Almost a month and a half after the assassination of Dagestan's Interior Minister Police General Adilgerei Magomedtagirov on June 5, the federal government finally chose his replacement. The new minister is Federal Security Service (FSB) Colonel Ali Magomedov, a close associate of Dagestan's President Mukhu... MORE

Violence in Ingushetia continues unabated. The wreckage of a blown-up VAZ-2107 automobile with the remains of four unidentified people was discovered ten kilometers outside the city of Karabulak on July 26. A Karabulak police source said the owner of the car was a suspected rebel.... MORE

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on his way to Syria revealed that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has launched a comprehensive plan to address the Kurdish question. Erdogan said, "We have launched an initiative, whether you call it the Kurdish problem or the... MORE

On July 23 the presidential election marked a new low point in Kyrgyzstan's democratic record. Incumbent president Kurmanbek Bakiyev earned 85 percent of the vote and immediately sought to suppress any opposition protests challenging the election result. Members of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP)... MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel headed large governmental delegations for bilateral talks on July 16 in Munich. The process, known as Russo-German inter-governmental consultations, involves informal semi-annual summits at which leading business representatives join the cabinet ministers on either side. The... MORE

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in Taiwan will elect its next chairman on July 26. On that date, tens of thousands of KMT members will cast their votes for their former party chairman–turned-president, Ma Ying-jeou, who will be the only candidate on the ballot. Ma’s... MORE

Calm has been superficially restored to the Xinjiang Autonomous Region (XAR), where an outbreak of ethnic violence on July 5 led to the death of more than 197 Han Chinese and Uighurs, according to an official count (Xinhua News Agency, July 18). Chinese Communist Party... MORE

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a one-day visit to Syria, which involved discussions on Turkey's mediator role between Israel and Syria. Erdogan and the Syrian President Bashar Assad discussed bilateral relations, regional developments and Turkey's peacemaking role in the region. Assad requested Turkey's mediating... MORE

President Viktor Yushchenko announced his bid for a second term on July 18 defying pundits who believed his low popularity of 2-3 percent would deter him (www.president.gov.ua, July 18). Yushchenko used the highest peak in Ukraine - Hoverla in the Carpathians - to declare his... MORE

The murder of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova continued to have international resonance on July 22, when Britain's Guardian newspaper published a letter signed by more than 100 prominent international figures calling on the Russian authorities to find her killers and to "end the killings... MORE