Video footage of how enthusiastically the inhabitants of Kherson, with tears of joy, greeted their liberators from the Ukrainian Armed Forces has spread globally (YouTube, November 13). Against this backdrop, the official published data on the results of the “referendum” held by the occupation administration... MORE

Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev secured a second term in office following the snap presidential elections held on November 20, winning 81 percent of the vote. Tokayev will serve a single seven-year term, according to changes in the country’s constitution that increased the mandate from five to... MORE

On October 20, the inauguration of the Zangilan International Airport took place in the East Zangezur district of Azerbaijan (Azertag, October 20). The airport was jointly inaugurated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Turkish counterpart, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who became the first foreign... MORE

On November 11, a summit of the leaders of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) convened in Samarkand, Uzbekistan (Report.az, November 5). This major gathering came amid the OTS’s re-emerging significance as a key regional organization and a critical platform for rapprochement between the Central... MORE

On October 19, Romania’s Romgaz and Azerbaijan’s Socar inked a memorandum of understanding expressing an intention to “explore the opportunity of jointly developing a liquefied natural gas project [LNG] in the Black Sea” (Romgaz.ro, October 19). Both parties committed to preparing a comprehensive feasibility study;... MORE

By strengthening alternative transit corridors, Moscow hopes to counter tightening Western economic sanctions and transit restrictions adopted in response to Russia’s all-out assault on Ukraine. One of the most important prospects for Russia in this regard is to strengthen shipping and transit cooperation with Iran... MORE

Dmitry Gurnevich of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) analyzed the biographies of Belarus’s top-ranking military officers and concluded that many of them were either born in Russia, graduated from Russian military academies, or both (Svaboda, November 3). Specifically, out of the nine top military leaders,... MORE

Due to Moscow’s growing reliance on Tehran for weapons and its desire to use Iran as a means of circumventing Western sanctions (see EDM, December 15, 2020; November 1, 3), the Iranian authorities have been able to expand their influence not only in the South... MORE

On October 31, the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia came together in Sochi for their first such gathering since the last Moscow-mediated summit on November 26, 2021 (Kremlin.ru, October 31). The summit was held amid major uncertainties about the peace process between the two... MORE

The G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, scheduled for November 15–16, certainly presents attractive prospects for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who needs to re-assert his place among the world’s most influential leaders. However, he has yet to confirm his travel plans and not purely out of... MORE