The Baltic regional nuclear power plant project, at Visaginas in Lithuania, is moving forward despite unfavorable international circumstances. At this point, the adverse circumstances are not internal to the project. They are extraneous to it, originating variously from Russia and from Europe.Last July, Lithuania selected... MORE

At the end of November 2011, PRC Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang and Kazakhstani Minister Aset Isekeshev attended the inauguration of the construction of the first transnational free-trade cooperation center in Central Asia, located along the cross-border river near the Xinjiang village of Horgos. This China-Kazakhstan... MORE

The Party of Regions has acted as an insurance agency and protection racket for former state officials accused of abuse of office by giving them parliamentary seats and immunity from prosecution. The Party of Regions has brought “together much of the political opposition to President... MORE

Harmony Center, the Russian party in Latvia, has triggered a constitutional referendum on the state language (see EDM, February 15). Harmony calls for Russian to become a state language, in parallel with the Latvian language. The proposal is bound to fail in the February 18... MORE

Interfax reported today (February 17) that five policemen were killed and six wounded yesterday during two shootouts with militants in Dagestan’s Kazbekovsky district along the republic’s administrative border with Chechnya. A law-enforcement source told the news agency that the Russian special operation in the area... MORE

Russian nationalists have been one of the main groups participating in the protests against the fraudulent elections of December 4, 2011. Among their number are more extreme nationalists or neo-Nazis and the two groups have a number of common aims. Indeed, one of the leaders... MORE

Kyrgyzstan’s two strongest nationalist parties – Ata-Jurt and Butun Kyrgyzstan – have announced a new political alliance (www.akipress.kg, February 2). The new bloc, uniting the parties mostly popular in southern Kyrgyzstan, may potentially change the dynamics of political competition in the country. In effect, they... MORE

There was no sign anything sensational was in the offing during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to the forum of peoples of southern Russia held in Kislovodsk on January 23. In essence, it was yet another gathering of leaders of the southern part of... MORE

The First Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Army-General Nikolai Makarov, during a press conference this week lambasted the Russian defense industry, which is producing expensive, but low quality armament inferior to Western products. Makarov declared the Russian... MORE

Heavy winter conditions have strained natural gas supplies in Turkey, shedding critical light on the country’s over reliance on hydrocarbons. Due to the record increases in household consumption and electricity demand, which coincided with interruptions in gas imports from Iran and Azerbaijan, concerns were raised... MORE