For centuries, Russia has spent vast amounts of blood and treasure and fought multiple wars in the hopes to either directly annex the Turkish Straits—the Bosporus and the Dardanelles—or to establish a friendly vassal regime there that would control the strategic waterway and allow only... MORE

The Union State Treaty between Russia and Belarus (signed in April 1997) declares, in Chapter II, Section II, Articles 17–18, that border security falls into a group of key bilateral issues that must be solved jointly. In practice, this gives Russia control over Belarus’s external... MORE

At the fifth annual gathering of the International Arctic Forum, hosted by St. Petersburg, Russia, on April 9–10, 2019, participants voiced two diametrically opposing opinions regarding the so-called Belkomur (Arkhangelsk–Syktyvkar–Kudymakar–Perm) strategic railway project in the Russian High North. Yury Trutnev, a deputy prime minister of... MORE

Ambassadors from Russia, Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United States, and the European Union, collectively the mediators and observers to the Transnistria conflict-settlement negotiations, held talks in Chisinau and Tiraspol on July 12. This group seeks to promote the... MORE

The political crisis continues in Georgia, as crowds angry at Russia and their own government refuse to vacate the streets of Tbilisi. The ongoing standoff began on June 20, when tens of thousands of Georgians came out to protest the arrogant actions of Russian parliamentarian... MORE

The Russian authorities are quite effective at responding to specific and immediate domestic challenges. However, like governments elsewhere, they are less capable of dealing with slower-moving tectonic shifts. And consequently, they often view these as even more disturbing when such developments suddenly take on public... MORE

Since July 12, Russian transport planes have been landing at the Murted Air Base near Ankara, delivering elements of the S-400 surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, which Turkey purchased despite strong objections from the United States and expressions of concern from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization... MORE

Introduction In the month of June, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping kept up an ambitious international travel schedule, spending nearly half the month abroad on four major trips: to Russia, Central Asia, North Korea, and the G20 Summit in Japan. Although diplomatic... MORE

Background The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed in December 1987 between the United States and the Soviet Union, bound the signatories to eliminate “ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, their launchers and associated support structures and support... MORE

In mid-June, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU) ruled that the snap parliamentary elections called by newly inaugurated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be scheduled for July 21 (Pravda.com.ua, June 20; see EDM, May 22). Recent polling, conducted by the sociological firm Rating, shows that 42.3... MORE