since 2001; and two populist parties, Labor... MORE

Ukraine is undergoing radical change in anticipation of a Yushchenko victory in the repeat presidential runoff on December 26. Challenger Viktor Yushchenko will have eight months to undertake sweeping and radical reforms before his powers are reduced when constitutional reforms go into effect in September... MORE