China created a stir late last year when it announced that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) would commence policing the Gulf of Aden for Somali pirates. Two PLAN destroyers and a combat logistics ship arrived on station off the Horn of Africa this past... MORE

During the violent ethnic clashes between the Turkic Uyghurs and Han Chinese, in China's northwestern province of Xinjiang on July 5-6, Sino-Turkish relations soured as a result of Turkish public opinion and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan harshly criticizing the Chinese government's handling of the... MORE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi on August 14 -their third bilateral meeting thus far this year- in an atmosphere of conviviality staged primarily for German television channels. The German electoral campaign and three major enterprise bankruptcies spurred Merkel's decision... MORE

An Ankara-based think-tank, Uluslararasi Stratejik Arastirmalar Kurumu (USAK), announced the findings of its 2009 public opinion poll on Turkish perceptions of foreign policy (www.usak.org.tr, August 14). The survey shows that the Turkish people prioritize national interests over global causes, and a visible increase in their... MORE

On August 10 President Dmitry Medvedev accused President Viktor Yushchenko of taking Ukraine on an "anti-Russian course" (www.blog.kremlin.ru, August 10). Moscow also recently engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions (EDM, July 31). The two Ukrainian diplomats expelled were Ukraine's General-Consul in St.Petersburg Natalia Prokopovych and Oleh... MORE

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