The North Caucasus looks and feels more and more like Russia’s neighbor than a constituent part of the state. As the people in the region have become disappointed in local leaders and the Kremlin, many of them turn to Islam as their last hope to achieve structure and peace.
As the world headed to Copenhagen to talk about climate change, Russians were largely silent on the subject; by most accounts, the average Russian citizen doesn’t think about global warming at all.
Russia is the only major economy that is not a member of the WTO, but discussions over its accession have intensified, giving rise to important questions about the implications for world trade.
The hoped for undivided “Europe whole and free” of twenty years ago has today become a region in danger of seeing new lines divide the continent with the prospect of heightened tension for all. It will require adjustments and new thinking from all to recapture the promise of an undivided, secure, and prosperous region.
Foreign Affairs Minister Petro Poroshenko discussed Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policy challenges ahead of the presidential election in January, stressing Ukraine’s strengthened democratic processes and the importance of continued dialogue about the new and open European security architecture.
Although Prime Minister Putin’s eighth annual call-in show was much livelier than the typical state television coverage of the government’s public policy, it will take much more than a yearly show to establish a genuine two-way dialogue between the government and the people.
In response to the diverse challenges facing the region, the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative—an international commission to build the intellectual framework for an inclusive transatlantic security system for the 21st century—has been launched.
The best way to begin accounting for and reducing obsolete U.S. and Russian battlefield nukes is to finalize the new START agreement and, as the Obama administration has suggested, begin a new and more comprehensive round of talks early next year to arrive at limits on all types of U.S. and Russian nuclear forces.
The Carnegie Endowment, working with Central Asia’s Eco-Energy Alliance, launched the pilot regional project in Tajikistan to demonstrate how linking renewable energy to Internet access can be a tool for alleviating social problems.
Signs of strength are emerging in the Russian economy, aided by increasing exports, oil prices, and industrial production. However, weak domestic demand may hamper the recovery’s sustainability.

























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