In late June, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei gave an extensive interview to Sputnik, a state-backed Russian media and propaganda outlet with affiliates in several countries, including Belarus. One of the overarching and persistent themes emerging from his remarks was the adamant rejection of the... MORE

Heads of state and government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) convened on June 28–30, in Madrid, in the unprecedented circumstances of Russia’s invasion of NATO’s most important partner country, Ukraine, touching on the Alliance’s own eastern front line. The military-political bloc adopted a... MORE

On the Donbas battlefields, Russian troops still strive to advance, but in the global arena of confrontation with the collective West, Russia keeps losing ground. A sequence of heavy blows breached Russian defensive geopolitical positions last week, and Moscow’s attempts at counterstrikes only aggravated the... MORE

On May 14, the State Committee of National Security of Kyrgyzstan (GKNB) launched a criminal case against a Kyrgyz national, who was identified at first with only his initials K.u.A., for his participation in the war in Ukraine (Kaktus Media, May 14). In video footage... MORE

Introduction There is a hackneyed but true saying that one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. Since the Russians invaded Ukraine in February, this duality has been most prominently embodied by Azov Regiment Commander Denys “Redis” Prokopenko. To many Ukraine supporters, he is a... MORE

Just a year ago, Muslim Cheberloyevsky's life in Ukraine was teetering precariously on the brink of disaster after the country’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) blacklisted him as a major criminal underworld figure (President.gov.ua, May 14, 2021). For reasons which are still yet to... MORE

Introduction Since its inception in 2012, the Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (China-CEEC; 中国—中东欧国家合作, Zhongguo—Zhong Dong Ou Guojia Hezuo), better known as the 16+1 or 17+1 initiative, has often been described as a security risk with the potential to divide European... MORE

On June 18, Lithuania blocked the transit by rail of sanctioned goods between Kaliningrad Oblast and the rest of Russia , a step that Russian propaganda immediately claimed could be a harbinger of a larger war in Europe involving Moscow and the North Atlantic Treaty... MORE

Wars almost invariably have serious demographic consequences, not only for the countries attacked but also for the attackers. Armed conflicts create immediate losses in lives and a decline in births on both sides, aggravate other pre-existing negative demographic trends and, most importantly, disrupt the number... MORE

Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine is over four months old at this point, and the Cossacks have played a role in ostensibly sanctifying the ongoing conflict. The narrative of the war as a blessed mission for Russia’s dominion over Christian Orthodox lands is typified by Patriarch... MORE