Since Moscow’s military intervention in Syria, expert attention has intermittently turned to the role played by Russian special forces in this theater of operations. On May 10, a number of photographs were published online showing Russian special forces operating in northwestern Syria (Almasdarnews.com, May 10).... MORE

Representatives of Turkish, Azerbaijani and Russian railways inked a cooperation memorandum on May 6, 2019, in Ankara, to leverage the potential of the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars (BTK) railway and increase the volume of freight carried along the route (Azertag.az, May 6). “The tripartite cooperation will boost the... MORE

On May 15, Ukraine’s outgoing president, Petro Poroshenko, promulgated the “Law on Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language.” The accompanying communique characterizes this law as “one of the fundamental acts in the formation of Ukrainian statehood” (Ukrayinska Pravda, May 15).... MORE

On May 3, United States President Donald Trump phoned Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and had “a long and very good conversation” discussing “trade, Venezuela, Ukraine, North Korea, Nuclear Arms Control and even the ‘Russian Hoax’ [sic],” according to Trump. The two leaders did not talk... MORE

On May 9, Belarus held its annual Victory Day commemoration, marking the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany in 1945. As part of the ceremonies, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka laid a wreath at the Victory Monument, at the eponymous square in Minsk. In his speech,... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here.   Ukraine’s outgoing president, Petro Poroshenko, and the governing coalition (whose mandate is also about to expire) have bequeathed the foundation and building blocks of Ukrainian resilience against Russia’s adversity. President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky and the soon-to-be-elected next parliament... MORE

In an April 23 interview on Ukrainian television, Colonel (ret.) Ivan Aparshyn, a military advisor to Ukraine’s President-Elect Volodymyr Zelensky, spoke on the subject of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and touched upon three crucial aspects for their future development. First, he claimed that the standing... MORE

Moscow is treating Ukraine and its newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, with the same implacable hostility as it did during Petro Poroshenko’s presidency. The Kremlin has not taken even a brief time-out that would have allowed it to assess Zelensky’s first decisions and the staffing... MORE

Belarus adopted a new Information Security Concept (ISC) on March 18, 2019, based on a resolution from the Belarus Security Council (President.gov.by, March 18). Its adoption clearly demonstrates not only Minsk’s intentions to establish control over information flows in the country but also concerns of... MORE

On May 1, a Holocaust Remembrance event at the US Department of State focused on the history of the Minsk Ghetto, one of the largest in Nazi-occupied Europe. Most of its 100,000 prisoners were slaughtered when the ghetto was liquidated, including 22,000 Jews transported there... MORE