Incoming presidents put in place their own teams of subordinates and government functionaries; this is true for Uzbekistan as much as for the rest of the world. Since Shavkat Mirziyaev was sworn in as Uzbekistan’s new head of state on December 14, 2016, he has... MORE

In the run-up to his inauguration this week (January 20), President-elect Donald Trump has been saying all the right words Moscow would seem to want to hear. The Kremlin openly supported Trump’s recent characterization of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as “obsolete.” Russian President... MORE

Minsk has introduced visa-free regulations for entering Belarus for no more than five days, if arriving via Minsk National Airport, for citizens of 80 states. The decree applies to all of the European Union, the United States, Japan and many other countries (Belta.by, January 11,... MORE

In a January 12 press briefing held at the United National Movement’s (UNM) central offices, the majority of the party’s leaders and most of its popularly recognizable members collectively declared their decision to leave UNM. The defectors from Georgia’s largest opposition party said they lost... MORE

Franz Klintsevych, a high-ranking member of the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament), denounced the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), on January 8, for their activities in the Baltic Sea region. According to Klintsevych, who serves as the first deputy... MORE

In seeking to extract benefits from a disaster, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly been willing to actually manufacture such disasters so that their time, place and nature give him maximum advantage for action. Indeed, he has repeatedly demonstrated this tendency since 1999, when the... MORE

Moscow’s defense establishment annually reflects on achievements in modernizing and enhancing combat capability and readiness levels in the Russian Armed Forces. Late last year (December 22, 2016), Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu offered such detail with an upbeat message on the Russian military’s operations and exercises... MORE

Russia is frequently in the news these days, but its diplomatic successes at the start of the new year have been rather limited. Denials of Moscow’s various misbehaviors aside, the most significant step over the just-concluded extended holiday season was President Vladimir Putin’s visit to... MORE

On December 4, a referendum in Italy rejected the sweeping constitutional reforms proposed by the government, ultimately resulting in the resignation of Matteo Renzi from the prime minister’s post. One of the main proposed constitutional changes was the division of competences between the state and... MORE

On December 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the new Information Security Doctrine (Pravo.gov.ru, December 6), replacing the old one that was adopted in 2000, at the start of his first mandate. Despite its seemingly democratic attire and references to Russia’s need to “protect the... MORE