Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
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Bakiyev Confident Ahead of Presidential Election
Approximately one month before the presidential election in July, Kyrgyzstan’s incumbent leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev has clearly emerged as its most likely winner. The president has managed to strengthen his personal leverage over the parliament, the Central Elections Commission (CEC) as well as the security structures... MORE
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European Election Results Rekindle Turkish Reform Agenda
Voter apathy within the E.U. during the European parliamentary elections on June 4 resulted in only 40 percent of Europeans' voting. The election witnessed conservatives and center-right parties winning a decisive victory within most European countries. Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Holland, Austria, Hungary,... MORE
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Armenian President Uses Yerevan Election to Cement Hold on Power
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan has tightened his grip on power after municipal elections in Yerevan were controversially won by his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The country's main opposition groups have rejected the official results of the May 31 vote as fraudulent. The largest of... MORE
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Grand Coalition Talks Collapse in Ukraine
The talks on forming a coalition between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Party of Regions (PRU) leader Viktor Yanukovych have failed due to mutual distrust. Electing the next president in parliament was among the main conditions for a grand coalition that would have permitted Tymoshenko... MORE
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Arinc Demands the Resignation of Turkey’s Media Watchdog
Turkey continues to debate the implications of an ongoing controversial fraud case in the German courts involving, among others, individuals close to the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP). After the Turkish courts launched this case, the Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc added a new... MORE
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Moldova Enters Unstable Pre-Election Period
As anticipated (EDM, May 26) Moldovan opposition parties have forced the holding of new general elections by boycotting the election of a head of state in the newly-elected parliament on June 3 (Moldpres, June 3-7). The opposition's move has, in effect, nullified the parliamentary elections... MORE
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Assassination of Interior Minister Marks a new Level of Political Violence in Dagestan
Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov was killed in broad daylight at the entrance to restaurant in Makhachkala on June 5. Even though Dagestan is known for political murders - and specifically the murders of top law-enforcement officials - it was the first time that an... MORE
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Putin Resolves Protest in Pikalevo
A mass riot induced by the developing economic crisis, served to confirm the identity of the real boss and decision maker in Russia. While Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was speaking to the World Economic Forum in St. Petersburg on June 4, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin... MORE
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Controversial Fraud Trial Closed in Moscow
On June 2 the long-awaited trial began in Moscow's Tushinsky District Court of Vladimir Nekrasov, the reputed owner of Arbat Prestige, the largest chain of cosmetics stores in Russia and the CIS and his co-defendant, Semyon Mogilevich, (alias Sergei Shneider), a person wanted by the... MORE
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Medvedev Promotes Intellectual Economy and Putin Resorts to Soviet Methods
On June 6-7 the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg had a far more somber atmosphere and a greatly reduced entertainment program than last year, when Russia was still portrayed as an "island of stability" in the sea of troubles. The central event was again the... MORE