Owen Matthews

In principle, Russia enshrines the same rights—against self-incrimination and the presumption of guilt—that Western nations do. In practice, two new laws that empower state security services do exactly the opposite.

Once an unquestioning U.S. ally, and at odds with most of its neighbors, Turkey is now forging a new foreign policy, with itself at the very center.

Worry is rising over the risk of terrorism at Russia's 2014 Winter Olympics. Last week's deadly attack on a hydroelectric station in Russia's deep south only added to the concern. The number of attacks in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus was up 57 percent last year, and unlike the Chechen wars of 1994–2001, these killings have been the work of a bewildering array of rebel groups, some motivated by radical Islam but others by separatism or clan warfare.

The former spy may have a future in Russian politics.

It's not often that Brussels and Moscow see eye to eye on the politics of the former Soviet Union. But both want Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko gone, preferably after elections slated for early 2011. The EU has long criticized Lukashenko for abusing opposition activists and censoring local media.

In 1969, Britain traded two senior Soviet spies for a Russian student accused of passing information to the British—much like the exchange carried out today. Because the deal was so lopsided, Moscow threw in a few women who wanted to marry Britons. One of them was my mother.

On a recent visit to America, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent his first tweet, chatted to Steve Jobs about the iPhone, and tried to talk Cisco into investing in a new "innovation city" near Moscow. But at home in Russia the Internet is under attack.

As Moscow and Washington have grown closer in the last two years, Georgia—which depends on the largesse and support of the White House—has felt increasingly isolated. To ease his sense of anomie, President Mikheil Saakashvili is making new friends—like Iran.

President Obama meets today with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev—a Bush-era foe whose friendship Obama bought at great diplomatic cost. The thing is, if he hadn't, relations between the country would have been much worse; now, at least, Russia is less likely to help the world's rogues.

It's still not clear what sparked the ethnic pogroms in south Kyrgyzstan that left at least 124 people dead over the weekend and forced up to 75,000 Uzbeks to flee their homes. But the most surprising reaction so far has been from Russia.

Washington's reset with Moscow has one very clear casualty: Georgia. The U.S. insists that it still supports Georgia's territorial integrity. But Washington also says that Russia's ongoing occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia "need no longer be considered an obstacle" to ratifying an agreement on joint civilian nuclear cooperation originally mooted after Russia's 2008 invasion.

The leader who bashed America and embraced Stalin is now backing a major thaw in Russian foreign policy.

Tehran is trying to take a leaf out of Moscow's playbook and build a regional gas empire of its own, and it could soon be sending gas to Europe and Pakistan.

The strongest, most strident response to Israel's flotilla raid came from Turkey, home to most of the dead activists. But Turkey's official response could have been much worse, and its leaders have been further calmed by Washington.

Turkish anger over the deadly storming Monday of the Gaza aid ships is another setback for Mideast peace and a serious problem for Israel, which until recently counted Turkey as one of its few allies in the Mideast.

Half a decade after a series of "color revolutions" replaced Moscow-backed rulers across the former Soviet Union with pro-Western ones, the Kremlin may finally be getting its payback.

The pressure is now on the U.S. to prove to its allies that there are still grounds for sanctions.

Medvedev's vision of Russia's future is about brains, not the power of oil, bombs, or the Kremlin.

The democratic revolutions in former Soviet republics like Georgia and Ukraine terrified Moscow. Now the Kremlin is turning back the clock.

There's no love lost between Moscow and NATO. Over the past two decades, nine former Soviet states and satellites have joined the U.S. led alliance, and others have hinted at following suit.

Russia seems incapable of punishing the corrupt bureaucrats in its ranks; Washington can help by revoking their visas.

By asking Russia to join in building a missile defense shield, the alliance holds out an olive branch to its former foe.

Moscow and Tbilisi are still officially at war a year and a half after Russian troops rolled into the breakaway Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and declared them independent.

Why Russia is extending an olive branch to Tbilisi and other restive regions.

Viktor Yanukovych, the former Russian puppet and boogeyman of Ukraine's Orange Revolution, will use the presidency to steer his country away from the West. Actually, that suits Obama very well.

The violence that gripped Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, last week quickly turned into a dictator's worst nightmare when the snowballing riots forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee for his life.

The crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and the senior command of the Polish Army is without doubt a national tragedy for Poland. But the disaster is unlikely to have many regional or strategic ramifications.

The potential overthrow of Kyrgyzstan's government is worrisome for not only its neighbors but also the United States and its operations in Afghanistan.

Is Turkey's ruling AK Party trying to make the country more democratic or crush the last obstacles in the way of its Islamist agenda? A new package before Parliament aims to reform the judiciary by making it more difficult for courts to disband political parties and allowing military brass to be tried in civilian courts.

In the wake of last week's suicide bombings in Moscow, many Russian liberals feared that the attacks would end up strengthening Russia's security services and bolstering Putin's strong-arm policies.