Executive Summary: Official economic data on the first six months of 2025 indicates that Russia’s war economy is stagnating as military industries absorb resources from civilian sectors.  In the first half of 2025, 67 of Russia’s 89 regions reported severe budget deficits, with industrial hubs... MORE

Executive Summary: Global warming, increased human use, and declines in the flow of water from rivers that feed the Caspian Sea are threatening its viability. Food production from the sea is declining, and the Caspian’s ports and sea lanes are silting up, limiting north–south and... MORE

Executive Summary: Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and siloviki-linked Telegram channels are promoting disinformation of a purported plan for a European “occupation” of Transnistria and subsequent attack on Russian forces in the region, in what appears to be a coordinated campaign. These channels are aiming... MORE

Executive Summary: China Railway Container Transport Corp. Ltd, on August 7, joined the Middle Corridor Multimodal Ltd, a joint railway venture between Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia, to facilitate the development of the Middle Corridor. Progress on the Zangezur Corridor, rebranded as Trump Route for International... MORE

Executive Summary: Independent experts and Russian officials agree that the economy is stagnating. Some analysts suggest that this will not lead to an end to the war, but rather to the final restructuring of the economy to a state of complete war readiness. Such a... MORE

Executive Summary: Within the last two decades, patriotic education in Russia has become a well-functioning apparatus of indoctrination that combines schools, youth organizations, museums, religion, and digital platforms. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, nationalistic education evolved into a vital pillar of governance,... MORE

Executive Summary: The proportion of deaths in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine among men from non-Russian republics and from poorer but predominantly ethnic Russian regions has been far higher than among residents of Moscow and other large cities. Putin’s adoption of the Soviet-era... MORE

Executive Summary: Georgian Dream has intensified LGBT-focused conspiracy theories to mobilize public support against the European Union, falsely portraying integration demands as threats to national sovereignty, family values, and traditional identity, echoing Kremlin-style propaganda tactics. Public opinion polls in Georgia show that the population remains... MORE

Executive Summary: Following the meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the White House on August 8, there are hopes that Yerevan and Baku are close to signing a long-anticipated peace treaty. Armenia and Türkiye have been making progress... MORE

Executive Summary: U.S. President Donald Trump and Polish President Karol Nawrocki met at the White House on September 3, garnering much attention in Poland since the country views its alliance with the United States as the cornerstone of its security policy. Nawrocki, then a Polish... MORE