Inside the European pipeline fantasy that became a real-life gas war with Russia.

When Joschka Fischer's lucrative new job as the "political communications advisor" to a consortium of European energy companies was leaked to a German business publication this summer, there was one comment that stood out. "Welcome to the club," said Gerhard Schröder, an even more highly paid advocate for the other side in Europe's increasingly politicized energy war.

Schröder's remark was short, snide -- and very much to the point. For eight years, the two men had led Germany together, with Schröder ruling as its center-left chancellor and Fischer as his foreign minister. Their long-running partnership had survived a particularly complicated era in post-Cold War Europe, and publicly Fischer had always been supportive, even telling Der Spiegel that Schröder "will go down in the history books as a great chancellor." READ MORE

A year after its war with Georgia, Russia is engaging in an increasingly hostile standoff with another pro-Western neighbor, Ukraine. READ MORE

Slovenia and Croatia have reached an agreement on their long-running border dispute, a move that will allow Croatia to continue its European Union accession talks. READ MORE

Lithuania-Belarus economic forum which will take place in the middle of September in Vilnius and the all at once coming information about Aleksandr Lukashenko possibly visiting it, can be events which will draw the attention of mass media, politicians and observers not only in Lithuania and Belarus. Obviously, the official Minsk will try to build a bridge to the West again, and this time to a very close West. The reporter of euramost.org asked the international observer Roman Yakovlevsky to comment on the forthcoming events. READ MORE

The visit of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Poland is the most significant event in the foreign policy of Poland in 2009. The Government of Donald Tusk has a serious task to normalize Polish-Russian relations, which has lately occurred to be almost frozen. READ MORE

The world is remaking itself. Amid pressing economic challenges and multinational security concerns, new alliances are forming. Global commerce along with governments are bringing down borders, opening relationships and creating opportunity. Kazakhstan, like most emerging democracies, is cautiously optimistic, with a pragmatism steeped in the hard lessons of history. Policies have consequences; alliances can liberate as well as captivate. With the stroke of a pen, superpower leaders like Presidents Obama and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia can reverse a decade of tepid relations to put forces and agendas into motion that affect all of us. READ MORE

Azerbaijan is ready to open its border with Armenia and establish formal relations if Yerevan returns five occupied regions adjacent to disputed Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani official has said. READ MORE

The ceremony devoted to the accomplishment of gas pipeline took place on September 9th in Sakiai region of Lithuania. READ MORE

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev has instructed the government to form a State Commission on Preparations for Kazakhstan's Chairmanship of the OSCE. Personally chairing an enlarged inter-departmental meeting on this subject, Nazarbayev described Kazakhstan's chairmanship of the OSCE in 2010 as a "national strategic project." The State Commission should coordinate all aspects of the country's effort, from policy analysis and diplomatic activity to personnel training and public outreach. READ MORE

Dmitry Medvedev interfered into Russian-Ukrainian gas talks. READ MORE