Introduction Amid the ongoing crisis in Venezuela—in which the country faces not only economic meltdown, but also a division between two rival presidents, in the persons of incumbent President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido—the People’s Republic of China (PRC) remains one of the... MORE

At the February 27 meeting of Russia’s top military chiefs (the Defense Ministry Collegium), the minister of defense, Army General Sergei Shoigu, described mounting external military threats in an unstable and unpredictable world. In his opening remarks, which were reported by the defense ministry’s press... MORE

On January 17, the president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, paid a state visit to Belarus, as part of his four-country Eurasian tour. Besides Minsk, the Zimbabwean delegation landed in Moscow, Almaty and Baku (Kommersant.ru, January 15). The African continent is not a new destination for... MORE

Russia has positioned itself as the main supporter of Nicholás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela, thus risking turning a crisis in a far-away country into an embarrassing political defeat. Official propaganda has amplified this issue. Yet, while 57 percent of Russian respondents in a recent poll... MORE

Russia’s Armed Forces are continuing to develop and strengthen their Electronic Warfare (Radioelektronnaya Borba—REB/EW) capabilities. The General Staff sees this as an essential element in its efforts to adopt Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) competencies, as well as a force enabler... MORE

The Donald Trump administration has moved beyond browbeating the European countries involved in the Nord Stream Two project and threatening sanctions against the natural gas pipeline’s partners; it is now making the same threats against its contractors. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her successor... MORE

The economic and political crisis in Venezuela is seen in Russia as an imperialist conspiracy, led by the United States, to oust a Russian ally: the “legitimate” and “progressive” government of President Nicolás Maduro. The Kremlin’s involvement in Latin America goes back many decades. In... MORE

Foreign affairs have yielded few successes and much chagrin for Russia since the start of 2019 (see EDM, January 14, 2019). Relations with the United States are going from bad to worse, as the inevitable collapse of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signifies... MORE

Mass anti-government protests that erupted this month in major Venezuelan cities apparently already claimed the lives of at least 29 protestors. The country’s embattled president, Nicolás Maduro, has defined the events as “an attempt at forceful regime change organized by American imperialism” (Rosbalt, January 26,... MORE

Climate change has become a central battleground in the PRC’s bid to brand itself as a leading partner and spokesman for the developing world. Beijing has earmarked billions to fund initiatives aimed at reducing carbon, supporting green energy, and promoting climate change resilience across the... MORE