Russia’s Radio-Electronic Technologies Group (KRET), part of the state-owned high-technology corporation Rostec, announced on June 10 that “work on a new gadget that can imitate a group of jets, rockets or a massive missile attack” has entered the final stage. Representatives of KRET described this... MORE

Researchers from Moscow’s prestigious Higher School of Economics have found that a third of Russia’s unemployed youth today have advanced degrees or have completed other tertiary education. According to their recently published report, “The Russian Labor Market: Trends, Institutions, and Structural Changes,” the share of... MORE

The State Duma of the Russian Federation passed an amendment to its citizenship laws, on July 12, easing the procedure for Ukrainians to acquire Russian citizenship. According to the new amendment, those wishing to acquire Russian citizenship would no longer need to provide Russian authorities... MORE

Vladimir Putin has slammed the brakes on a much-ballyhooed Duma proposal to offer Ukrainians in the occupied Donbas region Russian citizenship on a simplified basis (Kommersant, July 18). Almost certainly, the initiative was abandoned because if these individuals were to obtain that status—as the residents... MORE

Joining the list of autonomist movements in at least 19 other European countries, the Szekler community in southeastern Transylvania has ignited an ethno-political brushfire in Romania. According to the “Petition on the Day of Szekler Freedom,” the group demands territorial autonomy and “full and effective... MORE

Baku hosted the first joint gathering of the heads of the railway administrations of Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Poland, on June 19. The meeting was dedicated to the newly-launched “South-West Transport Corridor,” which links into the broader Trans-Caspian International Route project launched in 2016.... MORE

Following the long-expected July 7 meeting between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, the main tangible result was the ceasefire in the southwestern corner of Syria. But this “deliverable” is of little, if any,... MORE

Svetlana Alexievich, the 2015 Nobel Prize laureate in literature, gave a speech, on June 27, in Brussels, at the European People’s Party Group’s hearing “Belarusian society: towards a modern political and national identity?” She was one of seven Belarusians at the hearing, the remaining six... MORE

The Black Sea region has for centuries played a key role in Russia’s southwestern policy. In the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), Russia took the opportunity to create naval forces in Crimea. And during subsequent wars with the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire moved into Bessarabia, the... MORE

The meeting of Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Hamburg, last week (July 7), during the G20 summit (see EDM, July 10), was awaited in Russia with great hopes that it would mark the beginning of a possible détente in the strained relations between... MORE