Just prior to his mid-October 2014 visit to the United States, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius revealed that his talks with the US government would devote special attention to energy issues, including trying to invite US companies to take part in a new shale gas... MORE

Moscow has been quite benevolent toward the International Union of Muslim Scholars, headed by its general secretary, Dr. Ali Muhiddin al-Qaradaghi. This international, non-governmental pan-Islamic organization was established in London in 2004. The leaders of the organization have become frequent visitors to Russia (iumsonline.org, accessed... MORE

Moscow’s ability to finance the North Caucasus republics took a substantial hit in 2014 as the financial situation in the country deteriorated. Out of roughly $1 billion in investments in infrastructure projects planned for the region this year, the Russian government disbursed less than a... MORE

The November 4 sacking of Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili (Imedi TV; Rustavi 2, November 4; see EDM, November 5) and Alasania’s Our Georgia–Free Democrats party’s subsequent departure from the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) coalition to the opposition (Channel 1... MORE

Since initiating organizational reform in the Armed Forces in 2008, Moscow’s political-military leadership has not placed building a professional military anywhere near the top of its agenda. Indecision on the issue gave way to a compromise: a force mix of 12-month serving conscripts and contract... MORE

By meeting with the leaders of the pro-Moscow Moldovan Socialist Party last week (November 4) (kremlin.ru, November 5), Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent the kind of signal to the Gagauz that they have been waiting for. And therefore, according to Dmitry Konstantinov, Moldova’s Gagauz... MORE

No darling of the Western media, Belarus suffers from a peculiar imbalance between two kinds of reporting about it. Much more is written about Belarus’s Soviet legacy and its relationships with external centers of power, Russia and the European Union, than about the actual developments... MORE

The armistice agreements, signed on September 5 and 19–20, remain basically unimplemented on the Russian side, politically and militarily. Russia’s proxy forces have “de-escalated” their attacks on Ukrainian positions, but continue attacking at a lower level of intensity, inflicting Ukrainian casualties. Russia itself is far... MORE

Having annexed the Crimean peninsula, Russia unintentionally accelerated the laying of groundwork for cooperation between the Crimean Tatars and the Circassians, according to Circassian activist Andzor Kabard. The Circassian Rights Initiative, a Turkish organization, took the first steps to establish closer contacts with the Crimean... MORE

On October 18, police in Tajikistan announced that they had arrested 13 members of a terrorist group who had allegedly plotted to attack a military unit, seize weapons, and blow up two major tunnels linking the country’s north with the rest of the republic. According... MORE