Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S. interests in the Black Sea area span energy, military security, terrorist challenges, and the traffic in drugs, weapons, and people. The U.S. needs a comprehensive regional pol¬icy to protect American interests and influence security.

A functioning multiparty system is a sine qua non for a modern democracy. It is an empirical observation that a democracy remains an empty shell if there is no political competition and interaction between the various political parties. Even in this age when the civil society seems to be more vibrant than political society, and when we can see a general discontent with politics among citizens all over the OSCE region, political parties remain indispensable for the functioning of representative democracies.

This conference's structure allows me to avoid excessive politeness and the need to speak in roundabout, pleasant but empty diplomatic terms. This conference's format will allow me to say what I really think about international security problems. And if my comments seem unduly polemical, pointed or inexact to our colleagues, then I would ask you not to get angry with me. After all, this is only a conference. And I hope that after the first two or three minutes of my speech Mr Teltschik will not turn on the red light over there.

Its burgeoning military-industrial complex is increasingly capable of turning out cutting-edge weaponry – and selling it. At a major security conference this past weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted the US for its militaristic approach to foreign policy, saying its actions were "nourishing an arms race." But little noticed amid the sharp US and European response to Mr. Putin's comments is Russia's burgeoning military-industrial complex, generally thought to have collapsed with the Soviet Union.

Fifteen years after the Soviet Union collapsed and split apart, Russia still fits Winston Churchill's characterisation of Stalin's USSR nearly seven decades ago: a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Throughout the presidencies of Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s and that of Vladimir Putin, Russia has opened its doors to international trade, investment, tourism, the media, and the internet. In sharp contrast to the Soviet Union, Russia now publishes voluminous (if not always reliable) economic, social and demographic information.

The United States recognized the independence of all the former Soviet republics by the end of 1991, including the South Caucasus states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The United States has fostered these states’ ties with the West in part to end the dependence of these states on Russia for trade, security, and other relations. The United States has pursued close ties with Armenia to encourage its democratization and because of concerns by Armenian-Americans and others over its fate. Close ties with Georgia have evolved from U.S. contacts with its pro-Western leadership. The Bush Administration supports U.S. private investment in Azerbaijan’s energy sector as a means of increasing the diversity of world energy suppliers and to encourage building multiple energy pipelines to world markets. The United States has been active in diplomatic efforts to end conflicts in the region, several of which remain unresolved.

In recent months, relations between Georgia and Russia have deteriorated. The clash between these two states is only a symptom of the broader strategic positioning of the West and Russia in and around the South Caucasus. In this scenario, at regional and global levels, countries and organizations are involved in a struggle for power and energy security. Considering these two issues, what is the current situation in the South Caucasus and what can be expected in the future?

Russia and China have joined together in a strategic partnership aimed at countering the U.S. and Western "monopoly in world affairs," as was made clear in a joint statement released by the Chinese and Russian presidents in July 2005. The long standing border disputes between the two countries were settled in agreements in 2005, and joint military exercises were carried out in the same year. Furthermore, Russia, in addition to its arms exports, has been increasing its oil and gas commitments to China. Clearly, the recent comprehensive improvement of bilateral relations between China and Russia is a remarkable development.

"You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed. You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value.

The first front for Russia’s new soft power ambition is domestic. Putin’s administration, represented by its deputy chief Vladislav Surkov, has been working on the development of ‘sovereign democracy’5 as a concept that should be the backbone of Russia’s ‘national idea’. It is not easy to grasp what ‘sovereign democracy’ means exactly. The concept is deliberately vague, and the debate still ongoing. Nevertheless, this notion is centred around two core ideas. First is the idea of sovereignty.

Russia's ambassador to the European Union sent a strong signal that European leaders looking for more cooperation over oil and natural gas supplies would face resistance from President Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Finland on Friday.

Anna Politkovskaya imagined her own death long before it arrived. For years, she was Russia's most fearless journalist, reporting for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta from the killing fields of Chechnya and exposing the brutality of the Kremlin's war under President Vladimir Putin. She received one death threat after another, and was detained and beaten by Russian troops who threw her into a pit, threatened to rape her and performed a mock execution.

El ejército ruso sostuvo recientemente su maniobra de todos los años 'RUBEZH ("Frontera") en la región del Mar Caspio. El portal iraní Baztab, afiliado al Secretario del Concejo de Conveniencia y ex comandante de la Guardia Revolucionaria Mohsen Rezai, presentó la maniobra, basada en un informe en la prensa central asiática, como la preparación del ejército ruso a la respuesta a un posible ataque del ejército americano en Irán.

Russia launched another strike against democracy on June 15, when 14 Duma members, representatives of Russia's five Duma factions, submitted amendments to ban any public political criticism by individuals and/or organizations, including demonstrations against the government.

Should the world's major democracies speak out loudly to express concern over the consolidation of autocracy in Russia?

Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently pursuing a two track policy towards the Middle East, allowing Russia to develop friendly ties with Israel while simultaneously nurturing alternative, sometimes competing, interests with Arab countries. This non-ideological policy has allowed Russia to reclaim a part of the economic and strategic leverage it lost following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thus far, Russia has successfully signed diplomatic, military, and energy deals and developed ties with both Israel and its Arab neighbors without significantly alienating one or the other. Whether Putin's embrace of Hamas in March 2006 or his continued armament of Iran will damage Russia's relations with Israel is still an open question.

