A representative group of Ukraine's cultural elite has alerted Western governments and public opinion to Russia's mounting threats against Ukrainian independence. Alarmed by Moscow's latest moves, the signatories of the appeal are also concerned by the failure of Western governments to respond by using existing... MORE

The state-run natural gas monopoly Gazprom has moved to control natural gas resources in Russia's vast eastern regions by taking over new gas deposits and building new gas pipelines. In late August, Gazprom argued that the Chayadinskoye deposit lacked sufficient reserves to fill the Yakutiya-Vladivostok... MORE

The smooth performance of the power-sharing mechanism connecting President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has given way to grinding and clanking as their recent statements betray deepening disagreements. Kremlin-watchers have long been puzzled about the lack of visible tensions between the co-rulers, despite... MORE

The poor state of Ukrainian-Russian relations, as vividly noted in Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's August letter to President Viktor Yushchenko, the expulsion of two Russian spies from Ukraine and Russia's newly adopted law giving its military the right to intervene abroad is intensifying the debate... MORE

Russian naval operations in August 2008 highlighted the security deficit in the Black Sea. As a littoral country, Russia misused the territory of another littoral country, Ukraine, as a staging ground for attacking a third littoral country, Georgia, using its Black Sea Fleet based in... MORE

Last week Hugo Chavez, the flamboyant leftist President of Venezuela, while meeting in Moscow with President Dmitry Medvedev, announced the recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia -the Georgian breakaway regions, occupied by Russian troops during the short war in August 2008. Venezuela... MORE

On September 15 Russia officially warned that it would intercept and detain Georgian coastal guard boats in the Black Sea, if these attempt to interfere with ships that trade with Abkhazia, or if the Georgian boats otherwise trespass Abkhazia's "maritime border" into "Abkhaz waters." The... MORE

On September 11, the Russian minister for regional development, Dmitry Kozak, announced that because of the ongoing economic crisis, Moscow will have to divert some of the financial aid earmarked for the North Caucasus republics to other regions of Russia (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 12). The move... MORE

On July 31 the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin formally launched the construction of the new strategic 1,800 kilometer Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok natural gas pipe-line, which is designed to ensure exports to the Asian Pacific Region (APR) from a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant to be... MORE

On September 15 in Moscow, the Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov signed agreements on military cooperation with the "defense ministers" (Russian citizens Kishmaria and Tanayev) of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. On the same occasion Russia's Border Guard Service command, subordinated to the Federal Security Service... MORE