On March 9, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili appealed to the government of Russia to take “reasonable, at least minimal steps, for bringing [Georgian-Russian] relations out of [their] vicious cycle.” Moreover, he once again reiterated Tbilisi’s readiness to engage Abkhazian and Ossetian separatists in direct... MORE

Russia conceived of the Arctic as a military bastion long before Vladimir Putin rose to power. Yet, since coming to the Kremlin, Putin has explicitly tried to turn the Russian High North into a showcase of his dreams of developing the next Russian “El Dorado.”... MORE

The Muslim population of the Russian capital has grown dramatically in recent years, with the arrival in the 1990s of North Caucasians fleeing from violence in their home areas and of Central Asians and Azerbaijanis in the 2000s seeking work. Some estimate the total number... MORE

President Vladimir Putin was reelected in a landslide on March 18, winning over 76 percent of the popular vote. With turnout of more than 67 percent, Putin obtained over 56 million votes—more than half of the overall number of registered voters (Interfax, March 19). Of... MORE

One of the most notable political developments of the past several years has been the gradual reemergence of Russia as a rising regional military and diplomatic power in the Middle East, renewing connections that were adversely affected by the 1991 collapse the Soviet Union. Beyond... MORE

Since becoming independent in 1991, the countries of Central Asia, both individually and collectively, have been viewed by many outsiders and even some of their own people as the inevitable objects of politics rather than as potential subjects. The region is widely considered one of... MORE

Despite having banned its contract soldiers (kontraktniki) from using online social networks (VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, in particular) (see EDM, October 20, 2017), the Russian Ministry of Defense has not dismissed the idea of using social networks for its own purposes. These policies are driven both... MORE

Prime Minister Theresa May issued a statement, on March 14, that the United Kingdom was evaluating other natural gas import options to decrease her country’s dependence on gas imports from Russia. The UK prime minister’s assurance came as a response to a comment made by... MORE

No surprises happened in Russia on Sunday, March 18, in the carefully orchestrated voting procedure generously described by the media as a “presidential elections.” But many questions loom over the beginning of the new term that Vladimir Putin claimed. His “campaigning” gained some momentum in... MORE

The Vladimir Putin regime, which is generally given credit for coming up with the concept of “hybrid war” (“New Type Warfare”) and deploying it against other countries, is now struggling with another task: figuring out how to defend the Russian Federation from “hybrid war” attacks.... MORE