The French ambassador to Estonia, Frederic Billet, has asked the host country to look positively at the French sale of Mistral-class warships to Russia. The ambassador told Estonian media that the warship sale is meant to demonstrate the end of the Cold War with Russia;... MORE

The Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s team is tightening its grip on power. The opposition, still in disarray after Yanukovych’s victory in the presidential elections last February, has offered no resistance. More defectors from the opposition are joining the ruling coalition, some of them lured by... MORE

Russia seems to be poised to invest big money in the North Caucasus in an effort to reduce the intensity of rebel activities there. But the target group of Russia’s new policy is not primarily the militants engaged in armed resistance against Russian rule, but... MORE

This week, the new First Deputy Defense Minister, Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin (Retired), described in an interview in the official government newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, his priorities in reforming the defense ministry and rearming Russia’s armed forces. Popovkin last month replaced Colonel-General Alexander Kolmakov, who was not... MORE

Russia’s Surgutneftegaz has filed a case in Budapest’s Metropolitan Court, seeking legal registration as a stakeholder in Hungarian MOL, the national oil and gas company. Surgut is asking the court to invalidate MOL’s April 2010 refusal to enter the Russian company’s shares in the Hungarian... MORE

Tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan has risen significantly over the past month despite a renewed international push for a resolution to the Karabakh conflict. The US, Russia and France are again pressing the conflicting parties to finalize a framework peace accord drafted by the three... MORE

Gazprom’s proposal for German RWE to join Gazprom’s South Stream project, has fallen flat at both the corporate and the political levels in Germany. The proposal clearly aimed to disrupt the European Union-backed Nabucco project, where RWE is a key stakeholder, developing offshore gas in... MORE

The Turkish Constitutional Court issued another controversial ruling on June 8, sparking a heated debate. Since the constitutional reform package initiated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to receive the necessary votes in parliament, it was submitted to a referendum, scheduled for... MORE

Jacob Kipp recently analyzed the political-military context of Vostok 2010 and drew attention to an increased threat perception in the Russian Far East relating to China. Kipp also referred to the taboo within Russian security circles about openly referring to China in discussion of threat... MORE

Russia’s Gazprom has proposed to the German RWE company to join Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline project. According to German business press reports, Gazprom Vice-President, Aleksandr Medvedev, has approached senior RWE management with this proposal. RWE, however, is a stakeholder in the EU-backed Nabucco project. Gazprom’s... MORE