Eurasia

MACEDONIA Macedonia’s main opposition party, the Social Democrats, SDSM, will put up a tough fight in challenging the government’s economic policies, and will provide alternatives, leader Branko Crvenkovski says. The drafting of the party’s new platform, which focuses largely on the economy, is nearly finished, he said in an interview …

MOLDOVA The Transnistrians eligible to vote, who make up over 9% of the voters, were intimidated and disfavored in the July 29 elections, shows the final monitoring report of Promo-LEX Association presented on August 25. According to the report, only 5,000 of the 223,000 Moldovans in Transnistria could exercise their …

MOLDOVA The vice presidents of the Liberal Party (PL) Dorin Chirtoaca and Anatol Salaru refuted the Communists Party’s assertions that the PL is a radical right-wing party that does not tolerate ethnic minorities. Asked Who is to blame for the fact that the other-language speakers do not know and do …

MOLDOVA A new high-pressure main gas pipeline, Balti – Ungheni, was officially commissioned here on Tuesday, the Moldovagaz Moldo-Russian company has reported. This essential object is one of the important-most items of the Republic of Moldova’s 2007-2020 Energy Strategy and of the National Gas Program for a period ending in …

US The Balkans will not be one of the priorities of U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, U.S. professor Steven Meyer said. Meyer, a professor of political science at the National Defense University, said that Obama’s administration will only pay an extra amount of attention to the Balkans if a crisis …

KOSOVO Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on Monday met with international civilian representative Pieter Feith and EULEX Chief Yves de Kermabon. “There was discussion at the meeting regarding current political affairs in Kosovo, especially the decentralization process, the coming elections [November 15] and the implementation of the rule of law …

MOLDOVA Moldova’s ruling Communists have shunned an invitation to talk with all the opposition parties at one time and announced they want to talk about the new government with each party separately, RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service reports. The leaders of four pro-European parties that won a combined majority in the new …

MACEDONIA Zoran Kostovski and Fuad Hasanovic are the new government propositions for Ambassadors in Hungary, actually Qatar, Makfax news agency reported. Kostovski, who is the General Director of the Consulting House “Motiva” and Hasanovic, who is former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, have been proposed on yesterday’s government session.

RUSSIA, GEORGIA Russia called on Tuesday for international recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia a year after its own recognition prompted Georgia to accuse it of a land grab. President Dmitry Medvedev announced Russia’s recognition of the two territories as independent on August 26 last …

GEORGIA The Ministry of Defense has made claims in the court against hundreds of former soldiers who have violated conditions of the contract, the Center for Human Rights said. The center said that the vast majority of respondents concluded the contracts with the ministry headed by Minister Irakli Okruashvili. At …