French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, received Russia’s defense and foreign affairs ministers, Anatoliy Serdyukov and Sergei Lavrov, at the Elysee Palace on September 7, capping a regular meeting of the Franco-Russian Council for Security Cooperation. This body brings together the two countries’ foreign and defense ministers... MORE

On September 7 in Paris, a regular session of the Franco-Russian Council for Security Cooperation turned into another French embarrassment over Russian procurement of Mistral-class warships. Russia is using bait-and-switch tactics. The defense and foreign affairs ministers, Anatoliy Serdyukov and Sergei Lavrov, officially informed their... MORE

On September 3, the Ukrainian government presented a tax reform which should make the country more attractive to foreign investors and promote economic reform. Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, stated that Ukrainian taxes would “probably be the lowest in Europe” (UT1, September 3). Several of the... MORE

Moldova’s constitutional referendum, held on September 5, has failed due to lacking a quorum, with only 29 percent voter turnout (Moldpres, September 6). The failure has triggered a full-blown crisis of legitimacy for the political system in general and the governing authorities in particular. The... MORE

Background Police in Hamburg shut down the notorious al-Quds mosque, renamed the Taiba mosque in 2008, led by German-Syrian national and voluntary imam Mamoun Darkazanli. Darkazanli (a.k.a. Abu Ilyas al-Suri) has been a suspected al-Qaeda operative, primarily as a financier and logistician, in the European... MORE

On July 1, the Customs Union between Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus formally came into force. However, the occasion produced no cause for celebration among the members of the Customs Union. The reasons for such open pessimism over the future of this organization are becoming evident,... MORE

There is mounting evidence that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has returned to tactics targeting the opposition last employed under President, Leonid Kuchma. It should be borne in mind that these tactics were never entirely abandoned. The SBU’s domestic political role has remained because... MORE

The crash of Moldova’s experiment with a parliamentary system of government (EDM, August 6), predictable though it was, could not have occurred at a worse time for the country. When this experiment had first collapsed in 2000, Moldova still had a margin for error at... MORE

There are indications that the Ukrainian government has agreed to return RosUkrEnergo (RUE) the disputed gas, which the Stockholm court ruled belongs to RUE. According to the ruling, Ukraine has to either accept by September 1, or appeal by September 8. The government apparently chose... MORE

On August 2 in Sochi and August 8 in Sukhumi, Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, took personal credit for the military dimension of Russia’s modernization campaign. He also stated that the August 2008 conflict with Georgia catalyzed Russia’s decision to equip its forces with advanced military... MORE