Relations between Moscow and Ankara, which hosted Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on 6 August, are rapidly improving as of late. In fact, Russia has become one of Turkey's biggest trade partners. Read more

In the summer of 2006, a short while before British troops were deployed to Helmand province in southwest Afghanistan, I visited Maulavi Mustafa Barakzai, a member of the country's Supreme Court, along with a group of German and British officers in Kabul. At the time, I was the advisor to the Commander of Psychological Operations at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul. Read more

At a meeting in a villa in Kabul's privileged neighborhood, Wazir Akbar Han in 2006, with impressive Turkmen carpets decorating the rooms, large LCD televisions and parked Lexus land cruisers in the courtyard, the glory of the villa stood in sharp contrast to the desperate poverty defining the rest of Afghanistan. Read more