Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved an agreement to establish a joint Russo-Armenian military unit, which will include troops of the 102nd Russian military base stationed near Yerevan as well as the 4th Corps of the Armenian Army. The unit’s commander is to be appointed... MORE

The Russian mass media (with a reference to the Reuters news agency) reported, on November 11, that Russian hackers launched a series of cyberattacks against analytical centers and think tanks inside the United States (Rosbalt.ru, November 11). This may have been carried out by the... MORE

Several Arabic news agencies reported, on November 21, that Chechnya’s ruler, Ramzan Kadyrov, had apologized to the Saudis for condemning Salafism. News sources said that Kadyrov planned to visit Saudi Arabia to hold talks with government officials. In clarifying his earlier critical remarks, the Chechen... MORE

Tatarstan has long been considered the bellwether of nationality relations inside Russia. The republic has arguably held this status since at least 1920, when Joseph Stalin—then Soviet Commissar for Nationalities Affairs—engaged in his first act of ethnic engineering by dividing up the Turkic peoples of... MORE

Ever since Soviet Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov first wrote about the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) 40 years ago, Moscow has looked to build weapons based upon what he called “new physical principles” to compete with the West. That determination is no less present today. Notably,... MORE

Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Dan Stav, announced, on November 6, that his country was “considering the possibility to transport its natural gas to Europe via the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline [TANAP] through Turkey.” Earlier, on October 14, Turkish presidential advisor Cemil Ertem declared that... MORE

While a split within the United National Movement (UNM) party threatens to sink the Georgian pro-Western opposition into political chaos, the ruling Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia (GDDG), which enjoys a constitutional supermajority in the parliament, is readying to swiftly reorient Georgia’s foreign policy priorities. UNM’s leader... MORE

President Vladimir Putin is scheduled, this Thursday, December 1, to deliver his annual address to the Federal Assembly (upper chamber of the Russian parliament)—and he is short on patriotism-boosting success stories in foreign policy. The conflict in Ukraine is not quite frozen, but it is... MORE

China has unexpectedly begun taking steps to become more militarily active in the small Central Asian republic of Tajikistan. Moreover, it is pushing for closer joint military and security cooperation with Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. These moves could position China as a potential regional counterweight... MORE

At an October 31 meeting of the Interethnic Relations Council, President Vladimir Putin approved the idea to adopt the “Law on the Russian Nation” (rossiyskaya natsiya), which would legally define the term (Kremlin.ru, October 31). This proposal, and its potential legalistic consequences for the country’s... MORE