Tbilisi these days is full of rumors. Supporters of the defeated ruling party argue that the cases of robbery in the city and the country as a whole have become more frequent, and the return of thieves in law is inevitable. The victorious opposition claims that the police is engaged in sabotage, using the criminals to intentionally worsen the crime situation. But the main topic of discussion today — how the system of government will be arranged in the transition period. READ MORE

Neither Yerevan nor Baku can wait for a definitive nod from the European institutions, but can always count on the coolness and calm interaction. READ MORE

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Wednesday offered a broad defense of the U.S. military’s shift in focus to the Asia-Pacific region, insisting the Pentagon had the resources to implement the new strategy despite concerns about tight budgets. READ MORE

The shooting of a Law and Justice (PiS) party functionary together with the stabbing of another in Łódź last month prompted at least one newspaper to raise the spectre of a Polish civil war, an analogy that was already being bandied around in the run-up to the elections. The attacks are the latest and most shocking events in a string of increasingly hysterical clashes between conservative traditionalists and modernising liberals. The seismic shock of the Smolensk disaster in April seems to have jarred opened a vault of dark national feelings that nobody suspected was there. READ MORE