Last-minute efforts during recent meetings with President Vladimir Putin by British Prime Minister David Cameron, his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and United States Secretary of State John Kerry to dissuade Russia from shipping modern, long-range anti-aircraft S-300 missiles to Syria have all dismally failed. A... MORE

In a stream of statements from Brussels and Strasbourg, European Union leaders sound shocked by the demise of Moldova’s tripartite Alliance for European Integration (AEI), and more generally by the collapse of Moldova’s parliamentary system of government. The EU has portrayed Moldova as the Eastern... MORE

Russia has captured much political attention in the West in the last few days because of its allegedly central role in the deadlocked civil war in Syria. Yet, in the domestic debates—boiling hot despite the holiday season—Syria is barely present, while the major point of... MORE

Mongolian Petroleum Authority Chairman G. Ulziiburen announced in mid-March that Mongolia had made an agreement with PetroChina—a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation—to exchange crude oil drilled in Mongolia with end-products processed in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Delivery was to reach 10,000 tons of... MORE

March 19 marked the ten-year anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Although the international community continues to focus on the violence plaguing post-war Iraq and the country’s oil production capacity, changes in Iraqi foreign policy in... MORE

The congressionally-mandated Annual Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China has riled Beijing since its inception. Chinese leaders have resented being singled out, calling the report a product of “Cold War thinking” and contradictory to the spirit of U.S.-China relations.... MORE

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Mongolia last month (April 11–12) is likely to result in closer bilateral economic cooperation in addition to the two countries’ already well-established cultural, educational and security ties. As is traditional for Turkish high-level guests to Mongolia, Prime... MORE

Mixed messages regarding the potential release of the remaining political prisoners have been coming out of Belarus and from those monitoring the domestic situation in that country. On the one hand, the report by Miklos Haraszti, a special rapporteur on Belarus for the United Nations... MORE

On April 30, Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili assertively declared that Georgia should make firm steps in order to obtain a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Membership Action Plan (MAP) already next year (www.civil.ge, May 1). Historically, MAP has represented the last step for a... MORE

The first days of May were a political lull in Russia as the lazy semi-official May 1 manifestations coincided closely with the celebration of Orthodox Easter. But the start of this week shattered the picture of harmony between the pious authorities and hard-working masses. Very... MORE