The press and government officials in Moscow are applauding the seemingly imminent and total defeat of Syrian opposition fighters in eastern Aleppo. Forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, together with Iranian-led and financed Shia militias from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Lebanese Hezbollah, have... MORE

The Russian government killed or expelled nearly the entire Circassian nation from the North Caucasus in 1864, after this group resisted the Russian Empire’s advance there for more than a century. To this day, the Circassians remember this as their “genocide.” Now, the Russian government... MORE

Long-simmering tensions between Jund al-Aqsa, Ahrar al-Sham and several smaller rebel groups erupted into outright fighting across Syria’s Hama and Idlib provinces at the beginning of October, culminating in the death of a revered Ahrar al-Sham commander known as al-Dabous. An ensuing truce, mediated by... MORE

The news of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton conceding the race to Donald Trump was met with spontaneous applause by the Kremlin-controlled State Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament) during a plenary session. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the Kremlin-linked flamboyant nationalist politician and leader of the... MORE

The Kremlin’s growing geopolitical ambitions have once again undermined previous successes of Russian military reform. In particular, the Defense Committee of the State Duma (parliament) recently approved amendments to the law “On Military Duty and Military Service.” The amendments, originally proposed by the Ministry of... MORE

The following political landscape piece is a part of Eurasia Daily Monitor’s special quarterly series of strategic assessments of developments across Eurasia. These pieces examine recent important developments and trends in the region, particularly since this past summer, and anticipate where those trend lines may... MORE

In July, the leader of Syrian Islamist militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, announced his faction had changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS) and was amicably splitting from al-Qaeda (Hurriyet Daily News, July 29). The move is genuine, insofar as al-Qaeda has... MORE

The Russian aerospace forces (Vozdushno Kosmicheskye Sily—VKS) continue to bomb the Syrian opposition, as Russia’s Iranian-led allies carry on land attacks against the rebel-controlled half of Aleppo. But meanwhile, Russia’s two largest warships—the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and nuclear battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy—have reached the Mediterranean.... MORE