These are trying times for Russian arms sellers. UN resolutions have closed much of the Iranian markets. Revolutionary violence in Syria and Libya has stopped billions of dollars in sales to those countries. Chinese competition is now putting Russian producers under considerable pressure in the... MORE

The Caspian nations have reiterated pledges to solve their differences later this year ahead of the Caspian summit in Moscow, but they apparently continued to disagree on a number of key issues. During a meeting in Baku on April 26 – 27, representatives of the... MORE

The Kavkazsky Uzel website today (May 6) quoted a Chechen law-enforcement source as saying that a group of up to 15 militants spotted earlier this week in a wooded mountainous area between the villages of Shalazhi and Roshin-Chu in Chechnya’s Urus-Martan district managed to escape... MORE

The Kavkazsky Uzel website today (May 6) quoted a Chechen law-enforcement source as saying that a group of up to 15 militants spotted earlier this week in a wooded mountainous area between the villages of Shalazhi and Roshin-Chu in Chechnya’s Urus-Martan district managed to escape... MORE

On May 6 in Moscow, President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov each received Lavrov’s Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi. According to Lavrov at the concluding news conference, Russia and China would “coordinate their actions” in the UN Security Council and beyond to support... MORE

NATO allies seek additional military, political, and financial means to overcome the unanticipated stalemate in Libya. Alliance leaders are also addressing incipient symptoms of fatigue with the seemingly protracted operation, conducted by an ad-hoc group of countries on NATO's collective behalf. At the same time,... MORE

On May 2nd, a group of international experts presented their view of Kyrgyzstan’s violence in June 2010, which took the lives of 470 and displaced over 400,000 people. Finish MP Kimmo Kiljunen reported findings of the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission (KIC) in Bishkek, summarizing over five... MORE

April was an extremely successful month for the Russian security forces in the North Caucasus, following the liquidation of Israpil Validzhanov, the leader of the Dagestani jamaat on April 18, and of Emir Mukhannad, a well-known Arab volunteer in the ranks of the Chechen armed... MORE

Russian officials reacted favorably to the killing of the al-Qaeda terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden by SEAL commandos during a raid of a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The Kremlin congratulated the United States with a “serious success in the fight against international terrorism” and... MORE

(Part Two) The issue of seasonal “forced” labor in the Uzbek cotton harvest has been taken up by the International Labor Organization (ILO) where it belongs. It appears that G-TIP has taken a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) checklist to come to the conclusion... MORE