KIEV, Ukraine Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday urged Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to work for better bilateral relations. They have worsened over the last few years. In an open letter to his Ukrainian counterpart on August 11, Medvedev blamed Kiev for the deterioration in relations between the two former …

TBILISI, Georgia A Georgian court has remanded in custody the Turkish captain of a tanker detained this week delivering fuel to the breakaway region of Abkhazia, as Tbilisi tries to enforce a blockade on Russian-backed separatists. The captain faces up to 24 years’ imprisonment if found guilty of smuggling and …

TURKEY While Turkey’s top security board convened to discuss government-led efforts to solve the Kurdish issue, the leader of the ultra-nationalist party strongly reacted to the process, calling it “destruction of the unitary state.” “What the government is trying to do is to place martyrs and butchers, our soldiers and …