On March 14, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan received the delegation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), led by this year’s OSCE chairperson-in-office, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde. During their meeting, Aliyev reiterated his positive assessment of the post-war situation in... MORE

Four recent events have the potential to affect the ongoing evolution of the Belarusian political scene. First, on March 6, the founding congress of the pro-Russian party Soyuz (Union) took place in Minsk with 135 participants. So far, even the government itself does not have... MORE

Since Moscow initiated its long-term military modernization program over a decade ago, an important focal point in this complex process has proved to be the emphasis upon automated command and control (C2). The digitization of Russia’s C2 structures aims to enhance the speed and efficiency... MORE

Turkish-Greek negotiations over the delimitation of their maritime zones in the Aegean Sea have persisted for decades. But the dispute spilled out into the wider Eastern Mediterranean after the discovery of large hydrocarbon resources there and efforts by other actors to solidify their own offshore... MORE

According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation (Minselkhoz), the year 2020 set a new record for Russia’s exports of agricultural products. Cumulatively, the country exported 79 million tons of products (worth $30.7 billion), a 20 percent increase year on year (Forbes.ru, March... MORE

The 125,000 ethnic Gagauz who live in southeastern Moldova seldom receive much press in their own right except for the fact that they are a rare Turkic people who are mostly Orthodox Christians. But they do attract broader attention when they become part of Russia’s... MORE

Four months have passed since the signing of the ceasefire agreement that ended the Second Karabakh War, on November 9, 2020. Armenia is now embroiled in a political crisis because of the fallout from its decisive defeat in that conflict, while the status of Karabakh... MORE

On March 3, the Russian proxy representatives of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) reportedly gave permission to their military to launch preemptive attacks against Ukrainian forces along the frontline (Armiyadnr.su, RBC, March 3). Despite both sides announcing a comprehensive truce last July, 14 Ukrainian... MORE

The escalation of repressions against all manifestations of discontent in Russia inevitably results in greater influence of the country’s special services and police, often described as the siloviki (literally, power-wielders). This plain fact has come into sharper focus when the Kremlin found it necessary to... MORE

Armenia’s military top brass has demanded that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government resign “for having brought the country to disaster.” Blaming Pashinian for overall incompetence and the recent lost war, the generals have nevertheless stopped short of attempting a coup d’état (see EDM, February 25,... MORE