Kremlin-connected politician Mikhail Margelov’s bid for the presidency of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is beginning to run into trouble. It is not yet the done deal that Margelov’s supporters at and near the top of PACE’s leadership had hoped --... MORE

Russian officials have announced plans to strengthen economic relations with Kyrgyzstan. Speaking at an October 12 session of the intergovernmental Russian-Kyrgyz Commission for Trade, Economic, and Technical Cooperation, Russian atomic energy chief Sergei Kiriyenko announced that bilateral trade is due to reach $1 billion in... MORE

Last week U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates came to Moscow to discuss Pentagon plans to install ten missile interceptors in Poland, linked to a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic, as well as other issues that have complicated relations... MORE

As Syrian preacher Dr. Mahmud al-Aghasi, known as Abu al-Qaqa, left an Aleppo mosque after Friday prayers on September 28, an assassin stepped out of a car and opened fire with an automatic weapon. The controversial preacher received mortal wounds to the head and body,... MORE

Following the decision by Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to create the legal framework for an armed incursion into northern Iraq, the Turkish military has begun to weigh its options for a military strike against the camps of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).... MORE

Since the September 11 attacks, the internet has emerged as a pillar of radical Islamist propaganda efforts against the United States by al-Qaeda and other groups. Extremist websites and chat forums provide radicals and sympathizers with moral and theological justification for acts of violence and... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his advisors to draft a detailed plan to develop Sakhalin Island’s infrastructure in the wake of a major earthquake there earlier this year. The situation in Sakhalin "should be radically improved," Putin told a cabinet meeting on October 1... MORE

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has recently raised its profile by expanding its traditional emphasis on anti-terrorism to include potential peacekeeping activities within the former Soviet region. Moreover, its memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), signed on October 6 in Dushanbe,... MORE

Since early September, there has been a flurry of media reports and commentaries suggesting that the Saudi religious establishment has turned against Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda; that a split has occurred among the Taliban, Ayman al-Zawahiri and bin Laden; and that al-Zawahiri has pushed... MORE

A recent series of explosions suggest that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) may be stepping up its urban bombing campaign in western Turkey. On October 2, two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) exploded within approximately three-and-a-half hours of each other in the Mediterranean port of Izmir,... MORE