On April 28, a presidential decree was issued entitled On the Strategy for Economic and Social Development of Ukraine "Through the Path of European Integration between 2004-2015." Such grandiose programs are nothing new in Ukrainian foreign policy and reflect the deep seated Soviet political culture... MORE

Investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office seized documents from the central office of Yukos Oil in Moscow on May 6. A source in the company told Interfax's Petroleum Information Agency that the investigators confiscated several bags of documents, specifically from the office of a Yukos... MORE

The Sayano-Shushensk hydro-electric plant, on the mighty Yenisei river in the Siberian republic of Khakasia, is the jewel in the crown of the national electricity company United Energy System. The plant, the fourth largest in the world, produces US$3 billion worth of power a year... MORE

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar , the Afghan mujahideen warlord that the West most likes to hate, may finally have met his Waterloo - not on the field of battle but in a possible factional rebellion by followers of his own Hisb-e-Islami or Islamic Party. In a startling... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry weighed in yesterday on the scandal surrounding the abuse of Iraqis detained by U.S.-led coalition forces. Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov called the reported "cases of torture" a cause for "deep concern." He added: "Apart from the fact that these [cases of]... MORE

The apparent shift in U.S. Afghan policy away from the Northern Alliance and toward the Pashtun-dominated south (see yesterday's EDM) appears to be driven by two factors: internal and external. Internally, the Pashtuns, although a minority of about 40 percent of the population, have held... MORE

Early next week, on May 10, Ukraine's Security Service and Interior Ministry are to report to President Leonid Kuchma regarding responsibility for large scale infringements of election and other laws that occurred on April 18, during the repeat elections for mayor of the Trans-Carpathian town... MORE

Economics dominate Russia's relations with the European Union. Will Russia benefit, or suffer, from the expansion of the EU - and to what extent did these considerations influence Russian policy towards the enlargement? For political reasons, Russian commentators chose to interpret EU enlargement as bad... MORE

On April 8, 2004, U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in her testimony before the commission on the 9-11 attacks in the United States, spoke of "a new strategic approach to Afghanistan." She went on to say that "instead of the intense focus on the... MORE

The Berlin donor's conference on Afghanistan resulted in good news in the form of commitments of US$8.2 billion in aid pledges over the next three years. But the confidence resulting from the Berlin commitments could be undercut by the reluctance of donors - especially but... MORE