Introduction In April, French President Emmanuel Macron made a state visit to China. During Macron’s visit, the two sides signed a Sino-French joint statement that identified 51 priority areas for deepening cooperation, both bilaterally and through the EU (PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs [FMPRC], April... MORE

Belarus’s hyper-dependency on multifaceted external factors and the role of the Russo-Ukrainian war in increasing this dependency has been further confirmed by three recent events (see EDM, April 26). First, Roman Protasevich, the former operator of the “NEXTA” Telegram channel, was recently acquitted by Belarusian... MORE

On May 22, as a result of Russian shelling of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) was cut off from the central power grid once again. As a result, the plant was switched to standby for the seventh time since the beginning... MORE

The hit-and-run raid by anti-Putin Russian operatives—Kyiv officially claims that the raid was conducted by combatant units made up of Russian citizens, while Moscow claims it was the work of Ukrainian-supported “terrorists”—in the Belgorod region took place only several kilometers away from one of 12... MORE

On May 22, two anti-Kremlin militias—the Freedom of Russia Legion (RDK) and Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC)—crossed over the Russian border from Ukraine into the Belgorod region, overrunning the village of Kozinka and sending units into the town of Grayvoron. While fighting Russian border guards and... MORE

On May 26, chairman of the Ukrainian Servant of the People ruling party’s parliamentary faction, David Arakhamia, published a Georgian-language post on his Facebook page regarding Georgia’s Independence Day. In recognizing the South Caucasus country’s independence, Arakhamia wrote, “Compromise at the cost of defeating a... MORE

The noise of jingoist propaganda and anti-Western hysteria emanating from Moscow is not as monotonous as it often seems, and the variations expose significant differences between and within Russian elite groups. Recent military setbacks, such as the destruction of a mixed air group over the... MORE

On April 12, the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed more than 100 people and entities across over 20 countries on its sanctions list due to violations of US export controls in helping Russia with its war effort (Treasury.gov, April... MORE

On May 18, a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization took place in Minsk. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka personally greeted the respective speakers of the member countries’ parliaments and made several statements, one of which was a suggestion that any... MORE

On April 26, the so-called “Chernobyl Way,” an annual march of Belarusians to mark the anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster, took place around the world. This year, however, the march was held under a special format, as it represented not only an... MORE