Latest Articles about Domestic/Social

Moscow Relaxes NGO Legislation in the North Caucasus

On July 20 President Dmitry Medvedev signed into law amendments to Russian NGO legislation. The changes make it easier for the NGO's to register with the government, to report on their activities and limit government agencies' ability to perform regular checks on NGO's (www.kremlin.ru, July... MORE

Bakiyev Wins Presidential Election, Opposition Declares “War”

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

Russia-Germany: an Asymmetric “Strategic Partnership”

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 Xinjiang Crisis: A Test for Beijing’s Carrot-and-Stick Strategy

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

Erdogan Offers Turkish Mediation in Israeli-Syrian Talks

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