Russia’s authorities have adopted a position of studied equidistance between the two main candidates during Ukraine’s presidential election campaign. Moscow has interfered only to the extent of ostracizing President Viktor Yushchenko, whose re-election chances it knew to be nil. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Party... MORE

Iraqis will head to the polls on March 7 in the second parliamentary election since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Iraqi politics are in a state of flux that is reflected in the run-up to the vote. The election law was held up... MORE

The Hu Jintao administration has significantly tightened policy over Tibet in an apparent attempt to ensure the proverbial Chinese Communist Party’s “long reign and perennial stability” in the restive region. More hard-line cadres are being appointed to run the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). While unprecedented... MORE

“The main goal of the ‘Special Presidential Commission against falsifications of the history of the Russian Federation causing harm to Russian national interests’ is to identify and fight against conscious, imprudent falsifications, aimed on the political results,” declared Sergei Markov, the deputy head of the... MORE

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition Party of Regions leader (formerly two-time prime minister) Viktor Yanukovych will face each other in the presidential election run-off on February 8. Russia has made clear that it is willing to work with Tymoshenko, Yanukovych, or both leaders... MORE

On January 17, the first round of the Ukrainian presidential election brought no surprises. As predicted by the pollsters, the opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych beat Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the two will face each other in the runoff scheduled for February 7. The Liberal... MORE

On January 19, President Dmitry Medvedev announced the establishment of the North Caucasus Federal District and appointed Alexander Khloponin as the president’s plenipotentiary representative in the region. The newly formed federal district will consist of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and the Russian-speaking... MORE

On December 29, Franak Vyachorka, the son of the former leader of the Belarusian Popular Front Vintsuk Vyachorka, was transferred from his military unit in Mazyr to a hospital after having discovered scabies. He also suffers from high blood pressure. However, although the hospital doctor... MORE

One of the Balkar people’s leaders, Sufian Beppaev, declared at a press conference on January 14 that a land ownership dispute is threatening peace and stability in Kabardino-Balkaria. A Russian constitutional court decision about the land distribution issue in the republic handed down in April... MORE

The outcome of the first round of elections in Ukraine is fairly clear, despite the usual procrastination with confirming the results, but it could have more impact on Russia’s stalled political modernization than the misanthropic political elite in Moscow expects. Taking a lesson from their... MORE