The Person Involved into the BTA-Bank Case Has Remained Under Arrest READ MORE

On June 19, 2013—just hours before President Barack Obama called for further nuclear reductions in Berlin—President Vladimir Putin issued a preemptive rebuttal, stating that we see that work is active around the world on developing high‐precision conventional weapons systems that in their strike capabilities come close to strategic nuclear weapons. Countries that have such weapons substantially increase their offensive capability. READ MORE

Several years after the Polish presidential plane crash and the initial Russian-Polish rapprochement, the process of reconciliation has visibly stagnated. The Polish opposition accused the government, and the Russians, of having engineered the crash at Smolensk. Prime Minister Tusk got scared and preferred to stay passive in front of the absurd accusations. Moscow rejected even minimal responsibility of the Russian ground controllers in the affair. Apparently trying to keep the investigation suspended so as not to give more ammunition to the Polish opposition, Russia has still not returned the wreckage of the Polish presidential plane to Warsaw. True, there still have been notable achievements such as the agreement allowing for visa-free travel in the border areas, which include Kaliningrad and Gdansk, as well as regular trilateral meetings among the foreign ministers of Russia, Poland, and Germany. Yet, with the Civic Platform doing now badly in the polls, a return of PiS to government after the election two years from now is a distinct possibility.  READ MORE

It should have been the end of the political crisis. Instead, the Czechs chose a protest vote. Following an early election with no clear winner, a new political crisis looms. READ MORE

An important event has taken place in the Near East policy: the US Defense Minister Chuck Hagel declared about reduction of military aid to Egypt. Washington suspends supplies of Apache helicopters to Cairo, as well as missile systems and spare parts for tanks. Individual military cooperation programs keep on operating, but the trend of taking-down of American-Egyptian partnership is evident. READ MORE

The billionaire prime minister of Georgia should have been pleased: His candidate swept a presidential election that international observers praised on Monday as a step forward for democracy in this U.S.-aligned former Soviet republic. READ MORE

The relevance of the concept of Greater Europe, stretching from Iceland and Norway in the north to Turkey in the south, and from Portugal in the west to Russia in the east, and the prospects for this concept becoming reality were discussed by Irina Busygina, Professor at the Moscow International Relations Institute (MGIMO) and RIAC expert, and Dmitry Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Centre in Moscow and RIAC member.

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Turkey's interests will be above all in the matter of creating long range missiles, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said, Anadolu agency reported on Thursday. READ MORE

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov addressed Monday the meeting of the UN Security Council, which discussed strengthening the partnership synergy between the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, said in the message of Press Service of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan. READ MORE

If there is consensus on one thing in Georgia, it is the country’s pro-western course of European and trans-Atlantic integration, the Georgian foreign minister Maia Panjikidze told. READ MORE