Relationships between geo-strategic aspirations and achieving value-laden results such as democracy promotion have never been easy. Due to Belarus’s cultural heterogeneity, crude geopolitics have invariably achieved more in both areas as compared with crude moralization along the lines of human rights. Thus, between 2008 and... MORE

On June 5, Georgia announced plans to build a second civilian airport near Tbilisi. During a recent government meeting, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili reiterated this decision and justified it with the government’s intentions to turn the country into an international air transport hub (Facebook.com/GaribashviliOfficial, June... MORE

The Ukrainian Armed Forces face the difficult task of liberating 80 percent of Ukraine’s coast, now controlled by Russia, including the Azov Sea region and Crimean Peninsula. The country also needs to restore navigation from its Black Sea ports blockaded by Russia as well as... MORE

Moscow and Kyiv have been trading barbs over who is to blame for the explosion on the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline on June 5, with the Russian side saying it was the work of Ukrainian “terrorists” and the Ukrainian side saying that it was the result... MORE

Western sanctions and changes in climate are impelling Moscow to realize a dream dating back three centuries to the time of Tsar Peter the Great—an all-water route from the Barents Sea to the Pacific through Russia’s coastal Arctic waters. During a Kremlin video conference on... MORE

In 2023, regular spring conscription for military service in Russia started on April 1 and will end on July 15. The stated goal for this round of conscription is 147,000 soldiers, higher than the targets of 134,500 soldiers for spring 2022 and 120,000 soldiers for... MORE

The protracted deadlock in the trenches of the war in Ukraine is giving way to high-intensity battles, and this escalation instantly generates widespread international resonance, in which expectations of a Ukrainian victory are mixed with concerns about a Russian defeat. Now, the initiative is clearly... MORE

On June 1, during the course of his visit to Chisinau, Moldova, to attend the second summit of the European Political Community (EPC), Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the next meeting of the foreign ministers from his country and Azerbaijan will take place... MORE

The war in Ukraine unleashed by President Vladimir Putin has finally reached Russian territory. This includes not only raids by sabotage groups into border regions (see EDM, May 31) but also the regular shelling of Russian cities. Furthermore, on May 30, the most massive drone... MORE

In recent days, the world has been focusing on Ukrainian-backed incursions into some Russian regions bordering Ukraine. Nevertheless, three developments over the past week strongly suggest that Moscow is also alarmed by growing Ukrainian involvement inside the Russian Federation thousands of miles to the east... MORE