The general elections to the Russia State Duma (lower house of parliament) concluded on September 19, after three days of in-person and remote internet voting, with a total landslide victory for the Kremlin. Half of the Duma deputies are elected through proportionate party representation, and... MORE

With reference to Nasha Niva, the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty reports that Deutsche Bank, the main correspondent bank of Belarusian state-owned financial institutions, has closed its correspondent accounts in euros. Evidence of this could be seen by looking at the list of respective accounts... MORE

On September 6–10, Azerbaijan and Turkey held joint special forces exercises in the Lachin region of Azerbaijan, marking the first time Turkish troops carried out military operations in the Azerbaijani territories liberated as a result of the 44-day Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020)... MORE

As a result of major reforms and continued state investment in modernization over more than a decade, the Russian Armed Forces have significantly advanced their capabilities both in general and specifically in Electronic Warfare (EW; in Russian, radioelektronnaya borba, or REB). This has involved forming... MORE

Demography is not destiny except over the long term, it is often said. But for Russia, that time may be now. Accelerating population decline, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing migration from the countryside to large urban centers, mean that vast swaths of the... MORE

With the emergence of China and other manufacturing powerhouses in Asia that constantly seek access to new markets, the Caucasus has become attractive as a transit route for the movement of goods between the two parts of the Eurasian continent. Georgia (and by extension Armenia)... MORE

While Russia and Belarus made final preparations to kick off their quadrennial joint strategic-operational exercise Zapad 2021, the two countries’ air-defense and air force units were put on joint duty as part of the recently established training and combat center in Grodno Oblast, in western... MORE

The outcome of Russia’s crudely manipulated parliamentary elections on September 17–19 was never in question: the Kremlin executed extra-rigid control over the campaigning and vote counting. But it was somewhat surprising to see how far the authorities would ultimately go to crush the supporters of... MORE

When the five Caspian littoral states signed a maritime delimitation pact in August 2018, they additionally agreed not to allow any outside power to have a military role in this landlocked sea (RITM Eurasia, August 14, 2018). But in the three years since that accord... MORE

The massive, Russo-Belarusian Zapad 2021 operational-strategic war games have ended. The scenario of this year’s iteration of Zapad (September 10–16) envisaged an attack on the Russo-Belarusian Union State by a hostile outside force depicted as the fictitious “Polar Republic.” The invaders were eventually defeated and... MORE