In Ukraine's parliamentary elections, more radical parties saw success while the oppositional camp gained ground. Experts foresee difficult negotiations between political powers there. READ MORE

 Today in Brussels, chaired by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was held the meeting of the North Atlantic Council with countries - contributors to the operation of the International Security Assistance Force in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. This is reported in the press service of the Defense Ministry, for UNN. READ MORE

In modern world of developed technologies NATO attempts to find adequate replies for non-conventional security threats for its members. As in XXI century some of them don’t require implementation of the fifth article of the Washington Treaty, and it’s not obligatory to react with military means. For example in case with cyber-attacks at governmental or corporate networks of energy companies. Reaction on these new threats demands coordinated actions of all NATO members. Exactly that is why after the Lisbon Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty they created in the structure of the organization a special department and the position of the Secretary’s General Assistant. READ MORE

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s talk at the Russian Foreign Ministry on September 3, when he powerfully stressed the need for his country to strengthen and consolidate its “soft power” (mid.ru, September 3), may look to an outside observer like an optimistic signal and a long-awaited change in Russia’s foreign policy. This benign view, however, could not be more wrong. Rather, the Kremlin is seeking to exploit the Western concept of “soft power”—which basically implies the power of attraction—and reframing it as a euphemism for coercive policy and economic arm-twisting. READ MORE