Russia’s North Caucasus region is still the area of focus. Processes taking place in the region indicate that it is unlikely to achieve sustainable peace and stability, whereas destabilizing events squeeze the tension spring which might straighten in the form of a new armed conflict.

Although the teddy bear incident took place on 4^th June, this theme is still being escalated. The Centre for Geopolitical Studies presents the interview with the domestic policy expert Paulyuk Bykowski on the above issue.

The idea of Information-an open, educated and learning- Society has become one of the goals of the countries around the world and international organizations. The EU and its member state Lithuania are not an exception. All EU Member States have their National Information Society Development Programmes, and at the EU level it is regulated by the Lisbon Strategy and the eEurope Action Plan.

It is considered that positions of the United States in the Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan triangle will decrease significantly when Western allies withdraw the troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Russia and India have been actively observing the processes taking place in the triangle.

The Internet has not only expanded global communication opportunities but also had major impact on the political processes. This was especially evident during the Arab Spring events in 2011. Thus the actual power of the Internet is still one of the major issues of discussions.

The Near East is at the threshold of war. This time with Iran. The world is suffering from one of its worst economic crisis, but the West with its actions against Tehran complicates the situation. Tehran speeds up the arms race and threatens closing the Strait of Hormuz, and this will inevitably affect the increase of oil prices.

On the New Year eve the Russian media started escalating the issue of Baltic countries’ future and their place in the region. The forecasts concerning future of the three Baltic States are far from promising. Yet most importantly, the efforts are made to withdraw Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the general European context by suggesting Eastern values to these countries.

When Russia needs to frighten Washington on “adequate response” concerning the plans to deploy the U.S. missile defense system (MDS) in Eastern Europe, Moscow immediately raises the subject of nuclear armament. It seems that the time for intimidation has come today.

We do not yet know precisely what the future wars will look like, but it is obvious that a significant part of current weapons is obsolete. In order to realize what kind of weapons will be necessary for the world’s most powerful armies, we must discuss the nature of future wars.

The decision of the United States at the beginning of the last to revise the plans for the deployment of the anti-missile defense (AMD) system in Europe didn’t mitigate Moscow’s rhetoric. In January 2011 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that if the U.S. deploys own AMD components in Europe, Moscow might pull out of the new START Treaty.

So far during the war atomic bombs (in the broad sense nuclear weapons) were used twice: in August 1945 the United States dropped nuclear bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Today beside the U.S, the countries like Russia, Great Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea are also believed to have nuclear weapons.

Today military actions between Russia and China hardly seem possible, but this doesn’t mean that future events might not take the opposite direction. Several questions arise in this context: does China consider the neighboring Russian lands as own territory and is going to occupy them? What could make China take this step? And what consequences could result from this?

Life of spies excites the imagination by various adventures, exotic trips, luxury and everyday risk. As in the movies about James Bond. However, today the cult of spies seems to be declining: the attitude of media and society toward Bond‘s colleagues is mostly negative.

The war in Afghanistan has been continuing for nearly a decade, however, it doesn‘t seem to end successfully both, for the United States and for its allies: July of this year has become the month which witnessed the largest number of the killed American soldiers.

For effective complex defence of Latvia, the establishment of a permanent division of the National Armed Forces has started in Latgale, reported the official website of the Ministry of Defence.

On 13 January a concert "Together to the victory" was held in Lithuania, where the audience decided to support Ukraine's defence and donated 110 thousand Euros.

Alexander Lukashenko on 9 January signed a decree № 8 "On the establishment of visa-free entry and exit of foreign nationals." The document establishes visa-free entry to Belarus for a period not exceeding 5 days at the entrance through the checkpoint "National Airport Minsk" for citizens of 80 countries, - reported the press service of the President of Belarus.