Gas marketing options of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project consortium may look either flexible or vague at this point. Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR) seems the only reassuring exception in this regard among the Shah Deniz gas producers. SOCAR had indicated all along that gas... MORE

The gas producers’ consortium at Shah Deniz in Azerbaijan has selected the Greece-Italy route, known as the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, for transportation of that field’s production to European markets. The selection of TAP has eliminated the Nabucco-West project, ending a four-year contest between the... MORE

The Russian media have reported that in June alone, more than 20 people were killed and wounded in the North Caucasus (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/226418/). Against the backdrop of such news, government official made a sensational statement about Russia’s ability to cope with the terrorist threat in the... MORE

Edward Snowden, the contractor who worked as a systems administrator at a US National Security Agency (NSA) facility in Hawaii, arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23, apparently planning to fly to Havana the next day, but has stayed in limbo in Russia—officially... MORE

After two heated discussions at the European Parliament’s (EP) Foreign Affairs Committee, Justas Paleckis, EP rapporteur on Belarus, modified his draft report (see EDM, June 14). The statement that in 2012 the human rights situation in Belarus improved was deleted. The situation is now described... MORE

A retired Ukrainian intelligence officer who attracted attention a month ago by calling for the formation of a Russian-Ukrainian corps to fight for the Syrian government now claims that there are 15,000 radical Islamists in the mountains of Crimea. Many of them, he claims, have... MORE

In an interview published on July 2, North Ossetia Interior Minister Artur Akhmetkhanov lashed out at the Muslim community of the republic for allowing radicalism to spread. Akhmetkhanov confirmed that four ethnic Ossetians had been killed fighting in Syria and that others were fighting on... MORE

The past two years have seen a steady rise in Russia’s willingness to deploy its navy into the Mediterranean, to Syria, and Cyprus in order to demonstrate Russian power, support the Bashar al-Assad government, check Turkish designs on Syria and Cyprus, and thwart Western intervention... MORE

Although characterized by some inside and outside Uzbekistan as “the most hated person” in the country, Gulnara Islamovna Karimova has apparently mastered the art of social networking—in particular, Twitter. The medium is serving to promote and bring more visibility to her professional activities, providing a... MORE

Addressing Gazprom’s annual general meeting of shareholders, CEO Alexei Miller warned that Gazprom would “never again, under any circumstances” use Ukraine’s gas storage system in the process of delivering Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine (Kommersant-Ukraina, July 4; Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 10; see EDM, July... MORE