Things are looking up for Russia. In late August, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin finally opened a new pipeline exporting East Siberian oil to China. Dubbed the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline, or ESPO, the plan is to pump 1.6 million barrels per day toward the Pacific Ocean over the next few years. The rationale is clear. Diversifying supplies to Asia offers Russia the Holy Grail that all energy producers want — leverage over competing consumers in the East and West. READ MORE

Under attack from Western governments and by the United Nations itself for his nuclear stance, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran attempted magnanimity at the UN headquarters yesterday while insisting that the US get used to the future "belonging" to his country. READ MORE

Ukraine's foreign minister said Thursday that one of Russia's most ambitious energy projects, the planned South Stream gas pipeline across the Black Sea to Europe, would be "wasteful, unnecessary and totally against the logic of modern economy." READ MORE

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged world leaders to lift millions of people out of poverty despite of the global economic downturn. But experts doubt the goals can be met by the 2015 deadline. READ MORE

It is not a secret that in various periods there existed various opinions regarding the effectiveness of the OSCE, and in the recent past its work aroused a lot of sharp remarks. Many experts said it was conditioned by several factors such as ambiguous status of the OSCE member states in the process of geopolitical transformation of the world. Critical moments caused by the conflict of geopolitical interests are still questionable; these problems have been piled up for years. READ MORE

For several centuries, everyone in Russia – from great minds to cooks – has been discussing the same issue: should Russia look to Europe or Asia? The world’s geopolitical structure has changed in this time, and yet we still have not resolved this issue. Xing Guangcheng, an expert on Russia and a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who will be attending the upcoming seventh meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, shared his views on this question. READ MORE

Turkish voters went to the polls on Sunday to decide on a reform package that has split the population. Early results indicate that 60 percent of the electorate has voted "Yes," a decisive victory for the government. READ MORE

Turkish politicians are already eyeing the post-referendum period set to follow Sunday’s much-contested vote, a new era in which controversial issues such as terrorism and the Kurdish question are likely to top the agenda. READ MORE

Moldova’s constitutional referendum, held on September 5, has failed due to lacking a quorum, with only 29 percent voter turnout. The failure has triggered a full-blown crisis of legitimacy for the political system in general and the governing authorities in particular. READ MORE

Russian gas giant Gazprom and Azerbaijan's state oil and gas company will sign a deal to increase supplies of Azerbaijani gas to Russia in 2011-2012 during the Russian president's visit to Baku on Thursday, RIA Novosti reported. READ MORE