Colonel Loïc Frouart, Head of the Asia Section, Délégation aux affaires stratégiques, French Ministry of Defense.Working group 'Strategic Culture and Defense Policy in Asia', working paper presented to the 3rd Congress of Réseau Asie, 26-27-28 of September 2008 at the Maison de la Chimie, Paris

Since the fall of the USSR, Armenia and Russia have sealed a strategic pact within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the military arm of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This political, military and economic alliance represents the strategic alliance in the South Caucasus, a region in the process of opening up. In the context of the 2008 Russian and Armenian presidential elections, it is interesting to analyze the relationship between these two states.

The recent violence that ensued in Kenya has taken many commentators by surprise. The appearance of stability and economic progress that the Eastern Africa country had built around a supposed successful democratic transition, just imploded. In this interview Hervé Maupeu, Head of the CREPAO and expert on electoral mobilization issues, discusses the current crisis. He details the deep political, social, economic and land divisions which have ripped Kenyan society apart.

Russia and Gazprom's natural gas strategies on the European market are the result of the uncertainties (volumes, prices) created by the liberalization of the EU natural gas market. The company's policy of asset acquisition, begun at the end of the 1990s, the multiplication of export networks, as well as the desire to preserve long-term contracts while benefiting from new contractual opportunities are all clear illustrations of this strategy. Yet the industrial and commercial strategies that Gazprom may develop cannot discount geopolitical issues. Therefore, Vladimir Putin's desire to place hydrocarbons at the service of his economic and foreign policies, notably by making use of large, internationalized companies owned primarily by the state, remains in the background.