Russia declared the fifth Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), hosted in Vladivostok, on September 4–6, to have been the most “fruitful” since the event’s creation: reportedly, 270 contracts were signed with foreign investors and 8,500 guests (from 65 countries, representing 440 global companies/businesses) attended the forum.... MORE

No sooner did the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty expire on August 2, Moscow launched a propaganda offensive to shift attention away from the threats its missile programs pose to both European and Asian security. The United States formally suspended its participation in the... MORE

Last week (July 23), South Korean fighters repeatedly fired live warning shots as a Russian A-50U airborne warning and control system (AWACS) plane allegedly briefly violated Korean national airspace close to the Liancourt Rocks—a group of several small islets in the Sea of Japan, controlled... MORE

On July 24, 2019, Russian and Chinese military planes flying together invaded Japanese and South Korean airspace only to encounter Korean fighters that shot at the Russian aircraft. The Russian contribution to this joint air patrol included an A-50 Beriev airborne radar, which can track... MORE

The Chinese Ministry of National Defense published a white paper yesterday, July 24, entitled “China’s National Defense in a New Era.” The document accuses the United States of pursuing “unilateral policies,” provoking “intensified competition among major countries,” increasing defense spending, developing destabilizing weapons, and undermining... MORE

Ever since the Six-Party Talks to denuclearize North Korea began in 2003, Russia has relentlessly searched for a way to prove its importance to all the other players, which also include South Korea, Japan, the United States and China. Indeed, a major driver of Russian... MORE

The annual Russia-hosted Eastern Economic Forum is about to open (September 11–13) in Vladivostok, and President Vladimir Putin has arrived there to greet the leaders of China, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea. This carefully prepared ceremony should provide relief for him from the mounting tensions... MORE

Some, especially in the West, have argued that United States President Donald Trump has effectively sidelined Russia from the rapidly evolving Korean situation by his rapprochement with North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, at the recent summit in Singapore. But such suggestions cloud years of Russian... MORE

Since the announcement of looming inter-Korean and United States–North Korean summits, regional powers China, Japan and Russia have all striven mightily not to be excluded or marginalized from those processes. All thee governments are doing what they can to support the summits. On one hand,... MORE

The end of April was extraordinarily rich in high-profile international events—and Russia was conspicuously absent from all these dynamics. The president of South Korea and the North Korean dictator planted a pine tree of peace just to the south of the ceasefire line that still... MORE