Manas Revisited
The situation around the fueling contract for the Manas Air Transit Center continues to involve the highest levels of government in both the United States and Kyrgyzstan. A new…
Belarus: Back to Basics
by Vitali Silitski Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies The Belarus presidential election developed under a carnival atmosphere—the major news of the campaign was a kitten brutally murdered by a…
Quick Comment — Unrest in Russia
Among the various actors involved with the recent Moscow demonstrations (soccer fans, right-wing groups, the Kremlin, Russian power structures, ethnic minorities), who is controlling whom? Or is this just…
The Fruits and Frustrations of Democracy: Moldova’s Divided Parliament
Brief perspectives from Henry E. Hale and Ludmila Coada: Moldova’s November 2010 parliamentary election once again seems to have produced a hung parliament. While the Alliance for European…
How to Get a Second Term in 2012: Russian Edition
How to Get a Second Term in 2012: Russian Edition (Originally published by Joshua Tucker on The Monkey Cage) I'm just back from the newly renamed Association for Slavic,…
Quick Comment — NATO
This week's NATO Lisbon Summit is set to launch “NATO 3.0.” The follow-on NATO-Russia Summit heralds “NATO-Russia 3.0,” the latest effort to reinvigorate security cooperation after the stagnation of…
Nemtsov in the House
“In order to modernize, change the Putin system.” -Boris Nemtsov Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Nizhny Novgorod Governor Boris Nemtsov presented his prospects for democracy in Russia at…
Quick Poll — Elections
Which outcome is more likely over the next decade? Azerbaijan’s recent election returned one opposition deputy to parliament (at best), whereas Kyrgyzstan’s election sent five parties to parliament, resulting…
Ukraine: Tipping Back to the Post-Soviet Norm?
Henry E. Hale The George Washington University On Friday, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court annulled the 2004 constitutional reform that had effectively created a balance of influence over executive power between…
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov
The Firing of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov: A Reader's Guide (Originally published by Joshua Tucker on The Monkey Cage) Earlier today Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev fired Moscow mayor…
Abkhazia and South Ossetia: “Asymmetric Sovereignty”?
On August 25, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies held a seminar on the implications of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, in which some innovative discussion was devoted…
Russia Spy Swap
What the Russia Spy Swap Tells Us About Russia (Originally published by Joshua Tucker on The Monkey Cage) The final chapter in the recent Russia spy scandal seems to…