The end of April saw a ratcheting up of tensions between Russia and Latvia. This happened despite the fact that Russia and the EU agreed on April 27 to extend their Partnership and Cooperation Agreement to the ten new EU member states (see previous article).... MORE

On April 28 the Ukrainian contingent in Iraq lost an additional two soldiers, bringing its total to three. These most recent deaths followed the kidnapping of five Ukrainian citizens working for the Russian company Interenergoservis in Baghdad. Some 1,700 Ukrainian troops are based in the... MORE

On April 12, in the Isfara region in the north of Tajikistan, the special services detained twenty people suspected of committing a range of aggravated criminal acts motivated by racial and religious hatred. These acts included both the murder of the leader of the local... MORE