Few prospects worry Moscow more than a potential reduction of tensions between the United States and China. Such a development, even if half-hearted and temporary, would threaten a curtailment of Beijing’s support for Russia in the international arena—at least from Moscow’s perspective. The Asia-Pacific Economic... MORE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ended a debate that he himself had helped spark. Zelenskyy told the nation on November 6 that Ukraine cannot hold elections while fighting a war for survival: “This is a time for cohesion, not division and wrangling. … Not for... MORE

Russia is going to great lengths to maintain its war effort in Ukraine without having to resort to another wave of mass mobilization (see EDM, October 10, 31). Military-adjacent structures, such as the Registered Cossacks, are becoming increasingly important as a source of recruits for... MORE

On November 3, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka paid a visit to Astravets, the site of Belarus’s nuclear power plant located 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) from the Lithuanian border (President.gov.by, November 3). The visit was arranged in concert with Russian energy corporation Rosatom completing the... MORE

The Kremlin has broadened the recruitment of prisoners by the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and National Guard (Rosgvardia) in an effort to avoid launching a second wave of mass mobilization. This comes after Moscow denied the Wagner Group the right to recruit convicts in... MORE

On November 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the bill officially withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Putin’s move is designed to restore parity in nuclear arms control commitments with the United States, which has never ratified the treaty. The document signed... MORE

In September, Azerbaijan carried out a swift military operation to reclaim full control over the Karabakh region (see EDM, September 20). Since then, Armenia has begun searching for new partners, as Yerevan has become deeply distrustful of Moscow (see EDM, February 9). On October 3,... MORE

The degradation of Russian morale in the trenches of Avdiivka and Bakhmut has driven Moscow to try altering the course of the war with a revival of nuclear blackmail tactics. On October 30, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that Western attempts to inflict strategic... MORE

The series of unsuccessful offensives in the Kupyansk and Avdiivka directions have caused major problems for Russian forces in Ukraine (Ukrinform, October 27; Kyiv Independent, October 29). The Russian army is losing military equipment at a high rate, which Moscow seemingly considers a worse problem... MORE

*Read Part One. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech to the Security Council on October 30 marks a further step toward positioning Russia at the forefront of anti-Western forces more globally (Kremlin.ru, October 30). In the Hamas-Israel war, the Kremlin is taking the side of Hamas... MORE