Russia launched a GLONASS-M 758 navigation satellite into orbit on May 27. The satellite became fully operational a month later, on June 22, replacing GLONASS-M 723, “which had exceeded its expected service life by some 50 percent” (Glonass-iac.ru, June 22). With the launch of GLONASS-M... MORE

Last fall, during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) massive Trident Juncture 2018 military exercises, 31 allied and partner countries, over 50,000 personnel, 10,000 vehicles, 150 aircraft and some 60 warships, including the carrier USS Harry Truman, gathered to practice large-scale maneuvers in Norway as... MORE

Financial corruption scandals are not a novel phenomenon in the Baltic States. Multiple Baltic banks have repeatedly been implicated in money laundering schemes involving politicians and businessmen from Russia and other former Soviet countries. But what is notable about the latest wave of revelations is... MORE

The fifth Russia-sponsored international forum “The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue” was staged last week (April 9–10), in St. Petersburg, and President Vladimir Putin used the occasion to demonstrate his particular interest in the international issues affecting this extreme region. He was joined on the panel... MORE

China’s Touchstone Capital Partners is ready to invest up to 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in the construction of an undersea tunnel linking Finland and Estonia, according to Finnish backers of the project (Helsingin Sanomat, March 8). Such an injection of funds could mean that... MORE

Introduction The December 1, 2018, arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) in Vancouver—an arrest made by Canadian officials pursuant to a warrant issued in the United States—touched off a three-way diplomatic firestorm between China, Canada, and the United States. However, in the... MORE

Dubai’s ARJ Holdings announced, on December 3, it is investing 100 million euros ($125 million) in the Tallinn–Helsinki tunnel project (Rzd-partner.ru, December 4). This amount represents only a small fraction of what the construction of that 50-kilometer undersea rail tunnel will cost. And yet, because... MORE

Speaking on the sidelines of this year’s East Asia Summit (November 14–15), in Singapore, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe agreed to step up negotiations on a bilateral peace treaty based on the 1956 Soviet-Japanese Declaration. At their previous meeting, just... MORE

The massive strategic-operational war game Vostok 2018, held last September in the Russian Far East, officially involved up to 300,000 personnel and thousands of tanks and other heavy military equipment. Russian forces were joined by a mechanized brigade from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).... MORE

Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin seem to have established a good rapport during their summit in Helsinki, on July 16. The Russian media enthusiastically quoted Trump: “We got along well, which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results... MORE