Executive Summary: Budapest has long been concerned about the status and treatment of ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries and, most recently, has been more outspoken in defense of those Hungarians living in Ukraine. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has elevated that defense to the... MORE

Executive Summary: Moscow’s latest offer to start talks with Kyiv amounts to a set of non-negotiable demands, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is redoubling his attempts to impose the settlement terms discussed in 2022, supplemented by several aggravating conditions. The Kremlin has de-recognized Ukrainian President... MORE

Executive Summary: The issue of domestic violence in Central Asia has increasingly gained attention since a former Kazakh economic minister tortured and killed his wife and was convicted of murder, inspiring reform movements throughout Kazakhstan. Corruption plays a significant role in the condoning of domestic... MORE

Executive Summary: The Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held in Switzerland on June 15 and 16, demonstrated a unified position held by many states worldwide in respecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and upholding international law. Russian propaganda had tried to raise concerns that the absence of... MORE

Executive Summary: The hostage taking in a Rostov detention center on June 16 has highlighted growing problems in the Russian penal system, including overcrowding, a shortage of guards, and a shift in the balance of power between ordinary criminals and political prisoners. The Rostov action... MORE

Executive Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alyaksandr Lukashenka met in Minsk on May 23 and 24 to discuss synchronizing the second and third phases of their joint non-strategic nuclear exercises. The composition of forces and means involved in the exercises suggests... MORE

Executive Summary: Reports are spreading that Georgian Dream leader Bidzina Ivanishvili is secretly working with the Kremlin on a confederative structure for the separatist territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Despite the bold claims, some believe that the reintegration plans are merely a pre-election bluff... MORE

Executive Summary: The Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland did not provide much substantive progress in signing a peace agreement, but the wide participation of the international community demonstrated a sharp rebuttal to the Kremlin’s efforts to hijack the agenda. Russian President Vladimir Putin hastily presented... MORE

Executive Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sharing of the number of contracted soldiers, prisoners, and losses, as well as yield of Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons demonstrate that he is an active participant in Kremlin propaganda’s “active measures.” Putin seeks to demoralize Ukrainian society with the... MORE

Executive Summary:  The enormous rare-earth mineral reserves in Central Asia are intensifying geopolitical competition among China, the West, and Russia and have been complicated by their competing agendas. Beijing wants to develop a monopoly on rare earths, the United States and the European Union want... MORE