The September 18 Russian elections (see EDM, September 19) were not only for the State Duma. In this “single voting day,” Russians also elected 7 governors and 39 regional legislative assemblies. Governors in today’s Russia are formally elected by a direct vote, but this system... MORE

During preparations for a military parade to mark the 25th anniversary of Armenia’s independence on September 21, Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile launchers (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) appeared on the streets of Yerevan. This development became one of the most discussed issues in Armenia... MORE

Rovnag Abdullayev, the head of Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR), told reporters on September 5 that his company is waiting for an explanation from the Greek government for its violation of the originally agreed-upon privatization terms for Greece’s Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA) (Azernews.az, September... MORE

It has become common practice for the authorities to hold large international Islamic conferences in Chechnya. The latest such conference took place on August 25–27, 2016, in Grozny. Over 100 religious leaders from 30 countries took part in the gathering, including Jordan, Qatar, Morocco, Egypt,... MORE

It took several month of intermittent talks between the United States and Russia and many multi-hour marathon sessions between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to hammer out the Syrian ceasefire agreement that went into effect on September 12.... MORE

On September 13, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Georgian government and Minister of the Economy and Sustainable Development Dimitry Kumsishvili stated at a press conference that Tbilisi and Beijing had finalized a free trade agreement between their two countries. “China’s Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng... MORE

Political commentators continue to discuss the outcomes of Belarus’s September 11 parliamentary elections (see EDM, September 12). According to the official results, the lowest voter turnout was in the city of Minsk, 61 percent; and the highest in Mogilev Oblast, 81 percent (Belarus Segodnya, September... MORE

Africa has never been a particularly high foreign policy priority for the Russian Federation. This is mainly due to a lack of resources and capacity in Moscow; for if those were present, an ambition to aspire to a role on the continent commensurate with that... MORE

Ramazan Khun, a Circassian activist from Russia’s Krasnodar region, posted an unusual online petition on the website Change.org. The petition calls on the Russian government, President Vladimir Putin, and the administration of Krasnodar krai to grant indigenous rights to the Circassians, who reside on the... MORE

Moscow is again stirring the pot in northeastern Estonia, trying to pit the ethnic-Russian community there against Tallinn. And it is doing so in the classic tradition of Vladimir Putin’s “hybrid” war: specifically, Russia is using a report prepared by the Estonian Security Police that... MORE