As the hullabaloo died down after staging a military exercise in the Russian Far East on July 13–20, senior officials soon acknowledged underlying systemic weaknesses within the Armed Forces. Commentators noted the massive scale of the so-called “snap inspection,” which included 160,000 personnel, involving five... MORE

The militaries of Turkey and Azerbaijan carried out joint exercises between July 12 and 28, in the latter country’s capital of Baku and its autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan (Hurriyet Daily News, July 15). In the midst of the exercises (July 16–17), Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet... MORE

From 1990 until 1994, Moldova faced two secessionist, Russia-oriented “republics” on its territory: Transnistria and Gagauzia. The autonomy settlement, negotiated by Chisinau with the Gagauz in 1994, retrieved Moldova’s southern territory that had at that stage been practically lost. It also succeeded in de-coupling the... MORE

On July 27, President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow with Aleksandr Khloponin, his plenipotentiary representative in the North Caucasian Federal District. Khloponin informed the Russian president about his work to improve the socio-economic and political situation in this volatile region (https://kremlin.ru/news/16066). He boasted of cutting... MORE

Last week, Alexei Navalny re-entered the Moscow mayoral election campaign after his implausible release from jail the day after being condemned to five years behind bars on a blatantly fabricated charge. His team has jump-started the work in earnest, mobilizing volunteers for door-to-door persuasion, distributing... MORE

On July 17, the Kabardino-Balkarian interior minister summed up the results of the first six months of the year during a press conference in the republican capital, Nalchik. The minister was forced to admit that the government had failed to achieve decisive results in the... MORE

On July 21, the United National Movement (UNM) held one more round of primaries, this time in the city of Batumi, to elect the party’s presidential candidate who will run in the upcoming October elections (www.gnh.ge, July 21). Although, Georgia’s new constitution transfers most executive... MORE

Moldova faces multiple Russian proxy operations to destabilize the country ahead of the European Union’s November 2013 Eastern Partnership Summit. Among such proxies, Gagauz radicals of 1990 vintage seek a more far-reaching level of Gagauz territorial autonomy, with hints at possible secession. Although marginal in... MORE

On July 24, the chief executive official (bashkan) of Moldova’s Gagauz autonomous territory, Mihail Formuzal, called for upgrading the autonomy’s status to that of a republic, on an equal footing with Transnistria, in the event that Transnistria receives republic status in a federalized Moldova (Unimedia,... MORE

Since the ousting of Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has adopted a fierce anti-coup rhetoric and engaged in an intense, if futile, diplomatic campaign to reverse the developments in Egypt. So ardently has the AKP sided with Morsi that... MORE