Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai on the eve of Nowruz holiday will pay a visit to Tajikistan. The sides will discuss economic development of Afghanistan at a meeting of presidents of three countries to be held in Dushanbe, Mehr quoted Tajik Ambassador in Tehran Dovletali Khatamov as telling reporters on Wednesday.

• February 22, 2012

KAZINFORM Today Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev has received Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Omurbek Babanov, the President's press service reports.

• February 22, 2012

Bulgaria is set to renew on Tuesday its electricity exports that it stopped due to the severe winter conditions in the country.

• February 21, 2012

Consumer prices increased by 0.7% in January in Estonia compared to the previous month. Swedish bank Swedbank experts forecast that the inflation would continue growth in coming months, albeit, at a slower pace. The bank predicts that the price index would decrease in Lithuania in 2012, Swedbank said in a statement.

• February 21, 2012

European stock markets rose yesterday on confidence that a new bailout for Greece will finally be approved while sentiment got a boost from the latest Chinese move to ease credit.

• February 21, 2012

ISSUE #5
02/13/2012
On 9 February 2012, the Ukrainian parliament adopted in the first reading a presidential draft of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC). The Ukrainian news and analysis website Lb.ua reported that the presidential draft of the CPC was registered in parliament on 13 January 2012. A group of lawmakers headed by presidential advisor Andriy Portnov has been working on it for a year and a half. READ MORE

• February 21, 2012

ISSUE #6
02/20/2012
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has again reshuffled the country's top leadership. On 14 February 2012, the president dismissed Andriy Klyuyev from the post of first deputy prime minister and economy minister and appointed him as secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC). READ MORE

• February 21, 2012

Insights into Turkish Domestic and International Politics
January 2012

Key Points:

• Russia’s Gazprom announces that the South Stream gas pipeline project will begin construction ahead of schedule in December 2012, putting NABUCCO in an increasingly precarious position.
• Turkey slips further down the rankings of the media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, press freedom rankings, now 148 out of 178 countries. This development comes following the fifth anniversary of the killing of writer Hrant Dink and a ruling in the case of his death stating that it was not the result of organized crime.
• Former Turkish Military (TSK) Chief of Staff, Ilker Basbug, was arrested on charges of supporting websites that were part of a conspiracy to overthrow the government. The military remains quiet on the matter, indicating that the ruling AKP government has triumphed in keeping the TSK under full civilian control. But the wide swath of those accused of complicity in conspiracy investigations continues to draw criticism at home and abroad.
• Both houses of the French parliament pass a law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian genocide, with Turkish politicians voicing their outrage at the decision against a backdrop where relations between Paris and Ankara are at the lowest level in recent memory.
READ MORE

• February 21, 2012