Lithuania seeks the European Union’s support for gas sector reform in line with EU law, against pressures from Gazprom. The Russian company enjoys a supplier’s monopoly in Lithuania and controls the country’s gas pipeline system. The reform, based on EU directives, involves ending the gas... MORE

Verbal confrontation between Moscow and Washington has decreased somewhat as during the 47th International Security Conference in Munich last week. During the conference, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, exchanged instruments of ratification which enabled the START III... MORE

Speaking to journalists on January 27, Tajikistan’s Foreign Minister, Khamrokhon Zarifi, announced that Dushanbe and Moscow will continue talks on Russia’s possible use of the recently renovated Ayni airfield, 15 miles (25 kilometers) west of the Tajik capital. According to Zarifi, the two countries have... MORE

On February 7, the leader of the North Caucasian insurgency, Doku Umarov, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on January 24, which killed 36 people and wounded over 100. In an unusually politicized and polemic video address posted on the... MORE

Russian mainstream media provides extensive coverage of the unfolding revolution in the streets of Cairo, in contrast with China where the word Egypt is banned from the news and blocked in the Internet. Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, is not known for his surfing skills but... MORE

The Russian government’s offer of cheap gas to Moldova, in return for military basing rights (“Cheap Gas for Basing Rights: Russia Offers Ukrainian-Type Deal to Moldova,” EDM, February 4) aims to pressure Moldova’s governing Alliance for European Integration (AEI). That government was confirmed in office... MORE

On February 5, it came to light that Magomed Gamzatov, the outspoken leader of the Didoi (aka Tsez) minority in Dagestan, died under suspicious circumstances. The Didoi people and Gamzatov made headlines in Russia in December 2010, when they requested protection from the Georgian government... MORE

Nikolai Gogol’s satire “Nos” (The Nose) based on a St. Petersburg official’s nose separating from its owner and assuming an adventurous life of its own, fits the seemingly inexplicable shifts and twists in the current effort to reform Russia’s conventional armed forces. It seems that... MORE

Insurgency-related violence –and, apparently, simple criminal violence– continued in the North Caucasus this week, particularly in the republics Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan.In Kabardino-Balkaria, four gunmen charged into a café in the town of Chegem on February 2 and shot a group of traffic policemen who were... MORE

Amid reports by the Russian government that militant activity in Kabardino-Balkaria has increased four to five times (www.rosbalt.ru/2010/11/29/794929.html) –more than anywhere else in the North Caucasus region– local authorities are trying to belittle the role of rebel fighters against the backdrop of economic plans for... MORE