The presidential election drama in Ukraine has distracted attention from two key political developments in Russia that are also connected to executive-branch elections. First, on December 3 the Russian State Duma passed a law with new procedures for electing the heads of Russian Federation regions... MORE

The Russian Interior Ministry (MVD) has successfully completed the first stage of its expanded security role in the aftermath of the Beslan tragedy. It has added to its current responsibilities an additional 440 sites throughout the Russian Federation, many of which include potential soft targets... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin made last week's unprecedented trip to Turkey for several reasons. First, trade, energy, and a shared interest in ensuring the security of the Black Sea and the Caucasus against terrorism are important (RIA-Novosti, December 6). Similarly, Putin has long maintained that... MORE

The OSCE's failed year-end meeting in Sofia on December 6-7 also marked its conclusive failure as a would-be security organization. Russia demonstrated that it could kill the OSCE's one and only security operation of proven value, the Border Monitoring Operation in Georgia. At the same... MORE

With democratic challenger Viktor Yushchenko all but set to win a repeat presidential runoff in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing his greatest foreign policy crisis. At stake is the Kremlin leader's dream of Russia's greatness, which he perceives primarily as Moscow's ability to... MORE

Russian hegemonic claims regarding Georgia, Moldova, and now also Ukraine, torpedoed the OSCE's year-end meeting at the level of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Sofia on December 6-7. The annual event ended without the usual political declaration and regional statements, the adoption of which is... MORE

On November 29, the Dalai Lama, the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, visited Kalmykia, a region in southern Russia, that is mainly inhabited by ethnic Kalmyks practicing Buddhism. This visit was difficult to organize, since the Chinese government regards the Dalai Lama as a separatist.... MORE

In the first days of December, the Russian government planned to review Gazprom's performance and approve its investment program for 2005. The agenda for the meeting, however, was changed at the last moment when Gazprom announced a drastic revision of its plans in connection with... MORE

Having all but lost his Ukraine gambit, Russian President Vladimir Putin headed to India and Turkey on state visits in early December. The Kremlin leader's talks with Indian and Turkish rulers appear to be an attempt to give an "asymmetrical answer" to the global hegemony... MORE

Russia and India have reached a tentative agreement on military cooperation in Central Asia, aimed at resolving any potential conflict of interests between the two powers in the strategically important region. Russian President Vladimir Putin reached no definitive accord during his December 3-4 visit to... MORE