On April 3, Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev made a speech before the students of the Kyrgyz State Technical University in Bishkek. While he addressed a number of issues related to both the domestic and foreign politics of the Central Asian republic, Atambayev particularly stressed the... MORE

Kazakhstan has taken steps to protect and counteract any potential terrorist threat to the establishment of a nuclear fuel bank, though authorities continue to express concern about a wider and non-specific terrorist threat within the country. On April 4, Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov stressed that... MORE

A week ago (April 2), Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Alasania said he “does not exclude the possibility” that there will be terrorist acts in the run up to the Sochi Olympics, noting that Tbilisi is doing everything it can so that Moscow will not be... MORE

Since March 21, new year’s day or “Newroz” for Kurds and Central Asian nations, Turkey has been witnessing a historical transformation in its decades’ old Kurdish question. On this day, Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a terrorist organization that... MORE

Since the beginning of this year, Syrian Ossetians have been arriving in North Ossetia. Six refugees arrived in the republic at the end of January, and 12 more followed in February. The Ossetians from Syria arrived in the North Caucasus at the invitation of the... MORE

At 4 a.m. on March 28, President Vladimir Putin delivered a sealed letter to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordering him to launch at once unscheduled maneuvers involving not just the Black Sea Fleet but air and airborne forces and the Army. The exercises wound down... MORE

Kazakhstan’s mediation role in Iran, which resumes today, is not unique. Astana has striven to resolve conflicts throughout its Eurasian neighborhood.  To this end, at the end of March, Kazakhstani Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov visited Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to engage in some shuttle diplomacy to... MORE

On March 25, Alena Kupchina, the Belarusian deputy minister of foreign affairs, met with Maira Moira, the European Union’s envoy to Belarus (https://www.mfa.gov.by/press/news_mfa/e9045fcd71ff4ac8.html). The increased frequency of such meetings is caused by the necessity to improve relations in advance of the September 2013 Eastern Partnership... MORE

President Vladimir Putin recently signed into law legislation that allows Russian regions to choose their form of election for governor. They can now do it either through popular elections or through votes in their parliaments (www.kremlin.ru/acts/17786). Thus the new law permits regions to reject popular... MORE

On April 3, in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller announced a colossal series of gas projects. These involve an expansion of existing big projects or a reactivation of earlier, unimplemented proposals. Ukraine’s start of gas imports from Europe, reducing dependence on... MORE