Although President Viktor Yanukovych publicly portrays his foreign policy as multi-vector – balancing between Russia and the West – in reality, there has been a substantial shift in Ukraine’s orientation toward Russia (see EDM, November 3, 2009, January 20, 2010, January 29, 2010). Yanukovych’s multi-vectorism is pro-Russian in contrast to the pro-Western multi-vectorism pursued by President Leonid Kuchma.

• May 16, 2012

Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan have agreed to set up a tripartite railway committee, Kazakhstan Railways reported today.

• May 15, 2012

Could soccer succeed where a revolution, diplomacy and an age-old fear of Russia has failed?

• May 15, 2012

Iran's talks with the UN nuclear watchdog about Tehran's atomic activities are going well, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, the second day of discussions.

• May 15, 2012

Belarus and Kazakhstan underuse their potential in economic cooperation, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to Belarus Ergali Bulegenov told in an interview to the Belarus-1 TV Channel.

• May 14, 2012

President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov will participate in informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and in the jubilee session of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which will be held in Moscow on Tuesday, a source in the government of the republic told Trend on Monday.

• May 14, 2012

A senior U.N. nuclear agency official urged Iran on Monday to allow access to sites, people and documents it seeks in its probe of suspicions that Tehran conducted secret research into nuclear weapons development.

• May 14, 2012

The conference is organized by the Turkmen government, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (IOC) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Forum initiator, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow made an introductory speech on Friday. He proposed to hold the conference at the 66th session of the UN General Assembly.

• May 12, 2012