Following Ukraine’s successful Kherson counteroffensive in the fall of 2022, the war in Ukraine has moved into the Materialschlacht, or war of attrition phase, which is rapidly depleting critical resources. Typically, when discussing resources in this sense, Ukraine is most often referring to the tanks,... MORE

The weekend mutiny launched by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group will have numerous wide-ranging consequences that analysts are still trying to sort out. However, more attention should be drawn to the fact that one of main reasons for this insurrection’s rapid failure was the... MORE

Ethnic Russians in the former Soviet republics are declining in number not only because of flight and an excess of deaths over births among them but also because some in these communities are increasingly identifying with the titular nation and even assimilating with it. This... MORE

Latvia, together with Estonia, is undertaking the largest military procurement project since the restoration of independence in acquiring the IRIS-T air defense system from Germany. In late May 2023, these plans were made public by Latvian Minister of Defense Ināra Mūrniece and Estonian Minister of... MORE

On April 19, the legislation that provides for Latvia’s return to military conscription came into force as adopted by the Latvian Parliament and ratified by Latvian President Egils Levits (Labdien.lv, April 19). The compulsory National Defense Service will be introduced gradually—the first cohort of enlistees... MORE

In the three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 14 independent states of the post-Soviet era have been forced to improvise their policies vis-à-vis the Russian Federation. These measures range from the Baltic states’ total repudiation of the Soviet experience by joining... MORE

On March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the new Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation (Kremlin.ru, March 31). The previous version had been adopted seven years ago; but even then, in 2016, its wording was significantly more diplomatic than the current document. Moscow’s... MORE

As Russia’s assault on Ukraine gradually descends into a stalemate, the Russian government is increasingly concerned about Western responses to its aggression, particularly military exercises in formerly quiet and largely neutralist Scandinavia. Arctic Forge 23, a joint month-long Western military exercise in Finland and Norway,... MORE

A common detail ties together the histories of Russia’s three neighboring countries—Latvia, Estonia and Finland. At various times in 1920, all three countries signed peace treaties with Russia, which, at the time, was referred to as the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). In truth,... MORE

The Belarusian political regime headed by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is almost 29 years old, and its endurance should be scrutinized by advanced political scientists. Suffice it to say that it has lived under Western-imposed sanctions since 1996, albeit with intermissions, such as between 2015 and... MORE