The Rundown -- December 18

RFE/RL in the Media

# ThinkProgress cites RFE/RL coverage of Russia's Ukraine bailout

# "US News and World Report" quotes RFE/RL interview with U.S. Amb. to Russia McFaul

# In "Harvard Business Review" piece, Jeffrey Gedmin writes about dilemma he had at RFE/RL

# Read Daud Khattak in Foreign Policy on division within the Pakistani Taliban

Ukraine

# Opposition leaders vow to block Russian $15 billion bailout in parliament

# "Ukraine's Protesters Show Its Leaders How to Govern" - Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg

# Can Klitschko be Ukraine's next president?

# "How Putin Outfoxed the West" - Christian Neef and Matthias Schepp, Spiegel

Russia

# Obama sends openly gay athletes to represent U.S. in Olympic delegation

# "Sochi Olympic Critics Harassed, Treated Like Terrorists" - AP

# Sochi gay scene in decline

# "Putin's New Shock Jock" - James Kirchick, Daily Beast

# Shake Shack in Russia

Eastern Europe

# Georgia and Moldova -- Markets for EU pork

Middle East

# Assad may stay

# In "New York Times" op ed, Saudi Ambassador says country "will go it alone"

# Obama is "losing Egypt to Russia"

Iran

# Zarif protests sanctions expansion in phone call with Kerry

# Iran said to have kidnapped dissidents inside Iraq

# Sen. Nelson may go to Iran to recover Levinson

# The "black swans" that could scuttle the nuclear deal

# The Israeli intelligence operative from Tehran

Iraq

# Charts show stunning increase in Iraq violence this year

# Sixty-five people killed in wave of attacks

Afghanistan/Pakistan

# Attack on helicopter kills six U.S. troops, but still not clear who's responsible

# Afghanistan Ambassador to UN says security agreement will be signed "in a timely matter"

# UN envoy says Afghanistan has continued to make steady progress towards stability

# What kind of Afghanistan will foreign forces leave?

# Pakistan rules out military action against Taliban

# Pakistan's "political renaissance"

# "Little Data, Lots of Debate on Drone Raids" - Ismail Khan, Dawn

Caucasus

# Azerbaijan arrests election monitoring head, conducts business meeting with UK FM

# "Armenian Diaspora: Focus on Russia Rather Than Turkey!" - Barcin Yinanc, Hurriyet

Central Asia

# "Forced Labor Lives On in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields" - Mansur Mirovalev and Andrew Kramer

# "Green economy investment fund" for Kazakhstan

Balkans

# Serbia will start EU accession talks on January 21