On August 4, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka gave a 4.5-hour-long interview to journalists representing three media outlets not run by the Belarusian state. Ranked in ascending order of their history of vociferous criticism of the Lukashenka regime, these outlets included Tut.by, Belarus’s leading privately owned news... MORE

On July 27, Ingushetia’s governor, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, met members of two Chinese delegations in the republic’s capital, Magas. Chinese investors have reportedly expressed interest in some of the republic’s old oil fields that can be reclaimed. According to Yevkurov, the rights to own the republic’s... MORE

In recent weeks, tensions have been high and rising along Kyrgyzstan’s borders with Uzbekistan as well as Tajikistan—neither of which have been fully demarcated by the countries involved since independence. These border skirmishes have routinely escalated to the point of people throwing rocks, blocking highways,... MORE

On July 26, Russia released its new maritime doctrine to 2020 (Kremlin.ru, July 26). It is important not to confuse this document with a new “naval doctrine,” although this doctrine certainly has important things to say about Russia’s navy. Rather, the “Maritime Doctrine of the... MORE

Moscow has implemented another step toward improving and consolidating its conventional military force capabilities by creating an entirely new arm of service: the Aerospace Forces (Vozdushno Kosmicheskikh Sil—VKS). The Aerospace Forces became functional on August 1, concluding several years of planning by the top brass... MORE

The recent intensification of high-level exchanges between the governments of Azerbaijan and Russia—most recently exemplified by the visits of the Azerbaijani foreign and defense ministers to Moscow (TASS, July 17; APA, July 31)—poses a number of questions about the aim and scope of these bilateral... MORE

Diplomacy by the United States and Western Europe has recently intensified pressure on Ukraine to legitimize the Russian-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (see EDM, July 31). Meanwhile, Moscow has almost fallen silent on this issue at the official level. Until the end of June,... MORE

Russian authorities have unexpectedly continued a series of arrests of Dagestani officials. On August 2, the Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested the head of Buinaksk district, Daniyal Shihsaidov, after which the security services searched the home of his father, Khizri Shihsaidov, who is speaker of... MORE

While breaking the norms of international behavior at its own discretion, Russia may fancy itself a champion of change in the world order; but in fact, it is increasingly seen as an arrogant maverick and a sore loser. Russian media reported, with little commentary, the... MORE

On July 21, the prime minister of Kyrgyzstan, Temir Sariyev, issued a decree abrogating the Kyrgyz Republic’s bilateral aid and assistance agreement with the United States, which was initially signed in May 1993, in Washington, DC. The key element of this accord is the tax-free... MORE