Azerbaijan, sharing kinship ties with Turkey, had embarked somewhat earlier than Georgia on military cooperation with that NATO country. Azerbaijan has now gone a step further. The presidential office and Foreign Ministry have announced that Baku offers to contribute a platoon to NATO's planned peacekeeping... MORE

Following the February 16 terrorist bomb attacks in Tashkent, the Uzbek authorities' search for suspects has tended to focus on Islamic radicals (see the Monitor, February 17-18, 24, 26, March 3). The authorities now seem, however, to be broadening their search to include certain secular... MORE

The Turkish Armed Forces' logistics commander, Lieutenant-General Tursun Baki, and Georgia's Deputy Defense Minister, Major-General Grigol Katamadze signed in Tbilisi yesterday an agreement on military assistance and cooperation between the two countries' defense ministries. The five-year agreement envisages, in the first phase, Turkish construction in... MORE

It looks as if the fugitive Ukrainian former Premier Pavlo Lazarenko, now seeking asylum in the United States, is rapidly losing his supporters at home--a sure sign of his political career nearing its end. On March 4, Lazarenko's alleged main partner in the shadow deals... MORE

Colonel-General Valery Manilov, first deputy chief of the General Staff of Russia's armed forces, involuntarily furnished yesterday a compelling argument in favor of NATO's enlargement in the Baltic region. Speaking against that enlargement in a Duma hearing, Manilov warned that Poland's imminent accession to NATO... MORE

In strongly worded statements, the U.S. State Department and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's chairman-in-office, Knut Vollebaek, have criticized the Belarusan government over the arrest of Viktar Hanchar and other members of the opposition's electoral commission (see the Monitor, March 2). The... MORE

The degree to which the territorial issue is complicating relations between Russia and Japan in other areas was underscored once again earlier this week. In remarks reported by Japanese news sources on March 2, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov said that Moscow and... MORE

The chairman of the Russian Duma's Defense Committee called yesterday for Moscow to do its best "to destroy NATO from within." Roman Popkovich spoke during parliamentary hearings devoted to NATO's enlargement and the dangers which enlargement allegedly poses to Russia. Popkovich was quoted as saying... MORE

The Japanese government indicated yesterday that it intends to replace the country's current ambassador to Russia, Takehiro Togo, as part of a broader rotation of diplomatic personnel. In a move expected to be formalized this summer, Togo will be succeeded by current Japanese Deputy Foreign... MORE

Meanwhile, First Deputy Interior Minister Igor Kozhevnkov announced yesterday that his ministry is investigating charges that Aleksandr Smolensky, the head of SBS-Agro bank, embezzled US$32 million from a bank in Kazakhstan in the early 1990s. The official said that Smolensky is suspected of having used... MORE