A new deal between Azerbaijan's state-owned oil and gas company SOCAR and Russia's Gazprom energy giant appears to have dealt a serious setback to the proposed Nabucco pipeline, which was designed to provide European consumers with an alternative to Russian supplies.
When the Berlin Wall came down, NATO was a tightly focused, 16-member military alliance with a clear-cut mission. With Croatia and Albania, the alliance has ballooned to include 28 countries -- with more banging on the door. As NATO turns 60, observers are wondering whether expansion has reached its limits.
NATO has overcome internal divisions to outlive both the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union. And it has gone on to tackle security challenges beyond its own borders -- including the Balkans and Afghanistan. A look at the alliance's history.
Participants from roughly 80 countries are gathering in The Hague for a UN-backed conference on the future of Afghanistan. However, much of the attention will be focused on participants from Iran and the United States -- and the possibility of building ties between the two countries.
In a bizarre twist to the 2007 cyberattack on Estonia, an activist with a pro-Kremlin youth group has claimed he was the mastermind behind the assault, which left the country's Internet system paralyzed. The activist denies he had official backing, but observers say there is reason to believe the attacks had Kremlin support.
On March 30, 2007, Oralghaisha Omarshanova, a journalist with the Astana-based weekly newspaper "Zakon i pravosudie," disappeared shortly after publishing an article focusing on a violent clash two weeks earlier between Chechens and Kazakhs in two villages in southern Kazakhstan. Most media coverage of the incident focused primarily on the ethnic nature of the violence. Omarshanova was the first journalist to ask a different set of questions.
Afghanistan's Supreme Court has ruled that President Hamid Karzai, whose term officially ends in late May, should remain in office until a new leader is elected in August presidential polls -- a decision that has provoked an outcry from Karzai's opponents.
A hypnotist who made his name on TV in the rocky years surrounding the Soviet collapse is promising a return to Russia's airwaves. Anatoly Kashpirovsky's blend of mass healing rituals and soothing hypnosis looks aimed at providing a refuge for frustrated Russians.
EU enlargement may not be dead, but it is certainly showing few signs of life. Warnings that the process is on hold came thick and fast on the final day of an EU meeting in the Czech Republic that saw the bloc play host to the Western Balkan countries and Turkey.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel made headlines when she said the EU needs to "consolidate" before the bloc can take on new members. As EU foreign ministers meet in the Czech Republic with prospective entrants, many are asking what Merkel's statement means for the future.
The noted humanist and former Czech president sits down for a wide-ranging interview with RFE/RL. He talks about lessons of the current "civilizational crisis," Europe and NATO's natural borders, and the challenge of helping those in need while avoiding "a new form of colonialism."
Soviet-era dissident, noted humanist, and former Czech President Vaclav Havel visited RFE/RL's new broadcasting headquarters in Prague on March 27. Havel, who played a key role in bringing RFE/RL to the Czech Republic in 1995, chaired the company's first editorial meeting in the new venue and then sat down for an interview with senior correspondent Jeremy Bransten. This is an edited translation of that interview, which was conducted in Czech.
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