First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Oleksandr Chalyj, Ukraine's last remaining government lobbyist for Euro-Atlantic integration, resigned on May 15 (Ukrayinska Pravda, May 15). This came only days before the annual Ukraine-EU Cooperation Council meeting on May 18. Since the removal of pro-Western Foreign Minister... MORE

Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov paid an urgent visit to Tbilisi on May 17 to negotiate with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and other top officials on the position of the Georgian breakaway regions. Symptomatically, Ivanov's visit followed shortly after U.S. National Security... MORE

Russia's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Trubnikov announced on May 12 that Russian border troops are being withdrawn from Tajikistan. Trubnikov's statement is the first high-level confirmation by Moscow of this move. Asked whether it was a result of "American pressure," Trubnikov replied:... MORE

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev will participate in the next presidential elections, which will be held in 2006. Nazarbaev declared his intention to run for another term on May 14, 2004 during a question and answer session broadcast on Kazakh national television. Nazarbaev stressed that "the... MORE

Al-Jazeera broadcast footage on May 16 of two Russians abducted in Iraq earlier this month. Along with the footage, the Qatar-based satellite television channel read a statement by a group calling itself the Army of Al-Ta'ifah al-Mansurah (the victorious sect), which claimed to be holding... MORE

Saratov's chief prosecutor, Anatoly Bondar, announced on May 14 that criminal proceedings have been instituted against the region's governor, Dmitry Ayatskov, for abuse of power connected to the alleged misuse of 70 million rubles (US $2.4 million) in budgetary funds. Accusations against Ayatskov, who was... MORE

Political renewal in Georgia, and the appealing international image of its leadership, have created the right context for a Western-assisted Georgian effort to commit the Kremlin to an early withdrawal of Russian forces from the country. Under the adapted Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe... MORE

Potentially one of the richest of the former Soviet republics, with natural gas estimated as high as 3.7 trillion yards, Turkmenistan has been unable to exploit its energy reserves because of its geographical isolation and governmental system. Thirteen years after the implosion of the USSR,... MORE

Having scheduled an early presidential election in Chechnya for September 5, the Kremlin appears to have opted for the continuation of its existing Chechenization policy in the wake of the assassination on May 9 of the pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov. As many Russian policy... MORE

This week world oil prices hit their highest level since 1990 - more than US$40 a barrel for Brent crude, and US$35.70 a barrel for Russia's Urals blend. This is a result of continuing strong demand due to China's ongoing boom and the US economic... MORE