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Latest articles from Vladimir Socor
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Franco-German Proposals in the Normandy Forum: A Letdown to Ukraine
The Kremlin’s representative to negotiations over Russia’s war in Ukraine’s east, Dmitry Kozak, is undoubtedly the source of the outpouring of secret documents to the Russian daily Kommersant (March 24), revealing the negotiating positions of the parties to the Normandy process (Germany, France, Russia, Ukraine).... MORE
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Yermak’s Earlier Giveaways Come Back to Haunt Zelenskyy and Ukraine
Russia abandoned the ceasefire in Ukraine’s east in early February (see EDM, February 18) and persists with low-intensity positional warfare to date, killing and wounding several Ukrainian soldiers every week. Ukraine responds with unilateral self-restraint, lest it be accused of breaching itself the ceasefire or... MORE
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Russia’s Karabakh Protectorate Taking Clearer Shape (Part Three)
*To read part one, please click here *To read part two, please click here Relations between the authorities in Stepanakert, the capital of the self-declared “republic” of Karabakh, and the government of Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan are complicated and, for the most part, uneasy. Armenia’s... MORE
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Russia’s Karabakh Protectorate Taking Clearer Shape (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Russia seems intent on reproducing in Karabakh the model it had earlier developed in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria and Donbas—namely, a local proto-state with formal institutions under Russian military protection and economic sustenance (see EDM, December 8, 10,... MORE
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Russia’s Karabakh Protectorate Taking Clearer Shape (Part One)
Russia’s military “peacekeeping” intervention in Upper (“Nagorno”) Karabakh in November 2020 laid the foundation for a Russian de facto protectorate (see EDM, December 8, 10, 2020). The Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020) has resulted in a partition of Azerbaijan’s former Upper Karabakh Autonomous... MORE
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Prime Minister Pashinian Stages Own Coup Against Armenia’s Military
Armenia’s military top brass has demanded that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government resign “for having brought the country to disaster.” Blaming Pashinian for overall incompetence and the recent lost war, the generals have nevertheless stopped short of attempting a coup d’état (see EDM, February 25,... MORE
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Azerbaijan, Turkey Watching Armenia’s Political Crisis
Viewed from Baku and Ankara, the political conflict in Armenia pits military and civilian nationalists unreconciled to defeat in the Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020) versus the armistice-accepting government of Nikol Pashinian. As the former seek to oust the latter from power (see... MORE
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Lacking Alternatives, Russia Betting on Armenia’s Embattled Prime Minister Pashinian
The top brass of Armenia’s Armed Forces along with a broad coalition of political groups have moved to oust Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his government from power, thus far nonviolently (see EDM, February 25, 26). From the first hours of this confrontation (February 25),... MORE
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Armenia’s Military Leadership, Civilian Opposition Move to Oust Pashinian’s Government (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. The power struggle in Armenia (see Part One in EDM, February 25) has turned into a standoff confined to Yerevan’s central square. It does not seem to be reverberating beyond downtown Yerevan, let alone in the provinces. The... MORE
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Armenia’s Military Leadership, Civilian Opposition Move to Oust Pashinian’s Government (Part One)
A military-civilian putsch broke out in Yerevan today (February 25) against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his government, who are blamed for Armenia’s disastrous defeat by Azerbaijan in the 44-day Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020), for complying with the armistice terms, and for... MORE