Robert O. Blake, U.S. Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian affairs appreciated the trans-boundary agreement on transit among Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan, CA-News reported.

• May 17, 2012

ISSUE #17
05/07/2012
The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office (PGO) has issued a reaction to a statement by former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko, in which she claimed that she had been punched by prison guards. The Ukrainian news and analysis website Lb.ua quoted Prosecutor-General Viktor Pshonka as saying on 4 May 2012 that the Kharkiv prosecutor's office had refused to open a criminal case over the alleged beating of Yuliya Tymoshenko. At the same time, he stressed that the PGO agreed with this decision. READ MORE

• May 17, 2012

ISSUE #16
04/30/2012
On the night of 20 April 2012, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko was transferred from the Kachanivska prison to Kharkiv's Ukrzaliznytsya (Ukrainian railway) hospital. On 23 April 2012, she was transferred back to the prison where the ex-premier is serving her sentence for signing the 2009 gas contracts with Russia. The Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service explained that Tymoshenko's return to the prison was motivated by her refusal to undergo the treatment course that had been prescribed by Ukrainian and German doctors. READ MORE

• May 17, 2012

ISSUE #18
05/14/2012
On 9 May 2012, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko was transferred from the Kachanivska prison to the central clinic of Ukrzaliznytsya (Ukraine's railway monopoly) in Kharkiv. The same day, a doctor of the German clinic Charite, Lutz Harms, who started to treat the ex-premier, said that Tymoshenko had ended her hunger strike. READ MORE

• May 17, 2012

Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi left to Washington on Wednesday, CA-News reported.

• May 16, 2012

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Kyrgyzstan for an official visit, the press service of the Kyrgyz President reported on Wednesday. The invitation was accepted with gratitude.

• May 16, 2012

Although President Viktor Yanukovych publicly portrays his foreign policy as multi-vector – balancing between Russia and the West – in reality, there has been a substantial shift in Ukraine’s orientation toward Russia (see EDM, November 3, 2009, January 20, 2010, January 29, 2010). Yanukovych’s multi-vectorism is pro-Russian in contrast to the pro-Western multi-vectorism pursued by President Leonid Kuchma.

• May 16, 2012

Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan have agreed to set up a tripartite railway committee, Kazakhstan Railways reported today.

• May 15, 2012