*Read Part One. On June 23 and 24, the notorious Wagner Group and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin conducted an unsuccessful revolt against the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and its ultimatum that Wagner, and other entities like it, had to sign a contract (by July... MORE

Since June 2023, Russia has lost two generals during the fighting in Ukraine: Major General Sergei Goryachev, chief of staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, and Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov, commander of 144th Guards Motor Rifle Division and deputy commander of the Southern Military... MORE

The decision to withdraw from the international arrangement guaranteeing the safety of grain exports from Ukrainian ports, announced in Moscow on July 17, signifies a significant effort to escalate non-kinetic hostilities to break the pattern of slow-moving defeat in this war of attrition. Russian President... MORE

On June 20, after meeting with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Astana, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced Germany’s recent endorsement of Kazakhstan’s efforts to create alternative trade routes and transport corridors to Europe while bypassing Russia. Steinmeier declared that such measures would further prevent the Kremlin’s... MORE

The growing importance of Iran for the Russian Federation and the shift in relative power between the two countries has been highlighted by a remarkable set of exchanges between Tehran and Moscow over the past week. On July 12, Moscow signed on to a declaration... MORE

*Read Part One. *Read Part Two. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has conclusively won the Baltic Sea; however, it risks losing the Black Sea in terms of naval posturing and discretionary air access. NATO’s summit, on July 11 and 12 in Vilnius, marked the... MORE

On July 18, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that “attempts to continue the grain deal without the participation of the Russian Federation must take into account the risks associated with the fact that the grain export route passes near the combat area” (Un.org, July 22,... MORE

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit on July 11 and 12 was held just 30 kilometers from the Belarusian border. Valer Karbalevich of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty noted that, in the summit’s final communiqué, Belarus was mentioned seven times (Svaboda, July 13). If, however, one... MORE

Soaring costs and unexpected technological difficulties have led the Russian Navy to cancel serial production of its Project 20386 class of new “stealth” corvettes after completion of the series prototype, the Derzkii (Дерзкий,  “Daring”), under construction at St. Petersburg’s Severnaia Verf facility, part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation... MORE

When the United States Congress passed a resolution in 1959 requiring the president to issue a proclamation on Captive Nations Week every July, this measure was viewed both by its authors and those opposed to it as directed against the repression of nations by communist... MORE