Russian Mass Media Attack Bakiyev
In the past two weeks, the Russian media has fiercely criticized the Kyrgyz President, Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s, regime. Newspapers and TV programs have sought to reveal the president’s corruption and nepotism, with some newspapers alleging the regime’s involvement in the killing of journalist Gennady Pavluk last December. The role of the president’s son, Maksim, in corruption was also scrutinized. READ MORE
Two Formats of Partnership
The Summit of the Visegrad Group, held in Budapest, with the participation of all engaged members with the EU program “Eastern Partnership” gave a good ground to compare the two formats of cooperation and the analysis of some results of European initiative development. READ MORE
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Visits Georgia
On March 27 new Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis began a three-day official visit to Tbilisi. On Saturday he met Georgian Parliament Speaker Davit Bakradze and discussed the further intensification of the relations between the two countries in various international formats and the participation of Lithuanian observers at the forthcoming Georgian local elections. READ MORE
Collective Defense in Central Asia Contradicted by Rising National Spending
Despite the impact of the global economic crisis on all of the economies within the former Soviet Union, averaging a 7 percent decline in GDP in 2009, defense spending has increased in each state with the exception of Belarus (which remained unchanged in 2009 year-on-year at 1.5 percent of GDP). Defense spending, according to an extensive analysis in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, witnessed the sharpest increase in Georgia (4.56 percent of GDP), Armenia (4.07 percent) and Azerbaijan (3.95 percent). In the case of Armenia, this level of defense expenditure proved surprising in the context of its 15 percent decline in GDP in 2009. READ MORE
Check Against Delivery
Address by HE Temuri Yakobashvili
Vice Prime-Minister and the State Minister for Reintegration of Georgia
at the 799th Meeting of the Special Permanent Council
March 19, 2010
State Strategy on Occupied Territories: Engagement Through Cooperation READ MORE
Speech By NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
at NATO's New Strategic Concept - Global, Transatlantic and Regional Challenges and Tasks Ahead - Warsaw, Poland READ MORE
Is Lithuania‘s Eastern Policy Effective?
The recently criticized Lithuania‘s diplomacy could remind that in principle it was its initiative to join the EU efforts in order to stop increasing the number of states not respecting the territorial integrity of Georgia, to start the dialogue between the EU and Belarus, to enhance the political development of the Eastern Partnership and to accelerate the financial and political assistance to Moldova. However, in the six Eastern EU neighbors the political and economic situation is nearly the worst from the time of declaring their independence. READ MORE
Abkhazia: End Of Virtual Independence
Everyone already knew that Abkhazia's 'independence' is a farce. But on 17 February the slightest remaining illusions about this so-called independence vanished. On that day the de facto Abkhaz President was received by the Russian leadership as head of a ‘sovereign’ state and then signed an agreement with Russia which gave up even the farcical claim to independence the breakaway region previously had. READ MORE
Baku-Yerevan: Competition For West
“Asia is not dead… Only its boarders have changed for good. Now Baku lies within Europe and this is not a coincidence. As there are no Asians in Baku anymore.” The kind of evaluation to the geopolitical situation established in the first quarter of the previous century was given by one of the main characters of a cultic novel “Ali and Nino” of Safar-han Shirvanshir. Another character of “Ali and Nino” was an officer of Russian imperial army, and later a creator of a new national army of Azerbaijani Democratic Republic (1918-1920) Ilyas-bek made a conclusion that only the “reforms of European type” will secure the country of external danger. READ MORE
Nabucco And Baku–Ashkhabad’s Contraposition
Today the gas pipeline Nabucco is probably the most important Western energy project in Eurasia. If implemented, it would significantly reduce energy dependence of the EU on Russia. Therefore Nabucco acquires a wide geopolitical dimension exceeding its possible economic benefit. READ MORE
