On February 10, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced that Russia plans to cut its crude oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March—that is, by approximately 5 percent of its total output at the time of writing. The Kremlin has described the... MORE

Squeezed between two major centers of power, Russia and the European Union, Belarus is supremely vulnerable to external influences. Consequently, one lingering area of inquiry is how exactly outside factors affect Belarus. Much of what has been published in conjunction with the one-year anniversary of... MORE

*Read Part One. A February 7 press release from the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) revealed that one of Russia`s largest energy companies, Gazprom Neft, is now considering the creation of its own private military company (PMC)... MORE

Among the many terrible consequences of Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine launched by Vladimir Putin a year ago, one should be singled out—that is, the Russian president’s inability to end the conflict as currently constituted. Several primary factors underline this fact. First, the war has... MORE

On February 7, the press service of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (GUR) issued a statement revealing that one of Russia’s largest energy companies, Gazprom Neft, is now creating its own private military company (PMC). According to the GUR,... MORE

*Read Part One. As part of its recent clean break with Russia, the Moldovan leadership is calling for the unconditional and complete evacuation of Russian forces unlawfully stationed on Moldova’s territory in Transnistria. Unconditional withdrawal means not preconditioned on a “special status” that Chisinau would... MORE

As the one-year mark of President Vladimir Putin’s disastrous war against Ukraine neared, the Russian army failed to score anything resembling even a minor victory to provide the Russian leader with a talking point for his public performances. In his address to the Federal Assembly... MORE

The first move to disentangle from an externally imposed, potentially fatal diplomatic process is to change the semantics. Along with this move, the country—Moldova in this case—must assert the priority of its own interests over those who caught it in this trap—namely, Russia and its... MORE

On January 30, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commended Pakistan for maintaining a neutral position in the Russo-Ukrainian war and vowed to fully cooperate with Islamabad in meeting its energy needs. Lavrov expressed his views at a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart, Bilawal... MORE

The verdict was swift. Even before the unexpected three-hour press conference held by Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on February 16 for foreign journalists had not yet ended, Valer Karbalevich of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty already began discerning some fantastical outbursts on Lukashenka’s part. According to... MORE