Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei gave an interview to several non-state news organizations, including Tut.by, Euroradio, Nasha Niva and the Belarusian Service of Radio Liberty (Tut.by, October 17). During the interview, Makei was repeatedly asked whether or not the ongoing integration talks with Russia would... MORE

Street protests continue against the leader of the Buddhist province of Kalmykia and look set to escalate, with a large demonstration planned for October 27. The protests concern the appointment of the former head of the self-proclaimed and Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Dmitry Trapeznikov,... MORE

The authorities of the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) are apparently seeking to extend their control over society in this Russian-occupied and Moscow-backed eastern Ukrainian region. As one notable sign of this trend, the newly created council of Luhansk atamans (Cossack leaders) recently met in... MORE

On July 3, Belarus celebrated its Independence Day. Belarus is the only post-Soviet country whose major national holiday is an anniversary of the liberation of its capital city from Nazi German invaders (July 3, 1944). The Independence Days of other post-Soviet states tend to either... MORE

The Druzhba oil pipeline contamination debacle (see EDM, April 26) continues to loom over negotiations between Belarus and Russia on a range of energy issues. Russia notified pipeline companies along Druzhba’s network in Belarus, Ukraine and Western Europe of the chemical contamination in mid-April, but... MORE

On Tuesday, April 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin received Nikolai Tokarev, the president of monopoly oil transit operator Transneft, to hear the latter’s report on the Druzhba pipeline situation (1prime.ru, April 30). Five days earlier, Germany, Poland, Czechia (the Czech Republic) and Slovakia all halted... MORE

Last year’s October 31 bombing of an Arkhangelsk Federal Security Service (FSB) office (see EDM, November 9, 2018) triggered an investigation, which recently released its final report. The conclusions of the report reveal that a participant in an online “insurgent speech” chat room, writing under... MORE

On March 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws prohibiting “obvious disrespect” to Russian authorities and the distribution of “untrue public information” (Novaya Gazeta, March 18). Effectively, these laws appear to introduce direct government censorship in Russia. Kremlin propaganda itself facilitates the distribution of disinformation... MORE

In the 1920s, Joseph Stalin divided up the Circassians into four major “nations” as part of his initiative to block any efforts by that deported nationality to restore a single titular republic, attract millions of its co-ethnics back from abroad, and create a powerful bulwark... MORE