At long last, the Iraq War appears to be over. The US has been winding down its troop presence in Iraq for many months now, and will have reduced this to 50,000 by the end of August from a peak of 170,000 at the height of the ‘surge’ against the insurgency there in 2007. Under… [Read more]
The Circassians are shaping up to be another headache for the Kremlin in the North Caucasus. President Dmitri Medvedev recently described rising violence in the region as Russia’s biggest domestic problem. Not long after that, bombs exploded on the Moscow-St Petersburg Nevsky Express train, killing at least 25 people. Chechen separatist rebels were quick to… [Read more]
The ‘Great Game’ for mastery of Central Asia appears to be moving in Russia’s favour, with Kyrgyzstan recently having decided to evict US military forces from its air base at Manas. While a final decision still hangs in the balance, the move, if implemented, would be a clear reversal for US policy in the region… [Read more]