The 23rd St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which convened on June 6–8, was, as every year, pronounced a huge success by the Russian authoriti­es. Certainly, the 19,000 participants from 145 countries and the 3.1 trillion rubles’ ($49 billion) worth of contracts announced marked new records... MORE

The fall of Moldova’s ruler, Vladimir Plahotniuc, this month (see EDM, June 10) concludes a ten-year historical cycle for the country. Ever since the Communist Party’s loss of power in 2009, a nominally democratic, self-described pro-Western government was in charge in Chisinau. From 2010 onward,... MORE

Fyodor Lukyanov, Russia’s premier political commentator and the chair of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, recently wrote an article titled, “Former [Soviet] Union Republics Enter New Development Phase. And Russia Is Touched by This Process, Too” (Global Affairs, June 13). In the piece,... MORE

For most of the Soviet period after 1945, Russians informally viewed Mongolia as “the 16th Soviet republic” not only because it tried to become one during World War II, but also because, even more than Bulgaria, it slavishly copied Soviet laws and practices. Notably, Mongolia... MORE

To carry out its grand strategy in the Arctic, Russia relies on eroding the positions of other regional players. Denmark, a fellow member of the Arctic Council, is seen by Moscow as a relatively easy target, since Copenhagen can only remain an official stakeholder as... MORE

Repercussions of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 Flight MH17, which was shot down over occupied Donbas (eastern Ukraine) on July 17, 2014, continue to haunt the Russian authorities. Everyone on board—283 passengers, including 80 children, and 15 crew members—was killed. The 298 victims... MORE

Gitanas Nausėda was elected the next president of the Republic of Lithuania on May 26. The race was intense in both the first and second rounds. But in the end, Nausėda triumphed, crushing his opponent, Ingrida Šimonytė, 66 to 33 percent (Vrk.lt, June 3). Such... MORE

Billionaire Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky returned to Ukraine on May 16—his first time back in the country since June 2017, when he had to leave due to an unfolding conflict with then- president Petro Poroshenko over Privatbank (Gordonua.com, May 16). The businessman has well-known ties... MORE

Moscow is actively pursuing research and development (R&D) on artificial intelligence (AI) for military purposes, partly driven by the views of its leading military theorists on the nature of future warfare and also by fears that other international actors, including the United States, are making... MORE

Recent developments around the construction of a new deep-water port in Anaklia, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, have reinforced skepticism that the “project of the century” (as it has come to be known domestically) will ever be able to attract sufficient foreign investment and become... MORE