After impeaching the fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych on February 22, the new authorities in Kyiv have proceeded to form a new government. The first appointments show that this will be far from the national-unity government advised by the United States and the European Union. The... MORE

“In the event of escalation in Crimea and Ukraine at large,” reads the February 28 editorial statement by Nasha Niva, “Belarus will need national unity and restraint. All the political arguments between the [Belarusian] government and the opposition would be worth putting on the back... MORE

As the crisis in Ukraine unfolds and shows signs of escalation, Western media circles and policymakers appear to be underestimating a number of mysterious elements in Russian security thinking and its military planning and actions. These issues stem from the prolonged silence from Russia’s President... MORE

President Vladimir Putin announced today (March 4) that Russia’s ground troops, deployed across Crimea since March 1, have “reinforced the protection of our installations” (“obiekty”) on that territory of Ukraine. The Russian president’s remarks neither acknowledge nor dispute Ukraine’s sovereignty in Crimea. However, Putin depicted... MORE

On November 29, 2013, an international cargo train Chang’an (“Lasting Peace”) departed from Xi’an, the capital city of Shaanxi province in central China, and traveled westward toward Central Asia. On December 9, after a journey of more than 5,000 kilometers, the 49-car train arrived in... MORE

Fifteen Dagestani organizations have asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to fire the head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov. The Union of Patriotic Forces of Dagestan and the Assembly of the Indigenous Peoples of Dagestan organized a symposium on February 1. Following the symposium, which was titled... MORE

The two telephone conversations between United States President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 2 and February 22 marked a dramatic deterioration of relations caused by the near-complete collapse of common ground in managing the crisis in Ukraine. The first discussion about... MORE

In his annual State of the Nation address in the parliament (https://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=26971), Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili stated that he agreed to the request of Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, regarding Georgia’s contribution to international peacekeeping... MORE

In the past week, many people in Chechnya saw an anonymous video of clashes at the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. The video was apparently recorded by a Chechen police officer, but the authorities, trying to conceal the clashes from the public, disliked the... MORE

As of at least Friday, February 28, unmarked Russian tanks are reportedly moving through the streets of Simferopol, the administrative capital of Crimea (https://guzei.com/online_tv/watch.php?online_tv_id=4919). The crisis situation on this Ukrainian peninsula, populated by majority ethnic Russians, has been escalating for the past several days. On... MORE