Crisis is brewing yet again in the intrinsically antagonistic relations between Russia and Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin seeks to harvest richer political dividends from it than he did half a year ago. The apparent buildup of Russian forces near the Ukrainian border follows much... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. Moldova’s natural gas market has become physically accessible to non-Russian gas suppliers through the Romania-Moldova interconnector, the Iasi–Ungheni–Chisinau pipeline. Built and operated by Romanian Transgaz and declared operational as of October this year after long delays, the interconnector... MORE

The Republic of Moldova presents a unique combination of economic and political vulnerabilities to Russian energy servitude. The Kremlin has underscored this situation by hitting Moldova’s recently elected, Western-oriented government with a natural gas supply crisis on the cusp of winter. Russia’s gas export monopoly,... MORE

For the third time since the beginning of October, Chinese employees of the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft came out to protest. Their grievances include the failures of that company to pay them in a timely fashion, to assist those whose positions have been eliminated,... MORE

On November 15, the Russian military successfully tested a dual-use missile-defense/anti-satellite interceptor to destroy in orbit an old, dysfunctional Tselina-D intelligence-gathering satellite dubbed “Kosmos-1408.” The “dead” target satellite was flying at some 500 kilometers above the ground and had been launched during the Cold War,... MORE

In recent months, a series of analytical publications sparked fresh debate in Iran about the status of Iran’s oil and natural gas reserves in the Caspian Sea as well as why it has still not taken greater efforts to exploit those resources. Namely, a piece... MORE

On November 12, Istanbul hosted the eighth summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council), attended by the leaders of member states Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and of observer states Hungary and Turkmenistan (Turkkon.org, November 12). The summit, dedicated this... MORE

Belarus and Moscow have signed a new Union State Military Doctrine, though the document remains unpublished. This comes within the context of the Belarus crisis that began with President Alyaksandr Lukashenko’s disputed reelection on August 9, 2020, and recently worsened due to the migrant issues... MORE

On November 8, the Blue Ridge–class command-and-control ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) and the Arleigh Burke–class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) arrived in Batumi, Georgia (1tv.ge November 8). According to a statement released by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), “The port visit... MORE

Activists in the North Caucasus called on compatriots to use the ongoing Russian census to advance the interests of their ethnic groups. The Russian census took place over the span of a month, from October 15 to November 14, 2021 (delayed by a year due... MORE