*To read Part One, please click here. The Romanian government’s multi-year bet on Vladimir Plahotniuc in Moldova collapsed when his personal power succumbed to internal and external challenges. Warning signs had pointed the way to this outcome, but Bucharest responded each time by doubling down... MORE

The common desire of Moscow and Beijing to develop railways linking Asia with Europe is not making as much progress as the two parties had hoped or as many had expected. This is due in part to international concerns involving third countries, including the Central... MORE

On July 1, a secretive Russian AS-31 (Project 10831) nuclear-powered submersible suffered a deadly onboard fire and explosion while operating underwater in the Barents Sea, close to the entrance to the Kola Bay (the Murmansk Fjord). Fourteen members of the AS-31 crew—including all senior officers... MORE

“Welcome to your second homeland,” President Emomali Rahmon told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani upon his arrival in Tajikistan for the fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), on June 15 (Radio Ozodi, June 15). The visit comes... MORE

More than a year ago, the Russian “patriotic” newspaper Vzglyad shared a “discovery” extracted from a cross-tabulation of two public opinion surveys. One of them was by the French polling agency Institut Français d’Opinion Publique (IFOP) (RT, February 23, 2018) and the other by Pew... MORE

The internationally facilitated regime change in Moldova bypassed Romania entirely, in spite of Romania’s declared special interests toward its eastern neighbor. Bucharest found itself isolated in its support for Moldova’s kleptocratic, now-ousted ruler, Vladimir Plahotniuc, while Brussels and Washington were distancing themselves from him. By... MORE

On May 30, the Verkhovna Rada (national parliament) of Ukraine appealed to the United Nations, international parliamentary assemblies and foreign national legislatures to condemn ongoing violations of the rights of indigenous non-Russian peoples in the Russian Federation (Rada.gov.ua, May 30). The resolution was supported by... MORE

The Russian newspaper Izvestia announced, on June 19, that the country’s newest super-maneuverable fighter, the Su-35S (“Flanker-E” in the NATO classification), will soon be deployed to annexed Crimea. According to Izvestia, “The Su-35S is capable not only of guaranteed destruction of fifth-generation fighters, but also... MORE

The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church wants to transform its headquarters at Sergiyev Posad into “an Orthodox counterpart” to the Vatican, Jerusalem and Mecca. Such a program could cost the country as much as 140 billion rubles ($2.3 billion), increase centralized control over... MORE

Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze visited Baku, Azerbaijan, on June 20. While meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ogtay Asadov, the latter noted that Azerbaijan as well as Georgia suffer from separatism and territorial losses, which obstruct their political-economic progress; otherwise, the Baku-based lawmaker... MORE