During the parliamentary polls in October the opposition coalition block Georgian Dream with its leader billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili defeated the United National Movement of Mikhail Saakashvili. After the elections public space of the country was full of various forecasts, including the fears on possible Georgia‘s return to Russia‘s influence. READ MORE

In his first state of the nation address since his reeletion to the Kremlin for a third term, President Vladimir Putin defended the status quo. It was a disappointing speech, says DW's Ingo Mannteufel. READ MORE

Kazakhstan isn’t changing priorities in its foreign policy, President Nazarbayev stated  when speaking at a solemn meeting to celebrate the 21th anniversary of the nation’s independence. READ MORE

Russia proceeds with the course of development of special relations with the biggest economies and leading political centers of continental Europe. Interaction with Germany and Italy promotes within quite predictable sphere of energy cooperation. As for France, then the trade scopes of Russian-French cooperation within absolute numbers fall behind from Russian-German and Russian-Italian analogues, but it possesses a pretty significant peculiarity. Moscow and Paris strive to diverse their economic relations. READ MORE

At the meeting of the General Affairs Council on 11 December in Brussels, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Vytautas Leškevičius stressed that it was in the EU interest to make an objective evaluation of Serbia’s progress based solely on the facts and own merits. READ MORE

Participation of Turkmenistan and possibly Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in the Southern Corridor for gas to Europe would bolster their sovereign independence, according to a new report by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s GOP staff titled “Energy and Security from the Caspian to Europe”, reported Silk Road Newsline. READ MORE

EU countries are interested in further cooperation with Azerbaijan, EU foreign ministers said at a briefing after a meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on Wednesday. READ MORE

Thursday the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development grounding on the donors of the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund, made a decision to stop financing of one of the projects on Ignalina NPP decommissioning. READ MORE