Romania’s new national defense strategy for 2020–2024 has just entered parliamentary debate and is already generating international controversy. The 46-page document (Hotnews.ro, June 4) has drawn Moscow’s ire because it defines the Russian Federation as a “threat” in the Black Sea region and indirectly accuses the... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here.   Pro-Ukraine personalities, forcibly displaced from the Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk, participated in the Minsk Contact Group’s extended video-conference session on June 9–15, as invited members of Ukraine’s delegation. This innovative arrangement looks set to continue for the... MORE

Russia’s political-military leadership regularly complains about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) military exercises, especially any staged close to the Russian borders. This year, the Alliance planned to conduct Defender Europe 2020, its largest exercise on the European continent since the end of the Cold... MORE

The electoral campaign in Belarus is developing like the plot of a mystery novel. Two obstacles seem to stand in the way of its impartial description: the sheer number of new developments and groupthink. The former makes it difficult to see the forest for the... MORE

On June 12, the first Borei-A class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), the Knyaz Vladimir, officially entered service with the Russian Northern Fleet (Mil.ru, June 12). The submarine’s transfer to the fleet was originally scheduled for 2017, but was postponed to 2019. Tests of the submarine... MORE

Circassians both in their North Caucasus homeland and in the diaspora are uniting to oppose the possibility of the amalgamation of the Republic of Adygea with the surrounding Krasnodar Krai. Members of the community view such a step as an attack on their nation. Their... MORE

At a June 2 meeting with members of the “parliament” of Abkhazia, the secessionist Georgian region’s newly elected “president,” Aslan Bzhania, reported that, during his first visit to Moscow (May 5) (Ekho Kavkaza, May 5), he had secured additional Russian funds to fill local budgetary... MORE

As the novel coronavirus crisis unfolded in Italy, several countries came to the rescue, and among them, Russia played a crucial role (see EDM, April 8). Italian authorities acknowledged and praised these efforts. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio personally welcomed Russian cargo planes when they... MORE

Kyiv has appointed pro-Ukraine refugees from the Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk to represent those territories in the Minsk Contact Group, the forum that negotiates the implementation of the Minsk “agreements.” For the first time in almost six years, pro-Ukraine delegates, acting on behalf of those... MORE

Last Friday (June 12), President Vladimir Putin made a rare public appearance at the Poklonnaya Gora memorial park in Moscow and delivered a short speech at the ceremonial raising of the national flag on the occasion of Russia Day. No public celebrations were held because... MORE