On July 24, the head of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, Ambassador Paraschiva Badescu, had to vacate her post and leave the country because Turkmen authorities refused the OSCE's request for another six-month extension of her accreditation. Such request and extension is typically a routine... MORE

Addressing the OSCE Permanent Council's special session on Moldova, held in Vienna on July 22, U.S. Ambassador Stephan Minikes misinterpreted the recent assault on Moldovan schools in Trans-Dniester as a problem involving an ethnic minority. Minikes cast the issue in those terms no fewer than... MORE

On July 28 in Moscow, South Ossetia's leader Eduard Kokoev told a news conference that "Abkhazia, Karabakh, and Trans-Dniester are ready to render military assistance to South Ossetia" against Georgia. (NTV, July 28). Coincidentally or not, Trans-Dniester's self-styled "foreign affairs minister" Valery Litskay was in... MORE

After the Rose Revolution, relations between the Georgian government and local media have increasingly caused concern, because the government has attempted to tame the press by administrative measures under the plausible excuse of establishing the rule of law. Consequentially, some Georgian television stations and newspapers,... MORE

On July 19, 2004, the Russian newspaper Moskovsky komsomolets published a sensational article entitled, "200 Days of Jihad." The author of the article, Svetlana Meteleva, is a special correspondent who claimed to be sharing her "insider" observations regarding the activities of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, the Islamic Party... MORE

Members of the pro-Leonid Kuchma camp continue to project an outward appearance of optimism surrounding their candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, and his chances of winning this year's elections. In particular, they believe that two factors will work in their favor. First, Yanukovych draws considerable... MORE

Monday July 26 was the deadline for candidates to register for Afghanistan's upcoming presidential elections. The cut-off date brought several surprises for the Afghan electorate and for the international community observing the process. In an unexpected move, President Hamid Karzai called a press conference late... MORE

On July 24, the head of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, Ambassador Paraschiva Badescu, had to vacate her post and leave the country because Turkmen authorities refused the OSCE's request for another six-month extension of her accreditation. Such request and extension is typically a routine... MORE

The flurry of speculations around the July 20 death of well-known journalist Askhat Sharipzhanov does not seem likely to subside in the coming weeks. Sharipzhanov, the 40-year old editor of the opposition electronic paper Navigator and one of the most furious critics of the authorities,... MORE

In what could be a further indication that the Kremlin plans to seize back the commanding heights of Russia's economy -- i.e., the energy sector -- the state-owned Rosneft oil company announced on July 27 that its board of directors had elected deputy presidential administration... MORE