Book Event – Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer by Peter Mattis and Matthew Brazil
Hot Issue – Al-Qaeda’s Long Game in the Sinai
After Almost a Year, Russia Returns Seized Ukrainian Naval Ships
Ukraine Goes to Risk-Fraught Normandy Summit (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Adding to its vulnerabilities vis-à-vis Moscow, Kyiv’s natural gas transit contract with Gazprom expires on December 31. Ukraine’s law on a “special status” for the Russian-controlled Donetsk-Luhansk expires... MORE
Ukraine Goes to Risk-Fraught Normandy Summit (Part One)
High-level political discussions about “the Ukraine crisis” (a diplomatic euphemism for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine) are scheduled to resume on December 9, in Paris, in the “Normandy” format—Russia, France, Germany, Ukraine—after a hiatus of more... MORE
Russia Shifting Cargo Traffic Away From Baltic Ports to Its Own
Since 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Moscow has worked hard to reduce cargo traffic via seaports in the three Baltic States—Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia—to punish them for what the Kremlin sees as their unfriendly policies.... MORE
Murder in a Berlin Park Scrambles Russia’s Diplomatic Overtures to Germany
On August 23, 2019, Georgian national and former Chechen rebel commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili (40) was fired on by an assailant on a bicycle, in a Berlin public park. Khangoshvili died on the spot, shot twice... MORE
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy Struggles to Disassociate Himself From Oligarch Kolomoysky
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) issued a statement, on November 27, complaining of pressure by businessman Ihor Kolomoysky and urging support from the mass media and the international community. Kolomoysky is a Forbes-listed billionaire... MORE
The Kremlin’s Controversial ‘Soft Power’ in Africa (Part One)
The Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum, held in Sochi on October 23–24, was presented as an event of great geopolitical and geo-economic importance (see EDM, October 28), explicitly showcasing the competitive advantages Moscow is purportedly... MORE
Putin Prioritizes Tsirkon Hypersonic Missiles for the Russian Navy
This week (December 2), while opening a series of meetings in Sochi on military development and the further enhancement of Russia’s Armed Forces, President Vladimir Putin set down the main tasks for the modernization of... MORE
Abu Zainab al-Lami—The Mastermind Behind the Bloody Crackdown in Iraq
The ongoing protests in Baghdad and in the predominantly Shia areas of southern Iraq are unprecedented in both their scale and the degree of violence they were confronted with by the authorities. The Iranian-backed Iraqi... MORE
ARRESTED: Islamic State’s Maldivian Mole Mohamad Ameen
In a significant turn of events, on October 23 Maldivian security agencies arrested Mohamad Ameen, an Islamist militant recruiter associated with Islamic State (IS). His arrest came around a month after the Presidential Commission on... MORE