Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, who in the past consistently stressed his readiness for political negotiations with the Kremlin, has delivered a message promising stepped up attacks in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and beyond, and that rebel forces will kill the winner of the next Chechen presidential... MORE

On July 22 Georgia's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources ordered British Petroleum (BP) to suspend construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in the Borjomi valley of Western Georgia. The U.S.-backed and BP-led strategic $3.6-billion, 1750-km pipeline is intended to transport 800,000 barrels of crude... MORE

On July 26-27, Ukraine's state pipeline company UkrTransNafta announced the signing of agreements with Tyumen Oil-British Petroleum (TNK-BP, the Russian-British joint company) on the reverse use of the Odessa-Brody -- henceforth Brody-Odessa -- oil pipeline. The agreements envisage the transit of 9 million tons of... MORE

On July 29, fully owned subsidiaries of Gazprom and of Austria's Raiffeisen Bank signed agreements establishing a joint gas-trading company, RosUkrEnergoprom. With Gazprom and Raiffeisen each holding half the shares, RosUkrEnergoprom will act as the operating company for gas exports from Turkmenistan to Ukraine via... MORE

A Qatar appeals court on July 29 rejected an appeal by two Russian intelligence agents sentenced to life imprisonment for the February bombing that killed former Chechen separatist president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The presiding judge, Abdullah al-Saadi, told the court that the appeal was rejected in... MORE

Late on the evening of July 28, martial law was declared in Kabardino-Balkaria. According to Radio Liberty, all security forces, police, and internal troops were put on alert. Police stations, hospitals, and public transportation facilities were placed under heavy guard. A correspondent from a radio... MORE

A new videotape showing Chechen and Ingush insurgents led by warlord Shamil Basaev in a Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) warehouse in Ingushetia has become topic number one in the Russian media (kavkazcenter.com, July 26). This tape was made in June, when between 200 and... MORE

On July 26, the office of President Leonid Kuchma made public a presidential decree that amends Ukraine's military doctrine, deleting the goal of NATO membership. Whether deliberately or by coincidence, the change was published on the day of Kuchma's effusive meeting in Yalta with Russian... 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

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