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IRAN: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia Squeezed Between Tehran and Washington

By Haley Sweetland Edwards

Armenia finds itself in an unfriendly neighborhood and engaged in a highly militarized 20-year territorial dispute with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. It has long pulled off a diplomatic coup, maintaining simultaneous close relations with Iran, Russia and the United States, all three of which it relies on for protection, investment and trade. READ MORE

NATO Demonstrates Full Support for Georgia

By David Iberi

On November 23, as Georgians marked the seventh anniversary of the Rose Revolution, a peaceful popular protest that opened new opportunities for the South Caucasus nation’s Euro-Atlantic integration, President Mikheil Saakashvili affirmed the country’s European identity as he addressed the European Parliament. READ MORE

Moscow Moves To Counter NATO

By M K Bhadrakumar

Many people wouldn't know that former United States president Ronald Reagan's signature phrase "trust, but verify" is actually the translation of a Russian proverb - doveryai, no proveryai. Two decades into the post-Cold War era, Moscow wants to reclaim the self-contradictory phrase from the American repertoire and apply it to Russia's "reset" of ties with the United States.  READ MORE

OSCE Summit Highlights Disagreements Between Astana and Tashkent

By Erica Marat

The situation in Kyrgyzstan generated an emotive exchange between Kazakh and Uzbek officials during the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Astana, on December 1-2, highlighting continuing disagreements between neighbors. READ MORE

Russian Oil Flows To Central Europe 'To Dry Up'

Russia's growing oil exports to Asia and the Baltic have unsettled European traders and refiners, who fear shortages on the Black Sea and in Central Europe should Russian output stall or decline. READ MORE

A Ten Year Forecast: Russia’s Decline, Central Europe’s Ascent

By Edward Lucas

In a thought-provoking forecast, CEPA Senior Fellow Edward Lucas anticipates Russia’s palpable decline by 2020, having fallen behind Brazil, India and China. Meanwhile, Central Europe will be on the ascent, with the three Baltic States “overtaking the sluggish, debt-ridden economies of Southern Europe.” READ MORE

Russia Loses Power Status

By Roman Muzalevsky

A few years ago it was common to refer to Russia as an "energy superpower". High global energy prices prior to the global financial crisis and Russia's control over Central Asian oil and gas exports underscored the seemingly irrefutable proposition of Moscow's influence. READ MORE

Old Foes See Reasons to Get Along

By Judy Dempsey

President Dmitri A. Medvedev ofRussia awarded the Order of Friendship this week to Andrzej Wajda, the celebrated Polish film director, an event few Poles or Russians could have imagined taking place. READ MORE

America’s War with Itself in Central Asia

By Philip Shishkin

In its decade-long slog to secure Afghanistan, the United States has juggled contradictory foreign policies in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the fragile Central Asian states with key supporting roles in the war. There’s the policy of engaging the two post-Soviet states for their own sake, promoting good governance, human rights, and business ties – the usual grab-bag of US diplomacy. Then there’s the policy of using them as logistical hubs in the Afghanistan war. READ MORE

Russia Waged Covert War On Georgia Starting In '04

By Eli Lake

WikiLeaks revealed U.S. Embassy cable READ MORE