Hizbollah upgrades its military capability as Israel is accused of assassinating a senior Hamas commander. indigenous leaders are attacked in Bangladesh. Obama approves arms sales to Taiwan. The US Senate backs tougher sanctions against Iran. All this and more in today’s security update.
There have been many attempts at building new structures to replace the Soviet Union, since it fell 10 years ago. These have left the political landscape littered with acronyms: CST, CSTO, CRRF, SCO, EEC, SES, GUAM and GUUAM. In the second part of his article Sergei Markedonov reviews their succes
Russia’s foreign policy is outdated, according to the distinguished foreign affairs analyst Dmitry Trenin. In the first part of this interview with polit.ru’s Boris Dolgin he argues that rather than focus on preserving Russia’s status as a great power, its aim should be modernisation. Otherwise, g
Employees of the private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, directly participated in CIA counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. European leaders threaten Iran with imminent sanctions. North Korea announces that it is ready to co-operate with the United States. All this
Presidential elections are looming in the Abkhazia, the breakaway republic which Russia recognised as an independent state after the Georgia war. This time, Russia has backed off from playing a candidate, says Ivan Sukhov. But whatever the outcome closer integration with Russia will continue.
Allied countries inside and outside NATO have committed an additional 7,000 troops to Afghanistan. A bloody suicide attack has left at least 37 dead in Pakistan. The Islamic militant group al-Shabab has denied involvement in Thursday’s bomb attack in Somalia, accusing the Somali government instead
The epic upheaval of 1989 was a time when east Europeans lost their fear, overcame their moral frustration and political impotence, and regained a central role in the political sphere. The heart of this series of profound events survives across twenty years, says Vladimir Tismaneanu.
After the recent Russian local elections were won by the Kremlin-backed ruling party, United Russia, opposition parties cried foul. A review of blogs and online comments from the Russian southern city of Astrakhan shows quite how bad things got.
Gazprom's controversial decision to build a skyscraper in St. Petersburg had the support of Putin and governor Valentina Matvienko. But a recent broadside on TV suggests that broader forces of political opposition may be gathering behind this ostensibly cultural decision, comments Dmitry Travin
