Framework agreements on a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) are scheduled for signing by high-level officials of the four countries on December 11 in Ashgabat (Turkmen Television, Press Trust of India, December 8, 9). Its economics and its political symbolism aside, TAPI’s implementation is hardly conceivable on... MORE

Russian Deputy Prosecutor-General, Ivan Sydoruk, said on December 8 that the number of terrorist acts committed in the North Caucasus Federal District rose 100 percent in comparison to last year. According to Sydoruk, 14 terrorist acts have been carried out in the district this year.... MORE

Speaking in the regional capital of Pyatigorsk on November 18, Russian Interior Minister, Rashid Nurgaliev, put Kabardino-Balkaria next to Dagestan and Ingushetia as the most dangerous places in the North Caucasus in terms of the terrorist threat (https://www.caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=20543). Up until last year, the republic of... MORE

Russia has been long working to build an independent GPS (GLObal’'naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema –GLONASS) system.  Yet, on December 5, the program received a blow as 3 new GLONASS-M satellites plunged into the Pacific Ocean some 1,000 miles north of the Hawaiian Islands after a... MORE

The risk-fraught prospect of Western arms sales to Russia was not an agenda item at NATO’s annual summit, just held in Lisbon. Although such sales, on top of Russia’s own rearmament programs, can increase Russian military capabilities on NATO’s eastern borders, the Alliance avoids dealing... MORE

Debate on the implications of military sales to Russia is stifled in NATO. The proposed sale of French Mistral-class warships to Russia is by far the largest among possible Russian procurements under discussion. Non-member country Georgia has taken the lead in airing concerns over the... MORE

On December 5, the Ingush non-governmental organization Mashr, which is headed by Magomed Mutsolgov and focuses on monitoring human rights violations in the republic, received the Moscow Helsinki Group. “Daily work in the field of rights of the individual and the defense of freedom in... MORE

Unlike in the case of several regional neighbors, including Russia, the recent WikiLeaks transcripts hardly carry the potential of spoiling relations between Washington and the current administration in Kyiv. However, WikiLeaks has shed new light on the role of energy businessman, Dmytro Firtash, as a... MORE

The crisis on the Korean Peninsula has marked a new dimension of the media, once again confirming Marshall McLuhan’s observation that “the media is the message.” In this case, it was the international press offering global coverage to WikiLeaks releasing US State Department cables. These... MORE

On November 22, the Russian government expected to bask in the light of a successful NATO Summit in Lisbon. President Dmitry Medvedev attended while NATO had produced a new Strategic Concept that treated Russia as a partner and not as a problem. European missile defense... MORE