
Latest Articles about Russia

License Plate Ban in EU May Alienate Russian Population
In September 2023, all European Union member states bordering Russia introduced an entry ban on cars sporting Russian license plates. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were the first to implement the policy, albeit with Vilnius leaving open an exception for transit from the Russian exclave Kaliningrad... MORE

Baku’s Karabakh Victory Prompts Moldova to Mull Using Force in Transnistria
Azerbaijan’s recovery of control over the unrecognized statelet in Karabakh by military means unsurprisingly has been seen by some in other countries as a precedent for action against breakaway republics elsewhere (see EDM, September 20). This is true for Moldova, where several nationalist politicians and... MORE

Turkey Supports Azerbaijan’s Operation in Karabakh
On September 19, Azerbaijan launched an “anti-terrorist operation” in the Karabakh region against armed separatist forces. The operation followed three years of largely unproductive peace talks between Armenian and Azerbaijan following the Second Karabakh War in 2020 (TASS, September 19; see EDM, September 20). The... MORE

Hungary Reiterates Commitment to Nuclear Cooperation with Russia
On September 11, the Hungarian ambassador to Russia, Norbert Konkoly, declared that Budapest remains fully committed to further cooperation with Moscow on nuclear energy (TASS, September 11). Konkoly’s statement was meant to dispel the rumors that Hungary may replace Russian nuclear fuel for the operating... MORE

Winter in the Long War Is Coming for Russia
Russia’s strategy for prevailing in the long war with Ukraine does not have a protracted timeline and looks no further than 2024. It is based on three premises: economic performance will keep the war machine going; Western support for Ukraine will erode and contract; and... MORE

Azerbaijan Moves to Disarm Karabakh Separatists (Part Two)
*Read Part One. On September 20, Azerbaijan called for a ceasefire in the operation against armed detachments of the separatist regime in Karabakh (Trend.az, September 20). In a televised address to the nation, President Ilham Aliyev stated that Baku’s conditions were accepted by the separatist... MORE

Russia Toys With Statistics on Contracted Soldiers
On September 26, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev announced that the Russian Armed Forces have recruited more than 325,000 contracted soldiers since January 1. Based on earlier declarations, the Ministry of Defense is trying to hit the target of 521,000 contracted... MORE

China Strengthening Its Position in Northern Russia and the Arctic Sea
Moscow has long declared that China’s role in the development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is a central part of their strategic cooperation (see EDM, July 23, 2020; March 28). Despite this, the Kremlin cannot be entirely comfortable with the recent extent of Beijing’s... MORE

Polish-Ukrainian Grain Dispute Explained
On September 15, the European Commission decided not to extend the ban on imports of certain grain exports from Ukraine. The ban was imposed after five European Union member states—Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia—effectively pressured Brussels to impose it, fearing destabilization of their domestic... MORE

Belarus’s Disunity and Its Impact on European Security
In 2022, the Day of National Unity was added to Belarus’s calendar as a new official holiday (see EDM, September 28, 2022). It is celebrated on September 17, the same day the Soviet Red Army entered Poland in 1939. Soviet Belarus more than doubled in... MORE