Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
The Disappearance of Tajikistan’s Ethnic Uzbek Leader: A New Stage in the Struggle Between Tashkent and Dushanbe?
Salim Shamsiddinov, a leader of Tajikistan’s ethnic Uzbek community, went missing on March 16. According to Amnesty International, Shamsiddinov’s disappearance could have been a politically motivated abduction. In May of last year, Shamsiddinov was severely beaten by unknown attackers. That attack came after he suggested... MORE
Ukraine Continues to Play with the Rules, Not by the Rules
In October 2002, President Leonid Kuchma visited Warsaw where North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Javier Solana told him, “Sometimes Ukraine seems to be playing with, not by, the rules” (https://www.day.kiev.ua/en/article/day-after-day/play-not-rules). A most recent case in point is the April 7 “pardon” of former... MORE
Moscow Puts Moldova’s Bulgarian Minority into Play Against Chisinau
For more than two decades, Moscow has exploited the tensions between Transnistria and Chisinau to try to bring Moldova to heel. More recently, it has sought to use Moldova’s Gagauz minority to do the same thing. And over the past ten days, it appears to... MORE
The Georgian Orthodox Church: Some Aspects of Its Rhetoric and Practice
In trying to access the website of the Georgian Orthodox Church on Sunday, April 7, 2013, one would have ended up reading a message in Russian that said, “The owner of this account has suspended service” due to nonpayment (https://www.patriarchate.ge/). The fact that the official... MORE
Beijing Builds its Eurasian Transportation Network
China continues to make progress in building its Eurasian transportation networks with the aim of deepening its economic ties in Central and South Asia as well as providing a foundation for its regional security interests. Gwadar, a port town in western Pakistan close to Iran... MORE
Belarus: Geopolitical Preferences and Realities of Foreign Relations
Geopolitics remains the most common angle from which Belarus is looked at, not only by the analysts from Russia and the West but also by domestic commentators. A case in point is the national survey-based report by the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS), a... MORE
Amid Paranoia, Moscow Increasingly Cracks Down on Human Rights Groups
Since last March, Russian and international human rights organizations—including such prominent ones as Memorial, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International and others—have been harassed by Russian law enforcement and tax authorities, had their premises searched all over Russia, and had documents and computer disks... MORE
Accession to the Customs Union with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus Threatens Kyrgyzstan’s Domestic Stability
On April 3, Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev made a speech before the students of the Kyrgyz State Technical University in Bishkek. While he addressed a number of issues related to both the domestic and foreign politics of the Central Asian republic, Atambayev particularly stressed the... MORE
First Ethnic Ossetian Refugees from Syria Arrive in North Ossetia
Since the beginning of this year, Syrian Ossetians have been arriving in North Ossetia. Six refugees arrived in the republic at the end of January, and 12 more followed in February. The Ossetians from Syria arrived in the North Caucasus at the invitation of the... MORE
Kazakhstani Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov Conducts Shuttle Diplomacy in Central Asia
Kazakhstan’s mediation role in Iran, which resumes today, is not unique. Astana has striven to resolve conflicts throughout its Eurasian neighborhood. To this end, at the end of March, Kazakhstani Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov visited Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to engage in some shuttle diplomacy to... MORE