Having lost its Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status on April 1, 2016, Russia’s westernmost region, Kaliningrad Oblast, has once again demonstrated an inability to cope with mounting economic challenges. Meanwhile, floods and adverse weather conditions near the close of 2017 compelled local authorities to beg... MORE

At the end of December and following Vladimir Putin’s premature declaration of victory in Syria (see EDM, December 14, 2017), Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that the militant underground in the North Caucasus had been liquidated—a claim even less justified than the president’s pronouncement... MORE

As 2017 drew to a close, Russia’s political-military leadership staged various events and public discussions emphasizing some of the achievements of the year and outlining priorities for 2018. Few surprises came out of these reflections, with the overall defense priorities well established. Still, those meetings... MORE

In an October 2017 interview on Lenta.ru, a mainstream Russian online news portal, prominent historian Sergei Volkov was pointedly asked, “Why is it that neighbors and allies of Russia continue to build their state ideologies on anti-Russian rhetoric?” He responded, “That is because all these... MORE

In practical terms, Russia has not yet begun 2018—the country awakes from its traditional holiday vacation only on Tuesday (January 9). That said, Russians’ common reflection on the year past can easily be summed up with “Good riddance!” By almost any measure, 2017 was not... MORE

Since 2012, Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping has consolidated more power than any Chinese leader since at least Deng Xiaoping. This consolidation of power has coincided with a growing cult of personality, which portrays Xi as “the right leader at the right time” for... MORE

With its “wife abandonment syndrome” (see EDM, December 5, 2016) fostered by the geopolitical reorientation of former satellites, Russia is prone to suspect latent infidelity on the part of Belarus, too. These suspicions regularly come out on Russian TV talk shows; and certain media outlets,... MORE

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) annual ministerial conference, held on December 7–8, in Vienna, exposed yet again the 57-member international organization’s incapacity to hold its own against Russia. The latter used its veto power as a member to block any and... MORE

Russia is once again focusing on Azerbaijan’s attachment to Turkey and on its “Turkification” of the minority nationalities within its borders, something one advisor to the Kremlin says is a threat to stability in the region and to the interests of Russia and Iran (Ekonomicheskiye... MORE

On December 11, President Vladimir Putin landed on the tarmac at Hmeymim—the main Russian military base in Syria—for a visit that was reported only after Putin’s jet was already safely in the air heading to Egypt. Apparently, to prevent any unauthorized leaks, journalists in the... MORE