On October 23, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka met with a group of Belarusian writers. In any country surrounding Belarus, a meeting like this would probably not be similarly newsworthy. The country has two writers’ unions and a PEN-Center. Only one of these entities, called the Union... MORE

Nine years since the militants of Shamil Basaev and Anzor Astemirov ransacked Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria (RIA Novosti, September 7, 2013), on October 13, 2005, this republic remains a territory in a precarious security situation (newsru.com, accessed October 30). The ongoing trial of 57... MORE

The first of the two French-made helicopter-carrying Mistral-class assault ships, which Russia ordered in 2011, is reportedly ready for delivery. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced that a Russian official delegation has been invited to arrive on November 14, at the Saint-Nazaire shipyard for a... MORE

On October 13, the Kremlin unveiled the so called “Agreement on Alliance and Integration” between Russia and breakaway Abkhazia (see EDM, October 23). To summarize this long and verbose text, the new treaty envisages a gradual but ultimately complete merger of the separatist region’s defense,... MORE

The notoriously well-known analyst from Tatarstan, Rais Suleimanov, has attacked the West for alleged support of Islamists in the republic. In his controversial and contradictory report, Suleimanov accuses the West of supporting Tatar nationalism and Islamism, but in the process he exposes his apparent close... MORE

As more people die in eastern Ukraine in the fighting between government forces and Russia-backed rebels, Moscow seems determined to pursue its internal economic goals despite the damage already caused by the West’s sanctions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, on October 19, that his... MORE

President Vladimir’s Putin’s decision, on September 2, to order adjustments to Russia’s 2010 Military Doctrine by the end of the year raised questions concerning the timing and its underlying intention (see EDM, September 9). Recent analysis in the Russian military press and statements by the... MORE

Because the Crimean Tatars and their assembly, the Mejlis, have opposed the Russian Anschluss of their homeland since the beginning, Moscow and the Russian occupying authorities on the Ukrainian peninsula have attempted to break it by banning some of its leaders, harassing others, and raiding... MORE

The German government’s response to Russia’s war against Ukraine—and by extension, Berlin’s assessment of Russia—is undergoing some reconsideration. Moscow has shaken Germany’s “trust” once more by flouting the armistice in Ukraine’s Donbas (eastern region encompassing the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk). The annexation of Crimea... MORE

The German government has come round to the view that Russia’s actions against Ukraine potentially threaten the “European peace order.” Policy debates in Germany reflect, belatedly and still tentatively, this assessment (see accompanying article). Germany has not yet initiated a policy review in keeping with... MORE