Following recent Russian media coverage of the success of the Aerospace Forces (Vozdushno Kosmicheskikh Sil—VKS) in their operations in Syria, there are renewed indications that Moscow is seeking some kind of exit strategy. Despite earlier reports of a Russian withdrawal from Syria, which merely provided... MORE

The decision of United States President Donald Trump not to certify the fact that Iran is duly implementing the provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) had been expected, so all international political responses were carefully measured. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for... MORE

Foreign investments in renewable energy projects benefit Ukraine in the shift to clean energy, but they also are have wider geo-economic and national security importance for this struggling European democracy. Ukraine is currently pursuing a number of renewable energy ventures funded by foreign investments. The... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin named Vladimir Vasilyev acting head of the Republic of Dagestan, on October 3, replacing Ramazan Abdulatipov, who had resigned a week earlier (Kremlin.ru, October 3). Until now, Vasiliyev served as the deputy head of the State Duma and was the parliamentary... MORE

By finalizing the construction of the Kerch Bridge (see EDM, September 6), Russia is completing its geopolitical project of fully cutting the Crimean Peninsula—which it illegally annexed in March 2014—off from mainland Ukraine. Russia’s chief gains from this effort are first of all to obtain... MORE

While Ukraine’s power plants are short of fuel, coal from the unrecognized Luhansk “people’s republic,” located in the Moscow-proxy-controlled eastern part of Donbas, has been smuggled to Poland, journalists from the Polish newspaper Dziennik have found. Doncoaltrade, a firm linked to Oleksandr Melnychuk, a former... MORE

Kyrgyzstan is not the poorest post-Soviet state, but it is the recipient of more Russian money than any other (Turantoday.com, October 11). And Moscow’s payments appear to have purchased at least one thing Moscow very much wants: Bishkek has put off for perhaps two decades... MORE

The advance into the oil and natural gas–rich northeastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and supported by Russian bombing sorties has been heralded by the Kremlin as “a very important strategic victory.” The besieged provincial capital of Deir... MORE

Ostensibly to celebrate Vladimir Putin’s birthday on Saturday, October 7, supporters of the detained opposition politician and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny and his staff organized protests across Russia, calling on the Russian president to leave office. Navalny himself has been under administrative arrest since September... MORE

Vladimir Putin described Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s visit to Moscow as “momentous” (see EDM, October 10; RIA Novosti, October 5); and it certainly was. In similar fashion, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented that the Saudi monarch’s visit constituted a “turning point in... MORE