Word: soviet
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...state-of-the-art teacher-training college, something desperately needed in Afghanistan, it would take at least four years to see qualified instructors placed in rural schools. But there is another way to spend money on education that is quantifiable, sustainable and quickly effective. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union provided thousands of university scholarships annually to Afghan students. The only condition - set by the Afghan government - was that each of those students return to Afghanistan immediately upon graduation. In Afghanistan, many of the most qualified professors, bureaucrats, filmmakers and technocrats are products of that program. Today, India is providing...
...European Union in the dead of winter. This January, all eyes are trained on Belarus, which has been having its own quarrel with Moscow over oil prices, threatening European energy supplies once again. But three weeks into the current standoff, there's been a twist: Kazakhstan, another former Soviet republic, stepped in last week to offer Belarus its own oil. Now the Kremlin's most reliable tool for controlling its neighbors - energy blackmail - is at risk of blowing up in its face...
...quarrel began typically enough. Belarus, like many ex-Soviet countries, has enjoyed subsidized oil and gas supplies from Russia for two decades, in part to ensure its loyalty after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has even been allowed to buy Russian crude oil on the cheap, refine it at home and sell it on to Europe at a huge profit. But in the past three years, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has started to assert his independence in subtle ways. Following the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Lukashenko declined to recognize the breakaway Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia...
...completely normal arrangement for two countries to make. But this is Russia's backyard. And Moscow, which has yet to react to the Kazakh offer, may not take kindly to two of its former republics' striking an energy deal behind its back. The offer demonstrates, however, that many former Soviet states might not care anymore if they anger their former benefactor. A sense of defiance has grown in the region since the Russia-Georgia war, which proved that Moscow would not stop at economic bullying in its efforts to maintain influence over its neighbors. (Read "Russia's Gazprom Diplomacy: Turning...
...security was impossible in Russia's sphere of influence," says Anatoly Gritsenko, who served as Ukraine's Defense Minister from 2005 to 2007, when relations between Russia and Ukraine worsened considerably. One method of surviving in this environment, Gritsenko says, is to build closer security ties with other former Soviet states, as Georgia and Ukraine did after pro-Western leaders rose to power in the countries in 2004 and 2005, respectively...