On November 24, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strictly condemned Sukhumi and Moscow’s joint approval of a program to create a common socio-economic space uniting breakaway Abkhazia and Russia. Tbilisi slammed it as “another illegal step toward the de facto annexation” of its occupied... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. *To read Part Three, please click here.   Over the past two decades, the main international mechanism for resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Karabakh—the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s... MORE

As the global economy—animated by the arrival of multiple COVID-19 vaccines—hopes for the first signs of recovery, expectations also rise in Russia for an accompanying surge in demand for oil and natural gas and renewed prominence of energy geopolitics in foreign policy-making. President Vladimir Putin... MORE

Introduction China and Russia are the two most influential space players besides the United States. Whereas in the past NASA was Moscow’s partner of choice, many influential Russians now look to China as their main future partner. Sino-Russian cooperation regarding global positioning and navigation satellites,... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of the issue at stake, mediators are expected to be impartial between two parties to a conflict. Yet the Minsk Group’s co-chairing Western governments—those of... MORE

The November 10 declaration that instituted a ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia also established new east-west and north-south transportation corridors across this corner of the South Caucasus, thus complicating and intensifying the “railway wars” that have gripped the region at various periods since the turn... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin has explained his refusal to congratulate the United States’ President-elect Joseph Biden on the fact that the outcome of the November 3, 2020, election has not yet been officially certified and President Donald Trump has not conceded defeat. A full month... MORE

This past month saw a new surge in “leaks” and speculation about the state of President Vladimir Putin’s health along with suggestions in the press that he might, therefore, be planning to resign his post early. Rumors of Putin’s failing constitution became repeated so frequently... MORE

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the output of all sectors of Russian industry, including arms manufacturers (see EDM, April 20, 21, 29, July 28). And despite the fact that state defense orders and the development of nuclear weapons in particular are among Russia’s most... MORE

On November 13, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree (ukaz) “On the Implementation of the Defense Plan of the Russian Federation for 2021–2025” (hereafter, the Plan), which will officially enter into force on January 1 (Pravo.gov.ru, November 13). The Plan—whose history dates back to 1996,... MORE