Turkmen President Saparmurat Niazov turns 62 today--"the age of the Prophet Muhammad," as Niazov's propaganda apparatus has emphasized in the runup to the anniversary. Niazov's official titles, bestowed on him by nation-wide consultative forums and attached by now to his name, include Turkmenbashi [Father of... MORE

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma will be invited to chair a new political party to be formed after the March 31 parliament (Verkhovna Rada) elections. This was announced on February 12 by the head of the For United Ukraine (FUU) election headquarters, Ivan Kyrylenko. FUU--which is... MORE

In remarks that reflect the uneasiness of many U.S. allies and other governments with the latest turn in the Bush administration's antiterror policy, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Russian President Vladimir Putin used a meeting in Moscow last week to state their joint opposition... MORE

If international security issues occupied a prominent place in Chretien's discussion agenda during his talks in Moscow, the major thrust of his visit appears nevertheless to have involved an effort to boost trade and economic relations between Canada and Russia. Indeed, the visit by "team... MORE

Stanislav Ilyasov, head of Chechnya's pro-Moscow government, said late last week that it was unrealistic to hold elections in the republic in the next half a year. "Elections are simply not possible in the foreseeable future," Ilyasov said. "A year is needed to approve and... MORE

Preparations for the presidential election in Ingushetia, scheduled for April 7, are in high gear. The republic's election commission has registered twenty-two candidates. Another twelve were either rejected by the commission or voluntarily dropped out. Several potential candidates were found not to have had enough... MORE

Europe's sole Communist-governed country has become the scene of the first anti-Communist mass demonstrations seen anywhere in Europe since 1991. Daily demonstrations at last acquired momentum last week. The protests focus on language and national (ethnic) issues. Moldova is also Europe's most impoverished country. Strikingly,... MORE

The U.S. charge d'affaires in Georgia, Philip Remler, has said that "several dozen" Taliban and al-Qaida fighters who fled from Afghanistan are now hiding in the Caucasus, some of them in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge. Those fighters, he claims, are in contact with warlord Khattab in... MORE

Russian human rights advocates celebrated two major legal victories this week, as the country's Supreme Court struck down a pair of secrecy laws that authorities have used over the past several years to construct highly dubious treason cases against a group of Russian citizens involved... MORE

A newspaper reported today that the St. Petersburg law enforcement authorities would soon charge two Russians currently incarcerated in the Czech Republic for the murder nearly four years ago of Galina Starovoitova, the well-known human rights campaigner and State Duma deputy. The paper also reported... MORE