From Benjamin Bidder, der Spiegel:  The 65-year-old [President of Belarus Alexander] Lukashenko has been in office for 16 years, but never before have Moscow and the Belarusian autocrat had such irreconcilable differences. Bilateral relations have never been as bad as they are now, says the Belarusian political scientist Alexander Klaskovski.

From AP via Winnipeg Free Press: Thirty-one soldiers from tiny Montenegro are on their way to replace the country's NATO-led contingent now serving in Afghanistan.

Montenegro Defence Minister Boro Vucinic said Friday the soldiers will serve together with the Hungarian units based in northern Afghanistan under German command.

From Mark Larson, the New York Times:  What do the Greek, Mongolian, Latvian and British Armies have in common?

From Olga Dzyubenko and Alexei Anishchuk, Reuters: Kyrgyzstan will try on Friday to persuade members of a Kremlin-led security bloc to supply military hardware needed to maintain order in the volatile south of the Central Asian state.

From AFP, via DefenseNews: Russia is throwing open its planned purchase of a helicopter carrier to a tender involving foreign and Russian firms, ending France's status as the exclusive bidder, a shipbuilding official said Aug. 19.

From Tony Perry, LA Times: As Romanian military and civilian officials mingled at a VIP reception aboard a yacht that belonged to executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, a U.S. Navy band played an American selection: the Gershwins, Cole Porter and Broadway show tunes.

From Richard Boudreaux, Wall Street Journal:  Russia is negotiating the sale of about 20 helicopters for Afghanistan, stepping up efforts to help the country's U.S.-backed government battle the Taliban insurgency and drug traffickers.

From RIA Novosti:  Bucharest has declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata in yet another spy scandal after Moscow detained a Romanian official on similar grounds, a Romanian news agency reported on Wednesday.