In the Gali district of the Russian-occupied separatist Georgian region of Abkhazia, the local administration is launching a campaign to oust ethnic Georgians who refuse to officially change their identity. Gali is located in the southeastern part of Abkhazia. Ethnic Georgians constitute an absolute majority... MORE

The Azerbaijani and Turkish Air Forces conducted joint flight-tactical exercises in Azerbaijan, on September 18–30, with the involvement of combat/transport aircraft and helicopters. Such systematic joint exercises help foster greater interoperability and exchange of experience between the two air forces. Additionally, these drills improve the practical... MORE

Russia is rapidly losing its traditional leverage in Kazakhstan. Not only is demographic change swiftly reducing the share of ethnic Russians in the population, but the government in Astana is promoting the Latinization of the Kazakh alphabet (see EDM, April 25) and a new and... MORE

A long-term turf war over defense spending, between factions within President Vladimir Putin’s entourage, has raged for more than a year in Moscow. The so called “party of peace”—Putin’s liberal-inclined economic advisors and officials, led by former finance minister Aleksei Kudrin—is promoting defense spending cuts... MORE

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1991, the four new countries that emerged around the northern Caspian shore—Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan—along with their southern neighbor Iran have been developing their offshore hydrocarbon reserves. This scramble for natural resources has, in turn, raised... MORE

On October 3, Alexander Korzhych, a 21-year-old conscript, was found dead in the basement of his military unit, located in Borisov, a city in the Minsk region of Belarus. Korzhych was stationed at a training base devoted to five-month courses that transform ordinary soldiers into... MORE

Undeniably, Russia has fewer deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) today than the Soviet Union fielded during the Cold War (at its peak, in 1985, it had 1,398 such missiles at its disposal). However, the exact number and condition of Moscow’s current ICBMs varies according to... MORE

The Moldovan Constitutional Court temporarily suspended the country’s president, on October 20, following a request by the government to interpret article 98, paragraph 6 of the Constitution, covering the president’s role in government reshuffles (Constcourt.md, October 20). The issue dates back to December 27, 2016,... MORE

Instead of preparing for a military conflict on the Korean peninsula, Russian officials and the media dependent on them are urging residents of the Russian Far East to focus on attracting foreign investment and spending leisure time rather than taking the steps needed to prepare... MORE

On October 16, the Israeli Air Force launched a precision attack, in the Damascus area, against a Russian-supplied S-200 air-defense battery under the control of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). The aerial raid was conducted partly in response to a March incident involving its aircraft... MORE