The discount enjoyed by India on Russian crude oil since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has now shrunk from around $30 to $4 per barrel. Yet, while steep discounts have plunged, the Russian-managed shipping rates continue to remain higher than normal. India is... MORE

On July 31, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the notorious Wagner Group that had attempted an unsuccessful mutiny resulting from conflict with the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD), stated, “At the moment, we are not planning to open recruitment centers. To avoid any talks and rumors,... MORE

Three years ago, massive protests triggered by the rigged presidential elections of August 9, 2020, took place in Belarus. This year, the anniversary has inspired a number of musings on the part of Belarusian political commentators. Thus, the sociologist Gennady Korshunov, former director of the... MORE

Since mid-July 2023, as a result of the agreement reached after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny, Russia has begun to relocate Wagner Group mercenaries to Belarusian territory, raising well-reasoned concerns in the neighboring states. On August 1, Poland faced yet another provocation in which two Belarusian helicopters... MORE

On August 13, a warship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet executed a board-and-search operation of a Turkish freighter that was passing through Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) en route to Ukraine to load grain. The Russian crew fired warning shots from automatic weapons to intimidate... MORE

*Read Part One. As Ukraine was readying for its counteroffensive, the Russian side was making what the top brass deemed as necessary preparations. These efforts were laid out in documentation of the Russian Armed Forces that Ukrainian units “captured” on the battlefield—namely the documents “Recommendations... MORE

On August 11, Russia launched its long-delayed Luna-25 mission to the Moon, with the probe aiming to land on the lunar surface in the coming days (TASS, August 11). The main purposes of the Luna-25 launch include the demonstration of Moscow’s technological prowess and landing... MORE

Russia’s all-out aggression against Ukraine, which will pass the 18-month mark next week, is indirectly but strongly connected to the Russo-Georgian war of 15 years ago. In the first week of August 2008, Georgian villages in South Ossetia, a separatist enclave controlled by Russia since... MORE

On July 25, influential nongovernmental organization (NGO) Transparency International published a new report on Russian citizens’ recent activities in Georgia. According to the document, since February 24, 2022, after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian citizens have registered 21,326 enterprises of various... MORE

Four months after Finland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council and President Vladimir Putin’s closest confidant on security issues, announced that the West and Ukraine have launched a broad campaign to destabilize Karelia by promoting secessionist attitudes.... MORE