By Samuel Lussac (7/22/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

On July 16, 2010, Azerbaijan and the European Union (EU) started to negotiate for the signature of an Association Agreement. In the framework of the Eastern Partnership, launched in May 2009, it will provide a new basis for the relationship between Baku and Brussels. These negotiations will help updating the latter, highlighting both the changes of perceptions of Azerbaijan in Brussels and the new regional role Baku intends to play in the South Caucasus.

By Richard Weitz (7/22/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In recent months, the Russian government has stepped up its attacks on NATO governments for failing to curb Afghanistan’s exploding opium production and the resulting surge in Eurasian drug trafficking. Since Western troops occupied Afghanistan in late 2001, opium cultivation has soared and the Russian government argues that NATO should take more vigorous action to repress the cultivation of narcotics in Afghanistan. Russian officials have indicated that they will press for aerial spraying of herbicides on the poppy fields.

By Kevin Daniel Leahy (7/22/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Alexander Khloponin is no economic visionary. His economic values are based on open markets, free movement of capital, public-private partnership – in short, what might be termed the neo-liberal economic agenda. These economic values brought him success as governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai.