At its Istanbul summit last month, the 26-member Atlantic Alliance announced its newfound interest in the strategic regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Although the unveiled measures aimed at engaging the region have turned out to be relatively modest, NATO's designs appear to have... MORE

Meeting on June 29 at the level of heads of state and government, the NATO-Ukraine Commission reviewed implementation of the NATO-Ukraine Action Plan adopted at the alliance's preceding summit in Prague, November 2002. The Commission's June 29 review focused both on long-term military and security... MORE

Yuri Shchekochikhin, a State Duma deputy and veteran investigative journalist, died under mysterious circumstances one year ago, and Novaya gazeta, the publication where he was a deputy editor, devoted eight articles to him in its July 1 issue. Shchekochikhin fell ill just prior to a... MORE

The latest surge of violence against poll workers and other civilians in Afghanistan's eastern and southwestern provinces killed at least 18 people and left more than 13 injured, some seriously. President Hamid Karzai, U.S. Ambassador Zalmai Khalilzad, UN Special Envoy Jean Arnault, and the coalition... MORE

The Istanbul summit marked the entry of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania into NATO as full members. In one of the keynote addresses during the summit, Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga spoke for all the ten countries that joined NATO between 2002 and 2004. She looked back... MORE

En route to Istanbul for the NATO summit, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stopped in Moldova and conferred with President Vladimir Voronin. Rumsfeld's formal purpose was to thank Moldova for contributing 44 de-mining specialists to the coalition force in Iraq until March, and its... MORE

From June 24 to 26, a group of specialists gathered in Zurich at the Center for Security Studies, Swiss Federal Technology Institute, to discuss the role of business in Russian foreign policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed that economic strength is key to preserving... MORE

July 1 was a bad day for Yukos, and perhaps the beginning of the end for the embattled oil company. First, three court bailiffs, accompanied by five guards in camouflage uniforms, arrived at the company's Moscow headquarters to inform Yukos that it had five days... MORE

In June 2004 International Atomic Energy Agency Chairman Mohammad El Baradei announced that the Russian-built reactor at Bushehr was not the focus of Iran's nuclear program (Yahoo.com, June 30). This statement naturally pleased Russia, which can now state that its program of nuclear assistance to... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin turned down NATO's invitation to attend the alliance's recent Istanbul summit. A series of insistent, public entreaties proved counterproductive, tempting the Kremlin to ask a high political price for Putin's attendance. He wanted NATO to call for ratification of the 1999-adapted... MORE