January 17: Ukraine

Ukraine goes to polls to choose a new president. Pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych who takes 35 percent and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who takes 25 percent of the votes emerge as two leading candidates. Because no candidate obtained the required 50 percent of the vote, they are forced into a runoff vote, which will take place in February. Pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko and the Orange Revolution hero obtains a mere 5.5 percent of the votes. The Ukrainian people blame him for failing to deliver promised reforms, including tackling corruption, introducing transparency in government, and closer ties with the European Union.

February 8: Ukraine

Ukraine’s pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych narrowly wins the country’s run-off presidential election, defeating Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. This is a big comeback for Yanukovych who was embroiled in fraudulent elections in 2004. During his presidency, Ukraine is expected to redirect its policies toward Russia.

February 28: Tajikistan

Tajikistan reports that President Emomali Rakhmon’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won the general election, gaining 71 percent of the vote. But according to international observers, the election has been marred by widespread fraud, including ballot stuffing and proxy voting. Rakhmon has been in power since 1994 and his PDP holds most of the seats in the parliament.

March 11: Ukraine

Newly elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych forms a new coalition government and names former Finance Minister Mykola Azarov to be the new prime minister. Outgoing Prime Minister and one of the main heroes of the 2004 Orange Revolution Yulia Tymoshenko is forced out after a vote of no confidence.

March 26: Russia

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and United States President Barack Obama agree to a new strategic arms agreement according to which both countries will cut arsenals of deployed nuclear warheads by 30 percent. This agreement, called the Measures to Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, replaces the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the Moscow Treaty of 2002.

March 29: Russia

Two female suicide bombers detonate bombs in the Moscow subway stations during the busy rush hour, killing 39 passengers and injuring more than 60. Chechen separatists claim the responsibility and say that the attacks were a revenge for the killings of regular Chechens by Russian forces last month. They also warn Russia of more attacks.

April 6: Kyrgyzstan

After an arrest of a Kyrgyzstan’s opposition leader, an angry crowd of thousands of protesters storm a government building in the city of Talas, demanding the resignation of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Discontent with President Bakiyev has been brewing for months, fueled by rising prices and allegations of corruption. (April 7): Thousands of protesters in the country’s capital, Bishkek, attack police cordons and storm the government buildings, the national TV and radio stations. Protests spread to other cities. Eighty people die in the clashes. President Bakiyev declares a state of emergency and flees the capital to his home town in the south to gather support. (April 8): The opposition under the leadership of Roza Otunbayeva announces its control of the government buildings. It ousts the president, dissolves the parliament, and establishes an interim government. It promises to hold elections within six months. In 2005, Roza Otunbayeva marched arm in arm with Bakiyev in what it became to be known the Tulip Revolution, which ousted President Askar Akayev and brought Bakiyev to power. (April 15): President Bakiyev signs a resignation letter and goes into exile to Belarus.

April 21: Russia/Ukraine

Newly elected pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych extends the lease for Russia’s naval base in a strategic Crimean city of Sevastopol for another 25 years. In return, Ukraine will obtain Russian natural gas at discounted price.

June 10: Kyrgyzstan

About 2,000 people are killed and hundreds of thousands displaced as a result of ethnic clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities in Kyrgyzstan’s southern cities of Osh and Jalalabad. The Kyrgyz population of the area has been supportive of the ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, while a sizeable minority Uzbek community has supported the new interim government. The provisional government of Roza Otunbayeva declares state of emergency in the south and asks Russia to help bring order. Russia and the United Nations send humanitarian aid to help about a million people affected by the violence.

June 28: Kyrgyzstan

Ninety percent of voters in Kyrgyzstan approve a new constitution in a referendum, which limits the president’s powers and turns the country into a parliamentary republic. Interim President Roza Otunbayeva says she will step down at the end of 2011 and announces parliamentary elections to be held in October this year. Commenting on the referendum, Russia says that the parliamentary system in Kyrgyzstan could help fuel extremism.

August 11: Russia/Georgia

Russia deploys anti-craft missiles to Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia, saying the system will defend both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgia’s other separatist region. Russia, as well as a couple of other states, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and the Pacific island of Nauru, has recognized Abkhazia’s independence. In 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia over South Ossetia.

October 10: Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan votes in a parliamentary election held under its new constitution, which turned the country into the first parliamentary democracy in Central Asia. (October 17): Kyrgyzstan forms a coalition government led by the Social Democratic Party, whose leader Almazbek Atambayev is set to become prime minister. The coalition also contains the nationalist Ata Zhurt party, which is pro ousted president Bakiyev.

October 29: Russia

Poland and Russia sign a natural gas agreement. According to the deal, Russia will deliver gas to Poland until 2022 and Poland will transit Russian gas to Europe through the Yamal-Europe pipeline until 2019. Poland imports more than 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia. The critics of the deal say it makes Poland overly dependent on Russia for its energy needs.

November 6: Russia

A prominent Russian journalist Oleg Kashin, who wrote articles criticizing all levels of government and exposing corruption, is brutally beaten outside his home in Moscow. Attacks on journalists in Russia are not uncommon, with hundreds of unsolved cases. Following the Kashin’s attack, hundreds of Russian journalists gather in Moscow to express their frustration at the attacks and government’s failure to catch and prosecute the perpetrators.

December 8: Russia

The European Union (EU) announces its support for Russia’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) after Russia agreed to phase out export tariffs on raw materials such as timber. Russia is the only large economy outside of the 153-member WTO, the organization that regulates world trade.

December 19: Belarus

Belarus officials announce that President Alexander Lukashenko has won 80 percent of the vote in the country’s presidential election. Lukashenko, the authoritarian leader labeled as Europe’s last dictator, will serve his fourth consecutive term as president. While international observers denounce the poll as fraudulent, 10,000 protesters storm a government building in the capital, Minsk. Riot police detains several hundred demonstrators as well as seven out of nice opposition presidential candidates.