It is clear that problems with democracy and slow reforms in Ukraine under President Viktor Yanukovych have not prevented the European Union from developing closer ties with Kyiv. German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, and EU chief free trade negotiator, Philippe Cuisson, confirmed recently that the... MORE

On March 4, Russia’s security services reported they managed to kill one of the leaders of Ingushetia’s insurgency, 30 year old Khamzat Korigov. Initially, the government sources said Korigov had detonated a bomb when the security agents surrounded him in Ingushetia’s principal town, Nazran. Later,... MORE

The March 5 meeting in Sochi between the Armenian, Azerbaijan and Russian presidents, Serj Sarksyan, Ilham Aliyev and Dmitry Medvedev, respectively, resulted in a joint declaration, but once again failed to produce the much-expected breakthrough on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict. This was the... MORE

The Russian defense ministry plans to convene a broad-based meeting on March 14 to discuss the results of military reform and its prospects during the next decade. On March 3, Viktor Ozerov, Chairman of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee confirmed that the full... MORE

Turkmenistan is developing the environmental and legal cases for construction of a trans-Caspian gas pipeline to Azerbaijan, there to link up with the EU-backed Southern Gas Corridor to Europe. While Russia and Iran oppose trans-Caspian pipelines, ostensibly on ecological and legal grounds, Ashgabat has started... MORE

At a press conference on February 28, former Belarusian presidential candidate Ales Mikhalevich outlined details of tortures at the KGB Detention Center in Minsk. Mikhalevich had been released a few days earlier on condition that he turned informant for the secret police. Instead he used... MORE

On March 1, a blast destroyed the home of a suspect militant, Eduard Ulbashev, in Kabardino-Balkaria’s Chegem district.  One day earlier, on February 28, Ulbashev himself was killed in a shootout with the police.  Government forces reported that two explosive devices equal to 25 kilograms... MORE

Russian history is always open to interpretation but it takes a brave effort to draw from it a lesson that “freedom cannot be postponed until later and we must not be afraid that a free individual may make an inadequate use of a personal freedom.... MORE

Turkey has pursued a policy over the popular uprising in Libya reflecting the unique ties it had developed with this country. More importantly, Turkey’s position in the ongoing debate concerning the involvement of the international community in the form of sanctions or possible military intervention... MORE

The contract killing on February 23 in Nookat city of the deputy head of a regional tax agency, Sagynbek Alimbaev, has highlighted continued problems between ethnic minorities and the ethnic majority in southern Kyrgyzstan, as well as the inefficient local law-enforcement structures. On March 1,... MORE