The new political season in Russia officially started last week with the decree on holding the State Duma elections on December 4 signed by President Dmitry Medvedev in front of representatives of officially recognized parties (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, August 30). Perhaps the most characteristic feature of... MORE

On August 24, the head of Kazakhstan’s national nuclear monopoly Kazatomprom announced plans to increase its uranium fuel pellet shipments to China by one hundredfold,  from 2 metric tons this year to 200 metric tons in 2013 or 2014 (Bloomberg, August 22). This is welcome... MORE

The world caught a rare glimpse of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s five-day visit to China last month. Xi is due to succeed Hu Jintao as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at its 18th Congress in... MORE

Remarks made by Major General Jin Yi’nan of China’s National Defense University at a conference earlier this year provide new insights into Beijing’s reaction to foreign espionage, which Jin believes showed moral degeneracy within China. Jin’s lengthy speech originally appeared on and was later removed... MORE

Georgia’s internationally renowned stage director, Robert Sturua, has been released by the Culture Ministry from his post as head of the Rustaveli National Theater in Tbilisi. In a nation so rich in theatrical and cinematographic talent, Sturua, 73, is perhaps the most celebrated among stage... MORE

It has been a difficult summer for China’s restive western province Xinjiang. A series of incidents characterized as terrorism have struck two of the province’s cities, causing death, destruction and ethnic tension. This picture was further complicated when the government of the city of Kashgar... MORE

On August 15, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev promised he will end the contract with Washington on the US Transit Center in Bishkek in 2014, when the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) plans to withdraw from Afghanistan. “The contract for the Transit Center will expire... MORE

It has become a tradition that August is an especially volatile month in the North Caucasus. This year has not been an exception, with the situation in the North Caucasus becoming more aggravated, especially in those regions that were relatively quiet in the preceding time... MORE

The Soviet abuse of psychiatry for political purposes isolated thousands of political and religious prisoners in psychiatric hospitals. Some of these practices continued in post-Soviet countries such as Russia and Uzbekistan, but have only been reported in Ukraine since 2010 – the year in which... MORE

On August 11 in Tallinn, an armed member of the local neo-Soviet milieu forced his way into Estonia’s defense ministry, fired pistol shots, detonated smoke bombs, and took two hostages. In a two-hour confrontation with the security police, the intruder did not answer appeals to... MORE