The Greek government’s wide-ranging efforts to prevent the country’s financial collapse finally culminated in an agreement with the European Union, on July 13 (see EDM, July 14). The bailout deal provides new concessions regarding Greece’s debt. While the EU may have saved Athens from financial... MORE

The Mongolian Armed Forces (MAF), working with the United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) and the US government’s Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) program, hosted their annual multinational exercise known as Khaan Quest 2015, on June 20–July 1. The exercise was held at the 311th Army... MORE

Hardly any other political figure in the contemporary history of the North Caucasus can rival Ramazan Abdulatipov when it comes to the number of rumors about his resignation since the start of his career as the republic’s governor. Rumors about his resignation started when he... MORE

On July 17, 2014, Malaysian passenger jet Flight MH17 was shot out of the sky over the territory of Ukrainian Donbas controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, killing all 298 people on board (most of them—Dutch citizens). The Ukrainian authorities have accused the separatist rebels of shooting... MORE

On July 8, Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Oil and Gas noted that Russian state natural gas company Gazprom had failed to pay for imports since the beginning of the year, stating, “The Russian company OAO Gazprom has failed to pay under its contracts for buying and... MORE

Shortly after Moscow dispatched Ramazan Abdulatipov to rule Dagestan in 2013, the new governor managed to depose the most influential politician of the republic at the time—Said Amirov, the mayor of the republican capital of Makhachkala. Amirov was accused of a variety of crimes and... MORE

By its illegal occupation of Crimea, Moscow has transformed that Ukrainian peninsula into an island, the second non-contiguous part of the Russian Federation and one that is already giving the Russian government and the Russian economy serious problems—as Kaliningrad long has (Ekho Moskvy, July 10).... MORE

It was a rare coincidence in world politics that two pivotal and protracted negotiation processes—the European Union’s talks with Greece on managing its debt, and the “P5+1” talks on managing the Iranian nuclear program—both culminated in crucial agreements at the start of this week (July... MORE

On June 26, the ideologue of free Cossakia Grigory Kuznetsov (a. k. a. Vladlen Alyabyev), reiterated his vision of an independent Cossack territorial entity in a brief manifesto. The Cossack leader did not explicitly state that Cossakia should seek independence from the Russian Federation, but... MORE

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the United States’ ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, and Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev descended on Odesa in separate visits (July 2–July 8), to confer with Governor Mikheil Saakashvili there. Georgia’s former president aims to turn this undeveloped province of Ukraine into... MORE