In late evening, on November 26, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) implemented Martial Law in selected regions of Ukraine that is to last until December 26 (Rada.gov, November 26). President Petro Poroshenko pushed the legislature to adopt this measure after the Russian Coast Guard attacked... MORE

During the annual VTB Capital Investment Forum “Russia Calling!” on November 28, President Vladimir Putin called the frictions between Beijing and Washington a “window of opportunity” for Russia to achieve a qualitatively new level of bilateral economic relations with China (RBC, November 28). The following... MORE

The Azerbaijani military portal Azerideffence.com recently published information about Baku acquiring French ASTER 30-SAMP/T and VL MICA air-defense missile systems. A representative of the company producing these missile systems—MBDA—confirmed the information (Azeridefense.com, December 1). Several days later, the Russian newspaper Kommersant informed that Moscow had... MORE

Despite recent concerns from some security analysts that a new Military Doctrine of the Union State of Russia and Belarus will include provisions for the establishment of a Russian military base on Belarusian soil (see EDM, October 30), the document will likely undergo only cosmetic... MORE

Dubai’s ARJ Holdings announced, on December 3, it is investing 100 million euros ($125 million) in the Tallinn–Helsinki tunnel project (Rzd-partner.ru, December 4). This amount represents only a small fraction of what the construction of that 50-kilometer undersea rail tunnel will cost. And yet, because... MORE

As Russia’s Armed Forces continue to benefit from the process of military modernization, a growing area of concern for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) planners is Russia’s continued steps to boost anti-access, area denial (A2/AD) capabilities close to its borders. An important feature of this... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. *To Read Part Three, please click here.   On November 24, one day before Russia’s November 25 attacks on Ukrainian ships, Russia’s State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Grigory Karasin... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here.   Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea and the resulting de facto border changes have overturned the geographical and political foundations of the 2003 Russia-Ukraine treaty on the Azov Sea and Kerch... MORE

Last Friday (December 7), Lithuania became the first country to impose new sanctions against Russia for its forceful and illegitimate action against three Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait on November 25 (RBC, December 7). This naval skirmish (see EDM, November 26, 28, 29) was... MORE

On November 19, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev paid a long-awaited official visit to Belarus, where he met with his counterpart, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. On this occasion, the Belarusian and Azerbaijani state news agencies praised the level of bilateral strategic cooperation, widely citing Lukashenka’s words to... MORE