Tajikistan faces a deteriorating security situation following the escape of 25 high-profile prisoners from a detention center in Dushanbe run by the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) on August 23. The convicts escaped less than one week after they had been sentenced to lengthy... MORE

London-based Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakaev was arrested today (September 17) in Poland, where he had traveled to attend the World Congress of the Chechen People taking place in Warsaw on September 16-18. A Polish police spokesman told Reuters that Zakaev, who was granted political... MORE

Having emerged from a period of religiously inspired terrorist violence in the 1990s, Egypt has since been regarded as a regional bulwark against Islamist militancy in the Arab Middle East. However, a new ideological struggle is emerging between the religious scholars of Cairo’s al-Azhar University... MORE

As the Kyrgyz parliamentary campaign officially began on September 10, concerns mounted that major political parties will choose to use forceful methods to prevail over their competitors. Tensions are rising especially among parties that aspire to a majority in parliament and those that might fail... MORE

As Moscow’s mayor since 1992, one of founders of the ruling United Russia party and one of its collective co-leaders, Yuri Luzhkov, 73, has become the target of furious public attacks by the state-controlled Russian TV channels. In a broadside that began last week on... MORE

The Party of Regions, according to an extensive analysis in Ukrayinska Pravda (August 30), is seeking to obtain a majority in local councils in the October local elections. If the Party of Regions secures a majority in the area between the Don (the Russian-Ukrainian border)... MORE

Two high-profile international events occurred in Russia last week: on Monday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, held a traditional meeting with the Valdai club; and on Friday, President Dmitry Medvedev participated in the Yaroslavl forum, which is designed to become a new tradition. Some Western participants... MORE

Recent political developments in Pakistan seem to have put a military operation in North Waziristan on the backburner once more. If current political trends continue, the much awaited military operation in the region may not start for a long time, if ever.  The recent floods,... MORE

On September 3, the Ukrainian government presented a tax reform which should make the country more attractive to foreign investors and promote economic reform. Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, stated that Ukrainian taxes would “probably be the lowest in Europe” (UT1, September 3). Several of the... MORE

Moldova’s constitutional referendum, held on September 5, has failed due to lacking a quorum, with only 29 percent voter turnout (Moldpres, September 6). The failure has triggered a full-blown crisis of legitimacy for the political system in general and the governing authorities in particular. The... MORE