Reportedly, the US Ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, is optimistic that Moscow and Washington will agree by May 2012 (prior to NATO’s Chicago Summit) on an information exchange system on missile defenses (UPI, RIA Novosti, October 3). However, Russian official and press statements remain utterly... MORE

The European Commission (executive arm of the EU) has launched a systematic anti-trust investigation of Russian Gazprom’s operations in European Union countries. From September 27 onward, the Commission has conducted surprise inspections at many of Gazprom’s subsidiaries and its joint-venture partners. The firms in question... MORE

In a last-minute reversal, Croatia has decided to request the European Commission’s opinion on legal amendments that would bar Hungarian MOL from acquiring more than 49 percent of ownership shares in Croatia’s oil and gas company, INA. The Croatian government’s September 29 meeting had been... MORE

Ukraine’s poor relations with Russia are nothing new as they also existed under the “pro-Russian” Leonid Kuchma. Nevertheless, Kuchma had to deal with the more democratic Russian President Boris Yeltsin, whereas the certainty of Vladimir Putin returning as Russian President in March 2012 means that... MORE

For the last fifteen years, Belarus has been the world’s leader in terms of the sheer number of predictions of its imminent economic collapse. And yet since 1996, the country has demonstrated steady, impressive and, in the words of a 2005 World Bank report, “broad-based”... MORE

To reduce its dependence on expensive Russian natural gas, Ukraine proposes to import Azerbaijani liquefied natural gas (LNG) via Georgia and across the Black Sea to Ukraine. Recent gas discoveries in Azerbaijan, and the reactivation of the Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan gas pipeline project, encourage a growing number... MORE

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin near Moscow on September 24 in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the ruling tandem to lower gas prices for Ukraine. The officials involved have avoided saying anything specific about... MORE

Baku expects three gas transportation consortiums to submit competing bids by October for the gas production of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field, Phase Two. The rival projects are Nabucco (Turkey-Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria, potentially reaching Germany), ITGI (Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy), and TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, linking Turkey via Greece and Albania... MORE

Amidst growing concerns about the escalation of Turkish-Israeli tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ankara’s decision to undertake seismic exploration for oil and gas – in retaliation for the Greek Cypriot administration’s ongoing exploration activities – further raised tensions in the region. Recently, the Greek Cypriots... MORE

The Russian Ministry of Economic Development has issued a bleak prognosis for the economic future of Belarus, anticipating that the country will enter a period of recession in 2012, which will be followed by gradual recovery in future years (www.naviny.by, September 24). The report contrasts... MORE