The Muslim world represents both an opportunity and a challenge for Moscow. The existence of several anti-American governments there has given Moscow ample opportunity to ally or otherwise cooperate with them. On the other hand, elements within the Muslim world have in the past provided support to Chechen and other Muslim opposition groups within Russia -- some of whom seek to establish "caliphates" in Central Asia, the North Caucasus and perhaps other Muslim regions of the Russian Federation. Further, this support could increase enormously, thus complicating and perhaps even dooming Russia's already difficult and costly attempts to suppress Chechen and other Muslim opposition in Russia and Central Asia.

Russia and Algeria, the two largest suppliers of natural gas to Europe, have stepped up cooperation in the energy sector and other areas, raising fears in Europe that the two could form a gas cartel to control prices.

Russia recently invited the Palestinian organization Hamas to Moscow and, at the same time, is involved in negotiating with Iran regarding its nuclear program. These two recent developments, tied with Russia's recent use of its energy weapon Gazprom against Ukraine, makes clear that Russia is returning to the international arena. In light of these developments, does Russia's return as a major power in international security coincide with the standing and conceptual thinking of Russia's armed forces?

It is fitting that we should gather in the Baltic region -the very front lines of freedom in the modern world. For several generations, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia were counted as provinces of an empire. In fact you were ancient nations, with your sovereignty lost by theft. The United States never recognized the legitimacy of that occupation, and we kept faith with you until the day your independence was restored.

Take any week of the year, and you are sure to find a top executive from the Russian state-owned natural gas monopoly Gazprom spending more time in a European capital than at headquarters in Moscow.

The criteria for membership in the Group of 8 are well known: a democratic regime; a large economy; a high level of economic and institutional development; a convertible currency; membership in the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the International Energy Agency; and dedication to the goals and principles of international cooperation.

Probably not since World War II had there been such a high-water mark in Russian cooperation with America. Within weeks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Vladimir Putin offered sweeping support for U.S. operations in Afghanistan, including help in securing bases in Central Asian countries.

Is Russia seriously considering putting nuclear pressures on Europe to a degree not seen since the last dark days of the Cold War? Or are a group of Russian generals trying to derail the reformist military policies of President Vladimir Putin and his Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov?

Fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, “U.S.-Russia relations are clearly headed in the wrong direction,” finds an Independent Task Force on U.S. policy toward Russia sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations. “Contention is crowding out consensus. The very idea of a ‘strategic partnership’ no longer seems realistic,” it concludes.

Russia's choice of energy security to top the agenda of its Group of Eight presidency was both prescient and timely. In Europe, we have to address urgently the dual problems of our fragmented internal market and our increasing energy dependence, particularly on imported gas, which brings new risks to Europe's energy security.

A report about the record scale of Sino-Russian trade, which reached $29 billion in 2005 -- a 37.1 percent increase -- came out in December and was supplemented in the first two months of this year.

In two years of fruitless negotiations with the Europeans, Iran won precious time to work on the world's first Islamist atomic bomb. Yesterday, the diplomatic two-step moved to Moscow with the full blessing of an "international community" apparently willing to keep engaging the mullahs in open-ended negotiations. The West, it seems, is now putting its future security in the hands of Russia and China.

Although the agency is now likely to report Iran to the Security Council, America and the Europeans agreed that the United Nations will wait at least a month before deciding on any punishment. There is little doubt what this cooling-off period is intended for: further negotiations on a proposal that would have Iran shift its large-scale, energy-related uranium enrichment work to Russia.

Muslims have never enjoyed as much freedom in Russia as they do today. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, there has been an Islamic revival of sorts in Russia. Muslims number 10 to 16 percent of the Russian population, and Islam is recognized as one of Russia’s four official religions. Yet that tolerance is tinged with suspicion, and some Muslims feel they are being persecuted. A perception, fueled by events in Europe, of Islam as a destabilizing force, is influencing the Russian government to take preventive measures against the threat, real or imagined, of Islamic militancy.

In foreign policy it’s critical to “know thine enemy.” So American policymakers should be aware that Russia and China are inching closer to identifying a common enemy — the United States.

For 60 years the word "Yalta" has meant betrayal and abandonment. The diplomatic accord reached between Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States in that sleepy Black Sea resort relegated millions of people to a ruthless tyranny.

Georgia and South Ossetia could blunder into another war unless Tbilisi takes immediate and visible steps to build confidence, most critically on the refugee issue. Georgia's verbal commitment to a just and lasting settlement to a conflict where relations remain tense and exchanges of small-arms fire are frequent has not been matched by concrete, sustained action.

During the war, we weren’t so scared… We knew, of course, that we might be hit by a bullet – no one was safe from that. But now, how can one sleep through the night? They wake people, take them away, shoot them… I’m terrified to talk, the prosecutor’s office is terrified – we’re all scared! At any moment [the security forces] might come after anyone of us. Ask anyone here – we are all weeping from fear. --A father of a young man who was summarily executed in June, 2004, Chechnya, February 4, 2005.