The Week Ahead: January 21-27

Actor Dmitry Dyuzhev performs at a concert to mark Vladimir Vysotsky's 75th birthday at the Crocus City Hall, Moscow.

The Week Ahead is a detailed listing of key events of the coming week affecting RFE/RL's broadcast region.

Now on Twitter! Daily updates at @The_Week_Ahead.




MONDAY, January 21:

Armenia: Presidential election campaign begins.

EU: European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels to discuss the EC-Ukraine agreement on the facilitation of the issuance of visas and progress reports on the Balkan countries (to January 22).

Council of Europe: 2013 Winter PACE Session opens in Strasbourg with focus on the situations in Azerbaijan and Kosovo, as well as on the humanitarian situation in the conflict- and war-affected areas of Georgia and Russia (to January 25).

OSCE/Moldova: OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara visits Chisinau and Tiraspol (January 22).

OSCE/Uzbekistan: OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier visits Tashkent.

EU/Montenegro: Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic visits Brussels.

Pakistan: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari summons the country's parliament in Islamabad.

Russia/Iran: Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev visits Tehran for talks with high-ranking Iranian officials.

U.S.: Washington hosts the 57th presidential inauguration.


TUESDAY, January 22:

Georgia: Georgian Rustavi-2 television hosts debates between Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri and former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili.

EU: Brussels hosts an EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting.

Israel: General elections.

Mecedonia/EU: Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki visits Brussels, meets with EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fuele.

Turkmenistan: OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara is scheduled to visit Ashgabat (to January 23).


WEDNESDAY, January 23:

Russia: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds a news conference in Moscow to outline results of Russian diplomacy in 2012.

Ukraine/EU: EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht holds talks with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Boiko in Kyiv.

U.S.: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

World: Swiss city of Davos hosts the Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2013 (to January 27).


THURSDAY, January 24:

Kazakhstan/Russia: Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrisov visits Moscow (to January 25).

Ukraine: Ukraine is expected to sign a shale-gas deal with the Dutch-British company Royal Dutch Shell.


FRIDAY, January 25:

Czech Republic: Former Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman in runoff against the current Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg in the second round of the Czech presidential election (to January 26).

Russia: 75th anniversary of the birth of the late Vladimir Vysotsky, the immensely popular Soviet-era actor, singer, and poet.

U.S./Afghanistan: United States Institute of Peace in Washington hosts a discussion titled "Political and Economic Transition Challenges in Afghanistan."


SATURDAY, January 26:

Russia: Opposition organizations plan to hold a rally in Moscow to demand an investigation into Aleksandr Dolmatov's suicide in the Netherlands.


SUNDAY, January 27:

UN: International Holocaust Remembrance Day.