CSTO: Half Dead, Half Alive
“CORF [Collective Operational Reaction forces] will be no worse than NATO,” claimed Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, only one year ago. Today, these words are used in Russia to popularize the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the CORF within the post-Soviet space. READ MORE
Why Russia Is Cutting Off Major Arms Sales To Iran
Russia, a major global arms dealer, decided Wednesday to nix a controversial arms sale that would have given Iran missiles. READ MORE
Experts: U.S. Does Not Intend To Give Up Its Interests In Central Asia
Despite Washington's intention to coordinate its actions in Central Asia with Moscow, the U.S. does not intend to give up its influence in the region, experts say. READ MORE
Ukraine May Give Russia Joint Control of Pipe to Cut Gas Prices
Ukraine is willing to give Russia joint control of a pipeline to southeastern Europe in exchange for access to natural gas supplies, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said as the countries negotiate a gas venture. READ MORE
Russia seeks to maintain balanced relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan
In less than a fortnight after Russia signed a deal with Armenia Russian president Dmitry Medvedev heads to Baku to discuss the urgent issues with the Azerbaijani government. Some experts believe that this highest level visit is aimed at soothing the effect of Russian-Armenian military agreement. Political analyst Viktor Nadein-Rayevsky, a senior fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations, shared his views on the situation in the South Caucasus. READ MORE
Why Moldova Matters
Although the air outside is hot and dry—part of a heat wave scorching Russia and neighboring Ukraine—it is cool, dark, and slightly damp in the sandstone caverns beneath Milestii Mici, Moldova’s largest winery. Along seemingly endless underground boulevards, Soviet-era lighting and updated signs point the way to underground galleries housing millions of liters of meticulously produced and preserved wine in bottles and oak barrels—just part of the winery’s two-million-bottle collection, acknowledged by Guinness as the world’s largest. READ MORE
Customs Union Project Shows Moscow's Power Deficit
At the beginning of July, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus signed a number of protocols establishing a customs union between the three countries. The union, scheduled to be fully operational in January 2012, will create a single common market of about 170 million people and represents the latest of several attempts by Moscow to create an effective trade bloc with its newly independent neighbors since the break-up of the Soviet Union. In addition to the economic ties maintained through the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russia first committed to a union with Belarus in 1994. READ MORE
Russian President arrives in Baku for official visit
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Azeri capital for an official two-day visit on Thursday. READ MORE
Moscow's Foreign Policies
Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates complained that Russia’s foreign policy when it came to was “schizophrenic.” I would argue that it is less a case of schizophrenia, and more a reflection of the fact that Russia does not have a singular foreign policy, but multiple foreign policies. READ MORE
