Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
Special Report from Yemen: A Dangerous Impasse between the Salih Regime and Anti-Government Demonstrators
As anti-government protesters, whose numbers continue to swell, call for an escalation of demonstrations, Yemeni President Salih reiterated his intention to stay in office until the presidential election in 2013. The Salih government rejected the most recent five point plan put forward by the Joint... MORE
Armenian President Faces New Opposition Offensive
Armenia’s President Serzh Sarksyan has warded off potential challenges from his predecessor Robert Kocharian but is now facing mounting street protests organized by another former president, Levon Ter-Petrosian. Buoyed by the ongoing wave of anti-government uprisings in the Arab world, Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK)... MORE
European Union Develops Ties with Kyiv Despite Concerns Over Democracy
It is clear that problems with democracy and slow reforms in Ukraine under President Viktor Yanukovych have not prevented the European Union from developing closer ties with Kyiv. German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, and EU chief free trade negotiator, Philippe Cuisson, confirmed recently that the... MORE
Russian Security Services Launch Wave of Arrests in Ingushetia After Moscow Airport Bombing
On March 4, Russia’s security services reported they managed to kill one of the leaders of Ingushetia’s insurgency, 30 year old Khamzat Korigov. Initially, the government sources said Korigov had detonated a bomb when the security agents surrounded him in Ingushetia’s principal town, Nazran. Later,... MORE
Special Report from Inside Libya
Objective Sirte: Gains and Setbacks Among Libya's Rebel Forces
Russia’s Fog of Military Reform
The Russian defense ministry plans to convene a broad-based meeting on March 14 to discuss the results of military reform and its prospects during the next decade. On March 3, Viktor Ozerov, Chairman of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee confirmed that the full... MORE
Special Commentary: Iran and the Bahraini Uprising
The social upheavals occurring in the Middle East, triggered by the suicide of a fruit vender in Tunisia earlier this year, have been largely precipitated by a number of factors ranging from economic mismanagement, inflation, unemployment, corruption and lack of political rights and freedom. But... MORE
Mikhalevich Outlines Torture in KGB Center
At a press conference on February 28, former Belarusian presidential candidate Ales Mikhalevich outlined details of tortures at the KGB Detention Center in Minsk. Mikhalevich had been released a few days earlier on condition that he turned informant for the secret police. Instead he used... MORE
Moscow Under Pressure to Make Decisive Moves in the Northwest Caucasus
On March 1, a blast destroyed the home of a suspect militant, Eduard Ulbashev, in Kabardino-Balkaria’s Chegem district. One day earlier, on February 28, Ulbashev himself was killed in a shootout with the police. Government forces reported that two explosive devices equal to 25 kilograms... MORE
Medvedev’s Accolade To Reform and Freedom Rings Hollow
Russian history is always open to interpretation but it takes a brave effort to draw from it a lesson that “freedom cannot be postponed until later and we must not be afraid that a free individual may make an inadequate use of a personal freedom.... MORE