Since the final collapse of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, in August 2019, accusations and denials have abounded between Moscow and Washington concerning the controversial issue of the cruise missile range of the Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system (Operativno-Takticheskiy Raketnyy Kompleks—OTRK). Moscow strenuously denies... MORE

Both individually and as a group, the six non-Russian republics of the Middle Volga—Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Udmurtia, Mordvinia, Mari El and Chuvashia (collectively known as the Idel-Ural)—have become a radically more serious problem for Moscow over the last year, challenging it in new ways and old.... MORE

On January 20, Chechnya’s strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov, reappeared in public after more than a week of absence. Kadyrov presided over a government meeting in Grozny, at which he stated that he had no plans to take up employment outside the republic (Chechnya.gov.ru, January 20, 2020).... MORE

Russian mercenaries have been intensifying their activities on the African continent since at least September 2019, though seemingly without much visible success. And it appears those slogging efforts are increasingly being hampered by serious challenges the likes of which Russia’s private military companies (PMC) had... MORE

The Russian political class suffered a massive shock from President Vladimir Putin’s address to the Federal Assembly last Wednesday (January 15) in which he delivered three unexpected bombshells (see EDM, January 16, 2020). The first was a set of vaguely formulated revisions to the Russian... MORE

Introduction In early December, Major General Shao Yuanming (邵元明), the Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), traveled to the Islamic Republic of Iran for rare high-level military meetings. These meetings were held... MORE

In a grand ceremony in Istanbul, on January 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, officially opened the TurkStream natural gas pipeline, running from Russia to Turkey along the Black Sea seabed (TRT World, January 9, 2020). The pipeline is... MORE

The eastern half of the North Caucasus (see EDM, January 14, 2020) has been more restive in the last 12 months than the western half—indeed, one recent survey of the entire region during 2019 ignored the Northwest Caucasus altogether (Ekho Kavkaza, January 5, 2020). But... MORE

A ticking clock and a shutting trap seem appropriate metaphors for the predicament of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team hoping against hope for “peace” with Russia. The “Normandy” leaders’ (Russia, Germany, France, Ukraine) summit in Paris, on December 9, 2019, started the clock... MORE

President Vladimir Putin once again surprised everyone by using his annual address to a joint session of both houses of parliament to announce constitutional changes, a government reshuffle and the ouster of his long-time loyal subordinate, Dmitry Medvedev (54). The dismissed prime minister has been... MORE