On March 20, the Ukrainian parliament voted to accept a report by its Temporary Investigative Commission that looked into the January 2009 gas contract signed by Prime Ministers Yulia Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin (https://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb_n/webproc4_2?id=&pf3516=10211&skl=7). Parliament voted by 266 deputies to accept the report accusing Tymoshenko... MORE

On March 26, the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, unexpectedly lashed out at the republic’s law enforcement agencies, demanding that they be fully in control of the situation in the republic. He called an extraordinary meeting of law enforcement officials and the relatives of Abubakar... MORE

As expected (see EDM, January 3, 4, 5), the Nabucco consortium has decided to reconfigure its project for a new role: a European continuation of the Azerbaijani-Turkish, Trans-Anatolia Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project. As TANAP plans to replace Nabucco on Turkey’s territory, Nabucco would link up... MORE

Within his first 100 days as President, Almazbek Atambayev has made a series of provocative statements regarding the status of both the Russian and US airbases in Kyrgyzstan. Russian media reported that Kremlin officials are frustrated by the President’s statements and have every reason to... MORE

In Soviet times, the Kazakh republic was a testing ground for nuclear explosions, having witnessed more than 400 nuclear blasts at the site in Semipalatinsk. Much has changed since Kazakhstan gained its independence in 1991. It renounced the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal and has... MORE

Moscow’s military priorities have fundamentally shifted since launching the reform of its conventional Armed Forces in the fall of 2008. The shift has been away from a wider effort to transform and modernize the Ground Forces as well as reverse the decline of the Air... MORE

On March 22 and 25, Romania’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Cristian Diaconescu, announced on television that a “legal dispute” (“litigium”) exists between Romania and Bulgaria over the delimitation of their maritime border, continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones in the Black Sea. The dispute affects, in... MORE

On March 3, Internet providers in Tajikistan cut local access to Facebook, the social-networking service, along with another four independent news websites. The blocking was ordered by the state-run communications agency, which cited technical reasons. However, media and analysts suggested that the move reflected the... MORE

On March 20, members of a Russian parliamentary delegation who traveled to Syria reported that at least 100 families of Syrian Circassians were prepared to immediately emigrate to the Russian North Caucasus. They said at least 300 families were also considering emigration to the Circassian... MORE

The “spring retreat” in the protest activity in Moscow has brought relief and jubilation to the Kremlin and the White House (the one on the Moskva River) where courtiers now devote themselves to the really exciting matters – dividing the bureaucratic spoils of the fraudulent... MORE