This week in Moscow President Vladimir Putin made a major foreign policy statement, while speaking to a worldwide gathering of Russian ambassadors and permanent diplomatic representatives. According to Putin, the West did not give Moscow a choice, but to move to annex Crimea last March... MORE

The foreign affairs ministers of Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine conferred on July 2 in Berlin, in a format designed to subject the Ukrainian side to pressure from the other three parties. The Ukrainian side has made far-reaching concessions in this meeting. Those terms are... MORE

On July 1 in the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin addressed the annual conference of Russia’s ambassadors accredited to foreign countries and international organizations, top foreign affairs ministry officials, leaders of both chambers of parliament, government ministers and agency chiefs, representatives of think-tanks and Russian business... MORE

Russia’s announcement, earlier this month, that it was negotiating the sale of helicopters to Pakistan (see EDM, June 24) may have backfired on Moscow, as it clearly underestimated the anger that this news has triggered in India and what it could portend for Russo-Indian relations. Whatever... MORE

When Western observers look at events in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other non-Western societies, more often than not they emphasize the actions of the politicians shaping those societies, not the societies generating a demand for a particular type of politician. Is Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s longevity at... MORE

Moscow’s much-advertised grand project in the North Caucasus since 2010, the creation of a ski tourism industry, has ceased to exist. In a speech to the Federation Council on June 18, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Khloponin said the government was suspending several projects within... MORE

Russia has used a recent military exercise to rehearse intervention in Central Asia to a strategic depth of 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles). Since the Ukraine crisis erupted earlier this year, the Kremlin has harnessed the tool of using “snap inspections” of combat readiness in the... MORE

On June 24, Circassian activist Andzor Kabard exposed the International Circassian Association (ICA) for having applied for Russian government funding to challenge other Circassian organizations. In revealing this fact, Kabard declared on Facebook that ICA no longer exists (facebook.com, June 24). ICA’s grant application title... MORE

Ukraine’s intelligence service has identified five centers within the Russian Federation where Moscow is recruiting and training mercenaries and diversionists to work against Ukraine in the eastern portions of that country and perhaps further west as well (Newsru.ua, June 28). Even more worrisome, according to... MORE

Ukraine has extricated itself from the trap of a unilateral ceasefire exploited by the Russian side. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had declared a seven-day ceasefire on June 20, and prolonged it again unilaterally from June 27 through June 30. Secessionist leaders announced a parallel ceasefire... MORE