As a consequence of Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov’s military reform, the Russian officer corps is arguably enduring the most fundamental changes and challenges that it has faced in the past two centuries.

It was clear even before the elections that the Tajikistani authorities could not achieve their main object from those elections – to improve Tajikistan’s image on the international scene.

The problems in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan relations could be solved if the sides were ready to make a compromise with each other. If Emomalii Rahmon and Islom Karimov made any concessions to each other, it would ease tension between the neighbouring countries.

Both Tymoshenko and Yanukovych are backed by almighty oligarchic clans, whose interests they are supposed to meet. So will the new president be willing and able to break out the preset paradigm and finally initiate the long-awaited reforms, which would inevitably come into conflict with the oligarchic interests?

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of The Pontis Foundation and The Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies publishes a paper, prepared by Gleb Shymanovich, "Belarus external debt: Sustaining Levels in a Time of Global Crisis". The paper takes a close look at how Belarus´ foreign debt is structured and what potential impact it could have on the Belarusian economy in the upcoming period.

Eurasian Home with a kind permission of The Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS) publishes a study “What Eastern Partnership should bring to Belarus”, in which BISS analyzes possibilities of the Eastern Partnership initiative and its potential to transform Belarusian political regime.

The failure of the Russian team in the Vancouver Olympic Games would not have become a serious problem, if the Russian authorities had not spoken about the sports in its propaganda for many years. The successes of the Russian football and hockey players were presented as a proof that Russia reacquires the great power status in sports, if not in world politics and economy.