The visit of US Vice-President, Joseph Biden, to Moscow last week created a resonance quite out of proportion to its agenda. The hard-won ratification of the START III treaty by the US Senate and the “symmetric” process in the Russian Federal Assembly marked a remarkable... MORE

Iran has been steadily increasing its ties with Mongolia and 2010 was a year of increased Iranian overtures toward Ulaanbaatar. In another manifestation of how democratic Mongolia and Iran are looking towards substantially developing their economic ties, in early December 2010, it was announced that... MORE

Over the past month or so, the Russian media have been very actively reporting on the creation of an anti-Wahhabi paramilitary unit operating on the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria in response to the actions of insurgents against members of law enforcement agencies. It has been also... MORE

Statistics on insurgency-related violence in the North Caucasus in February show that most of the violence was concentrated in the republics of Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. Kavkazsky Uzel reported this week that 59 people were killed as a result of insurgency-related violence in the North Caucasus... MORE

On March 9, the Russian government’s official websites published a transcript of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s and Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko’s “working meeting,” held that day in Putin’s office. Putin suggests to an approving Shmatko that the South Stream gas pipeline project in the Black... MORE

The ruling coalition will collapse before Kyrgyzstan’s President, Roza Otunbayeva, returns from her two-day trip to Washington, a member of the opposition Ata-Meken party told Jamestown recently. The current coalition consisting of Ata-Jurt, the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK), and Respublika parties has remained... MORE

Two and a half years into the armistice and fifteen rounds into the Geneva implementation talks (“Georgia & The Geneva Process: A Balance Sheet Since The 2008 War,” EDM, March 10), the Geneva process seems to be leading nowhere.The armistice agreements remain unimplemented in all... MORE

In October 2008, two months after Russia’s invasion of Georgia, a diplomatic process was launched in Geneva to implement the armistice agreements signed on August 12 and September 8 that year. Two and a half years later, the fifteenth round of negotiations concluded in Geneva... MORE

US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Moscow has been planned primarily as a promotion of business ties and Western support for President Dmitry Medvedev’s announced modernization efforts. “We see the vice president’s trip as trying to expand into new dimensions of reset with a... MORE

Armenia’s President Serzh Sarksyan has warded off potential challenges from his predecessor Robert Kocharian but is now facing mounting street protests organized by another former president, Levon Ter-Petrosian. Buoyed by the ongoing wave of anti-government uprisings in the Arab world, Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK)... MORE