Understanding the nuances of ethnic and national identity in faraway countries is arguably the Achilles’s heel of Western foreign policy making. This is regrettable considering that such nuances have powerful influence on international crises and on shaping their outcomes. This was the case in Iraq,... MORE

The World Forum of Tatar Youth recently staged a game called “Tatar Watch” in Kazan, the capital of the Russian Middle Volga republic of Tatarstan. The “Tatar patrols,” as they called themselves, went around the city in groups of seven people, wearing T-shirts that said... MORE

The Russian government, like its Soviet predecessor, has a long history of sending draftees to places far from their homes and using non-Russians as cannon fodder in conflicts of one kind or another. But rarely has the cynicism behind such policies been so evident or... MORE

Ukrainian forces are struggling to contain Russia’s proxy insurgency in Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk provinces). The Ukrainian “anti-terrorist operation,” under way since April 13, remains inconclusive thus far. This operation has revealed how deeply Ukraine’s army and police were hollowed out in recent years, materially... MORE

A week ago, after the boost of patriotic emotions in the Victory Day celebrations and the blatantly fake quasi-referenda in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (see EDM, May 12, 14), Russia appeared ready to make a decisive move into eastern Ukraine. The procedure of voting... MORE

The Party of Regions and affiliated “oligarchs” remain the most influential political force in Ukraine’s east for the time being (see accompanying article). However, the party is pressured on multiple fronts in the run-up to Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election.Removed from the government in Kyiv,... MORE

Political forces supportive of Ukraine’s unity hold the upper hand in six provinces (oblasts) that Moscow seeks to carve out as “South-Eastern Ukraine” or split off as “Novorossiya.” Following the chaotic regime change in Kyiv, pro-Ukraine forces coalesced locally to maintain or restore stability in... MORE

On May 13, armed pro-Russian rebels ambushed a Ukrainian military convoy transporting ammunition on the outskirts of the flashpoint city of Kramatorsk, killing seven paratroopers of the 95th airborne brigade and wounding seven more (Kyiv Post, May 13). The recent series of separatist militants’ successes... MORE

Less than ten days after Russia declined to cancel export duties on refined oil products that Belarus sells to the West (see EDM, May 9), President Alyaksandr Lukashenka managed to wrest some critical concessions from the Kremlin. Following his May 8 visit to Moscow, Lukashenka... MORE

Many observers see striking parallels between the situations in Ukraine and in the North Caucasus; and many, unsurprisingly, have started asking whether the annexation of Crimea and the fueling of separatism in southeastern Ukraine will have repercussions for Russia in the North Caucasus.At a conference... MORE