Analyst: Russia Pushing US Out Of Europe
US President Barack Obama "does not care very much" about security in Europe, Edward Lucas, who has been The Economist's Eastern Europe correspondent for more than 20 years, told EurActiv Slovakia in an interview. READ MORE
The V-4 States And Russian Initiative “Helsinki Plus”
The joint position of the members of the Visegrád Group V-4 promotes their weight and this should be considered within discussion of almost all big issues and problems. The list of big lately actualized European issues includes also Russian initiative on the European Security Treaty (EST), which is also called “Helsinki plus” in Moscow. READ MORE
Azerbaijan Could Scuttle Nabucco Over Turkey-Armenia Deal
Azerbaijan has apparently decided to play its energy card. As much of the world applauded Turkey's historic rapprochement with Armenia last week, Azerbaijan felt left out in the cold and abandoned by its closest ally. READ MORE
Bulgaria Ousted From Russia's South Stream Pipe
Russia has obtained all the permits necessary to build its 'South Stream' gas pipeline through Turkish territorial waters, discarding Bulgaria as one of the project's transit countries, the Russian press writes. READ MORE
Azerbaijan-Russia Gas Agreement: Implications For Nabucco Project
On October 14 in Baku, Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company president Rovnag Abdullayev and Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller signed an agreement on Azerbaijani gas exports to Russia. The move is a logical follow-up to the June 29 agreement, signed by the same company chiefs –in the presence of Presidents Ilham Alyiev and Dmitry Medvedev in Baku on that occasion– on the main principles of the gas trade between the two countries. READ MORE
Russia Joins The Samsun-Ceyhan Pipeline
On October 19, Turkey, Italy and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding on the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline (SCP). Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, the Italian Economic Development Minister Claudio Scajola and the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, inked the agreement that regulates the commitments of the three partners to the SCP. Despite the several signing ceremonies organized in the past for the SCP, the construction work did not commence. READ MORE
Biden's Trip Confirms Eastern European Defense Is Still On The US Agenda
Despite the scrapping of US eastern European missile defense plans, Vice President Biden's trip to eastern Europe presents fresh alternatives and confirms its security concerns are still a US priority. READ MORE
Russian Energy Strategy – The Domestic Political Factor
In 2003 a team of Russian foreign policy and energy experts wrote a 70 page memo about the role of Gazprom, the state-owned gas monopoly, in Russia’s domestic politics and the country’s foreign policy strategy. The document was distributed to a limited number of consumers and was never published. It is in the possession of the Jamestown Foundation. READ MORE
Belarussian President Return Into Russian Politics?
Even the experienced political observers – those who monitor every step and word of Alexander Lukashenko – remain in the state of shock after he spoke to Russian journalists in Minsk. READ MORE
Customs Triumvirate Wants to Join WTO
An unexpected initiative of Moscow doesn't promote WTO joining for Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The participants of the Customs Union received two variants of WTO joining: together and separately. READ MORE
