At an October 31 meeting of the Interethnic Relations Council, President Vladimir Putin approved the idea to adopt the “Law on the Russian Nation” (rossiyskaya natsiya), which would legally define the term (Kremlin.ru, October 31). This proposal, and its potential legalistic consequences for the country’s... MORE

The arrest (on November 15) of Alexei Ulyukaev (60), the minister of economic development of the Russian Federation, dominated the news coming out of Moscow this week. Ulyukaev is accused of soliciting a $2 million bribe from Rosneft—Russia’s largest state-owned oil major. Ulyukaev was promptly... MORE

The Russian government killed or expelled nearly the entire Circassian nation from the North Caucasus in 1864, after this group resisted the Russian Empire’s advance there for more than a century. To this day, the Circassians remember this as their “genocide.” Now, the Russian government... MORE

On October 23 and 25, a team of Ukrainian hackers, known as Kiberkhunta (Cyber-Junta), unveiled a massive number of e-mails that belonged to the notorious Russian official Vladislav Surkov. Prior to 2013, Surkov was responsible for Russia’s domestic policies in Vladimir Putin’s administration. After 2013,... MORE

The reputation of Russia’s Armed Forces was boosted by its involvement in Ukraine and its out-of-area intervention in Syria, on the back of the publicity generated by ongoing long-term military modernization (see EDM, November 8). Overlapping the presidential election in the United States, Russia’s high-profile... MORE

On November 13, Moldova held run offs for its first direct presidential election in 20 years. The change resulted from a controversial Constitutional Court decision earlier this year (see EDM, March 8), which was seen as an attempt by the ruling establishment to defuse the... MORE

The outcome of the presidential election in the United States was celebrated in Moscow with such joy and triumphalism as if Russia had scored a major political victory (see EDM, November 10). Mainstream commentators gloated; the public forgot to reflect on the 99th anniversary of... MORE

Following the second round of the parliamentary elections on October 30, the ruling party, Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia (GDDG), received a constitutional majority—over three-quarters of the seats in the new parliament. The opposition party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, United National Movement (UNM), will have only... MORE

The news of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton conceding the race to Donald Trump was met with spontaneous applause by the Kremlin-controlled State Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament) during a plenary session. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the Kremlin-linked flamboyant nationalist politician and leader of the... MORE

On Belarus’s eastern flank, the conflict with Russia over natural gas prices has reportedly been resolved; but the parameters of the resolution are not transparent. In the words of Belarusian Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov, the price of gas remains $132 per 1,000 cubic meters, as... MORE