Russia has repeatedly pledged to boost strategic security cooperation with China. In the past, both sides preferred only to make verbal statements on the matter. But now Moscow and Beijing appeared to pledge actual joint action in connection with issues of strategic security, including the United States’ missile defense plans in Asia.

• January 26, 2013

The U.N. nuclear watchdog signaled on Friday it would keep trying to secure Iran's cooperation with a long-stalled investigation, but a senior Iranian lawmaker suggested Tehran would only cooperate if it won sanctions relief in return.

• January 26, 2013

While Russia and the United States are engaged in intense competition (often cut-throat, in many areas), they are increasingly locking horns on increasingly familiar turf: lucrative defense deals emanating from India.

• January 25, 2013

Kazakhstan and Russia work in Baikonur cosmodrome in a normal mode, Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov said at the press-conference following a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Yerlan Idrisov.

• January 25, 2013

Ukraine has signed a shale-gas deal with Royal Dutch Shell worth at least $10 billion -- potentially the largest foreign investment ever in the country.

• January 25, 2013

Since Transnistria elected a new “president” on December 11, 2011, Russia has been trying to tighten its controls over this province, which was carved out of Moldova and is sustained by a force of Russian troops. Over the past year, Moscow has declared its intention to establish a consulate in Transnistria—which would in essence create another pseudo-recognized government—institute a permanent mechanism of Russian control over the breakaway region, and irrevocably detach the province from Moldova.

• January 24, 2013

In an interview with the newspaper Kommersant published on January 11, the deputy prosecutor general of Russia, Ivan Sydoruk, admitted that despite some successes in countering rebel activities in the North Caucasus, the government still faced serious challenges in the region.

• January 24, 2013

North Korea vowed on Thursday to launch more long-range rockets and conduct its third nuclear test, saying that it would build a capability to strike the United States in the wake of the United Nations Security Council’s tightened sanctions against the country.

• January 24, 2013