The emergence of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus has incited concern of the European Union. Within the EU program “Eastern Partnership” they declared about the establishment of free trade area with the EU, which may negatively influence the functioning of the CU and Common Economic Space (CES) establishment. READ MORE

A couple of weeks ago, Kyrgyzstan's president, Roza Otunbayeva, announced that the country was planning to construct two counterterror training centers in the southern part of the country, and that one would be built by Russia and the other by the U.S. Her announcement raised a lot of questions, which I posed to Alisher Khamidov, a EurasiaNet contributor and expert on southern Kyrgyzstan. He said that fears of Islamist militants from Tajikistan as well as the military of Uzbekistan are motivating Kyrgyzstan to develop the centers, and that Otunbayeva puts a higher priority on the U.S. center than on the Russian one. READ MORE

Speaking about kazakh opposition, it is right to say: “there are no already other people, another are far away”. Following the tradition we'll talk about those who are far away. Among those, who are far away, perhaps the most prominent representative is Rahat Aliyev. READ MORE

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will attend the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference in China where he will address Russia's economic integration into the Asia Pacific region, a presidential aide said on Tuesday. READ MORE

Within the issue of Nagorny Karabakh we can observe “some space for the move forward”, and Georgia should be more brave and trust its partners, declared the during the interview to DELFI the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Audronius Ažubalis after his trip to Caucasus. With regret he noted that Russia and Georgia “retrench themselves seriously and for long”, and Belarus gets close to self-isolation “successfully”. READ MORE

Events in the Middle East are reverberating throughout the world, but no government is as committed to squashing domestic protests as is the leadership in Beijing. The government there has begun a crackdown against liberal voices in China. This seems to be a systematic effort that includes control of communications, beefing up internal security, arrest and prosecution of progressives, and even extralegal mechanisms. READ MORE

A modern intensive economic development of Central Asian countries, and particularly development of relatively dry zone, creates prerequisites for water resources to become a tool for political pressure. READ MORE

More oil and gas drilling, biofuels, the abandonment of climate change ambitions and perhaps more fuel-efficient vehicles: this is the United States' recipe for energy in the next decade READ MORE

Poland on Sunday relived the deep pain that engulfed the nation a year ago with a day of prayers and other ceremonies marking the anniversary of the plane crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski and many other prominent civilian and military leaders. READ MORE

Snap elections of the President in Kazakhstan ended with firm victory of the current Head of the state Nursultan Nazarbayev. This may have various estimations and viewpoints. But there is the fact – the election campaign was of pure virtuosity. READ MORE