Hassan Rouhani, a candidate with the Combatant Clergy Association party, who promised to normalize relations with the West, won the presidential race in Iran in the first round of voting, held on 14 June 2013. According to Senior Fellow for Regional Security Cooperation of the International Institute for Strategic Studies […]

Global human rights organization Amnesty International called for immediate completion of the investigation into Poland’s involvement in the US-led secret detention programs and to bring justice in fair trials to those responsible for human rights violations. According to published information, the Polish government is accused of colluding with the US Central Intelligence […]

International observers and representatives of the expert community continue to discuss the situation in Turkey, engulfed by a series of protests, which started with a rally in Gezi Park to oppose its demolition as part of a redevelopment plan. This peaceful environmental action turned into a wave of anti-government protests, […]

The annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) will be held under the theme Finding Resolve to Build the New Global Economy on 20–22 June 2013. It is expected that the event will bring together around 5000 attendees including leading economists, businessmen and politicians, and will provide the participants with […]

Another EU–Russia summit will be held in Yekaterinburg on 3–4 June 2013. It is expected that the agenda of the upcoming event will overlap with the main topics of Russian-European government consultations that took place in March. According to the media reports, the parties intend to discuss: trade and economic […]

Russian checks of non-governmental organizations (NGO), initiated after adopting the law, which reinforces control over political NGOs with foreign funding, might influence the process of EU-Russia visa regime facilitation. This is the opinion expressed by Director General of the European Directorate General on Home Affairs Stefano Manservisi in an interview […]

Representatives of the Russian Federation, and the People’s Republic of China signed more than 30 agreements on cooperation in various fields, during the state visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping to Moscow that ended on 24 March 2013. Russia became the first country visited by Xi Jinping as the leader […]

The investigation department of the Russian Interior Ministry brought new criminal charges against William Browder, the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, alleging his involvement in illegal purchase of Gazprom shares. According to law enforcement agencies, the financier ran companies involved in the purchase […]