News Roundup!

Sorry, it's been a while and I've missed a bunch of news!

I think the biggest piece of news is the closing of the US air base in Kyrgyzstan. It was obviously covered in many news sources. Some more recent news though, says that the Kyrgyz Parliament is to vote on a bill to close the base this week, as opposed to in March, which is when it had been expected. The BBC has an article about the base with a helpful map of other bases in the region. There's also a few articles speculating where the US might go next, as well, from Eurasianet and Transitions Online.

I've never really profiled other media than articles, but I've dug up some interesting video. While I haven't watched all of these, they look pretty good. The BBC has video of a reporter's trip there, discussing how Georgia is still trying to rebuild after the conflict with Russia. Also, a lot longer but possibly very interesting, I dug up this video of a lecture the Foreign Policy Association held with the former Prime Minister of Italy, on Russia from a European perspective.

Also exciting is the fact that Kosovo marked it's first independence day this week. Balkan Insight has a good article on the mixed feelings that the independence caused.

In brief: The Eurasia Daily Moniter has an article on Armenia and Turkey's relations, Russia is cutting the budget for the 2014 Olympics by 15% and an interesting article on the Obama administration's views of security threats in Central Asia.