Like Russia, Belarus maintains the Soviet tradition of the so-called subbotniks, days of volunteer unpaid work on weekends. During the subbotnik on April 22, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka planted trees at the Khatyn national memorial. Grigory Azaryonak, a Belarusian television personality, participated as well. Azaryonak... MORE

On April 26, 2023, Italian Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto visited Uzbekistan. He first met with the Minister of Defense, General Bakhodir Kurbanov, and the President’s Special Representative for Foreign Policy Affairs, Abdulaziz Kamilov, before concluding his series of meetings with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev (Difesa.it,... MORE

As President Xi Jinping said farewell to his host and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the end of his visit to Moscow last month, a few Western media outlets caught the Chinese strongman’s parting words to his good friend on the doorstep of  the Kremlin:... MORE

On April 17, the Slovak Defense Ministry announced that Slovakia had delivered the promised 13 Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine (Kyiv Independent, April 17). Earlier, the German government had authorized Poland to hand over an additional five MiG-29s, originally from the former reserve of... MORE

On April 13, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev paid an official visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. While there, Aliyev met with his counterparts, the members of the Bosnian tripartite presidency, Željka Cvijanović, Denis Bećirović and Željko Komšić (Azertac, April 13). Despite the shortness of the visit—Aliyev departed... MORE

On March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the new Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation (Kremlin.ru, March 31). The previous version had been adopted seven years ago; but even then, in 2016, its wording was significantly more diplomatic than the current document. Moscow’s... MORE

As Russia’s war against Ukraine wages on, much discussion has focused on Ukraine’s strategy for retaking the Crimean Peninsula (Kyiv Independent, February 2; Ukrinform, March 14; Kyiv Post, April 6). In this context, the Sivash, or “Rotten Sea,” on Crimea’s northeastern coast and near the... MORE

Executive Summary Growing concerns exist in the US and other Western countries that there are systematic efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to undermine their societies. This concern has arisen from the developing observation and analysis of more offensive-based CCP activities outside of the... MORE

On April 5, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka paid a visit to Moscow for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that lasted six hours until 2:00 AM the next day (Myfin.by, April 6). Considering how frequently the two leaders have been meeting face-to-face—ten times... MORE

Decision-making in the Kremlin had been so erratic—even before the re-invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022—that the proposition of President Vladimir Putin inhabiting a bubble of servile courtiers and carefully doctored information appeared perfectly plausible. Early April 2023 has brought even more evidence supporting... MORE