“Women's rights: what have we achieved in the last 20 years?”,“Why Kazakhstan and Belarus are watching Crimea very carefully”, “KZ, Qatar had talks in Doha”, ““Martha Brill Olcott: Will Kazakhstan be Next in Putin’s Reintegration Project?”

cnn. com. “Madeleine Albright: Diplomacy still possible in Ukraine, if Putin wants solution” - A diplomatic solution to the standoff over Crimea is still possible, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.

theguardian.com. “Women's rights: what have we achieved in the last 20 years?” - This International Women’s Day, rights advocates from the UK to Afghanistan, Fiji to Iran reflect on achievements in gender equality since the seminal Beijing conference in 1995.

washingtonpost.com. “Why Kazakhstan and Belarus are watching Crimea very, very carefully” - For most former Soviet states, the consensus about Russia's overtures in Crimea is very simple: It's bad. Georgia, itself on the receiving end of Russia's military in 2008, isn't too pleased, with President Giorgi Margvelashvili saying Moscow's moves "represent flagrant interference in the internal affairs of the sovereign state […] and pose a threat to Ukraine’s territorial integrity." Estonia's Foreign Ministry said that Russia's actions threatened the "sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Ukraine, while representatives of Lithuania and Latvia have also spoke out to criticize Moscow.

mfa.gov.kz. “Kazakhstan, Qatar had talks in Doha” - Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Qatar Azamat Berdibay met with Chairman of the Advisory Council of Qatar Mohammed bin Mubarak Al-Kholaifi in Doha, the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan reported on March 12.

carnegieendowment.org. “After Crimea: Will Kazakhstan be Next in Putin’s Reintegration Project?” - If unchecked, Russia’s seizure of key objects in Crimea will be the first step in changing the map of Eurasia. Vladimir Putin’s assertion of a need to use military force to protect Russian citizens and the entire “Russian-speaking population” is ominous. It should be read as a warning that Russia’s president wants to reverse what he says are two of the great catastrophes of the twentieth century: the collapse of the Russian Empire and the breakup of the Soviet Union.

“Martha Brill Olcott: Ukraine: The Bloody Death of the Post-Soviet State” - For anyone who witnessed the collapse of the U.S.S.R. up close, the message of Maidan is clear: the idea of a “post-Soviet space” with shared values, shared goals, and Russian leadership is now obsolete. No matter what ultimately happens in Ukraine, Russia’s influence in its “neighborhood” will be substantially reduced. Vladimir Putin’s “managed democracy” (read: autocracy) is unworkable in twenty-first century Europe.

app.com.pk. “China’s Tianjin to host int’l conference on Afghanistan in August” - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday that China will hold the Foreign Ministerial Conference of the Istanbul Process on Afghanistan in August. “We will send invitations to the Istanbul Process’ 14 member states and 28 supporting parties,” Wang told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the top legislature. “We hope that through the process we can help the parties build consensus, work together to support efforts to complete the triple transitions, and encourage the situation in Afghanistan to move toward lasting peace,” he added. The first one to be held in China, the Fourth Foreign Ministerial Conference of the Istanbul Process on Afghanistan was slated for August in China’s Tianjin.