Recent changes to the federal laws in Kabardin-Balkaria concerning education in schools have provoked controversy. "Representatives of minorities will be able to teach their children their mother tongues only at home," - lamented Muazin Khachetlov, the head of the Kabardin Congress in Kabardin-Balkaria. Khachetlov said... MORE

On August 14 President Dmitry Medvedev held a short meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel in his Sochi residence, and its agenda was rather unusual in the long annals of Russo-German summits. There was not much personal bonding as Merkel had already taken a good measure... MORE

One retired Turkish ambassador told Jamestown that the latest energy deals signed between Turkey and Russia are as promising as the 1970 agreement on establishing an iron and steel plant in Iskenderun in southern Turkey, with the assistance of Soviet technology. Turkey and Russia, despite... MORE

On August 10, Kyrgyz authorities detained Dilmurat Akbarov, the leader of the Ittipak Uyghur society, and his deputy Jamaldin Nasyrov. These leaders had organized demonstrations calling for an independent investigation into last month's riots in Xinjiang. They featured images and posters accusing Beijing of implementing... MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has publicly attacked his Ukrainian counterpart Victor Yushchenko and called his administration's policies deliberately anti-Russian. In an open letter and in a video posting on his official Kremlin blog, Medvedev accused Ukraine of supporting "barbaric attacks" by the pro-Western regime of... MORE

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, accompanied by Zefer Caglayan, the state minister responsible for foreign trade, visited Iraq on August 11, as part of an emerging strategic dialogue between Ankara and Baghdad. Prior to departing for Baghdad, Davutoglu held a lengthy press briefing and outlined the... MORE

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill visited Ukraine from July 27 - August 5 in order to suppress the pro-independence mood among the local clergy and more broadly, to assert Russian religious and cultural domination. Kirill made it clear that he would oppose plans, backed by Ukrainian... MORE

Hungarian MOL's oil-producing joint venture in Russia, ZMB, has gained a respite from the Russian authorities' threat to revoke its production license. ZMB (Zapadno-Malobalyk), a parity joint venture of MOL with Russneft in western Siberia's Khanty-Mansi district, had recently been warned by Russia's mineral resources... MORE

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wooed Turkey's AKP government with grandiose vistas of a bilateral partnership on energy during his visit to Ankara (EDM, August 7, 10). Along with his proposal to build Gazprom's South Stream pipeline to Europe via Turkey's Black Sea economic zone,... MORE

Following the signing of energy cooperation agreements between Turkey and Russia, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz continued his "energy diplomacy," by visiting Azerbaijan. Prior to departing for the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, the Azerbaijani enclave between Turkey and Armenia, on August 8 Yildiz stressed that his... MORE