Many observers are treating Russia’s pullback of land forces from the Ukrainian border as the end of the crisis—even some of those experts who acknowledge the Kremlin has not given up its aggressive posturing against Ukraine (Voennoe Obozrenie, April 25). Yet that belligerent stance may... MORE

Aside from the April 22 Russia-Belarus summit, which did not turn out to be groundbreaking, three other stories have dominated news headlines pertaining to Belarus over the past week or so: the allegedly uncovered coup plot against President Alyaksandr Lukashenka; a peculiar twist in relations... MORE

President Vladimir Putin’s annual address to the Russian Federal Assembly (parliament), delivered last Wednesday, April 21, following a long delay, was anticipated to present a whole host of major surprises; but the speech turned out to be surprising only for its extraordinarily low content (see... MORE

Following United States President Joseph Biden’s example, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also blinked to the Kremlin. The US president solicited a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 13, and Zelenskyy followed suit on April 20. Both Biden and Zelenskyy believe that they... MORE

President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual address to a joint session of both houses of parliament on April 21, in the historical Moscow Manege hall, adjacent to the Kremlin, with the entire Russian ruling political, bureaucratic and business elite present. The yearly presidential address was... MORE

On April 5, Ukraine’s acting minister of energy, Yuriy Vitrenko, and his Qatari counterpart, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, signed a bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) on enhancing energy cooperation between the two countries (Mpe.kmu.gov.ua, April 5). The document envisages, in particular, possible Qatari investments in the... MORE

According to Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani, Tbilisi is ready to return Ambassador Teimuraz Sharashenidze to Kyiv. The diplomat was recalled from Ukraine last year, after former president Mikheil Saakashvili repeatedly called on his Georgian supporters to disobey the authorities, organize defiance actions against the... MORE

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka paid a two-day visit to Baku, Azerbaijan, over April 13–14. The trip had initially been scheduled for late 2020, but it was postponed due to two significant events (Azertag.az, April 14; Belta.by, April 15). First, the August 2020 presidential election protests... MORE

The international community has focused on Moscow’s buildup of forces on land adjoining Ukraine, concerned that such a concentration of Russian military power will be used against its neighbor (see EDM, April 8, 15, 19). But as Moscow routinely insists, it has the right to... MORE

The socio-political conflict in Belarus has the potential to grow even more acute, even though street rallies have all but disappeared and the authorities have, for several months now, pursued a harsh counter-offensive. Those arrests and firings continue. Thus, in Grodno, Andrzej Pisalnik, the secretary... MORE