Russia’s war against Ukraine has dealt the coup de grâce to the “5+2” negotiations on the settlement of conflict in Transnistria, the forum where Russia and Ukraine sit next to each other. Moscow and Kyiv have been seated formally at the top of the table,... MORE

The number of Belarusians living within the Russian Federation fell from 521,000 in 2010 to only 208,000 in 2021, according to newly released official Russian census data. This represents a decline of more than 60 percent since the end of the Soviet period when there... MORE

On January 11, the Russian Ministry of Defense once again changed the command structure of the Russian forces fighting against Ukraine. Army General Valery Gerasimov (born in 1955), chief of the Russian General Staff, finally became the commander of Russia’s joint forces in Ukraine, replacing... MORE

While some analysis has covered Ukrainian church life, a Western layman might think that religious persecutions are actively taking place in Ukraine. Moreover, such rhetoric can be heard from Western sources and other media with anti-Ukrainian undertones (YouTube, December 22, 2022). In retrospect, the current... MORE

Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 took a heavy toll on the Ukrainian economy. Moscow focused on destroying the Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the southeast, displacing millions of workers, damaging crops, smashing the power grid and blocking exports from Ukraine’s seaports. As a result,... MORE

Belarusians are divided, and the politically conscious Belarusians live in their own information bubbles and echo chambers. This is the principal conclusion that Yury Drakakhrust of the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty drew from the most recent (November 2022) online survey of urban... MORE

Moscow is increasingly concerned about Kyiv’s increased attention not only to the non-Russian republics and regions within the current borders of the Russian Federation but also, and particularly, to parts of the country that have, or at least had, significant ethnic Ukrainian populations (see EDM,... MORE

As Russia’s war against Ukraine approaches its second year, several news outlets have reported that Moscow is eyeing two Iranian missile systems in particular as solutions to its missile shortages: the Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar (The Kyiv Independent, November 12, 2022). The main reasons for acquiring... MORE

Two events of profound, and maybe even decisive, importance for the outcome of the Ukraine war happened last week: the Davos gathering of the World Economic Forum and the meeting of top defense officials from some 50 members of the Western coalition at the Ramstein... MORE

In their parallel statements on January 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added some new elements and emphases to Russia’s case for its war against Ukraine. Their statements underscore the Kremlin’s double rationale for this war: a national war in the... MORE