Faced with mounting combat losses in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to expand the size of Russian forces there, the absence of a general mobilization plan undermines the Kremlin leader’s claims and could trigger more domestic opposition (Meduza, May 5). As such, Moscow... MORE

As the Ukraine war has entered its fifth month, and two decades after Iran, Russia and India signed the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) in 2002, Dariush Jamali, head of the Iranian-Russian Port of Solyanka in Astrakhan Oblast, announced that the first transit shipment from... MORE

On July 2, Russian police detained Tahir Sozaev, head of the village Belaya Rechka in Kabardino-Balkaria. Sozaev is suspected of fomenting interethnic discord between the Balkars and other ethnic groups. In December 2021, the municipal official reportedly posted a controversial audio message in a village... MORE

The Russian State Duma (lower chamber of parliament) deputy from Kurgan, Aleksandr Iltyakov, launched a surprise blistering verbal attack against the governor of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, for the latter’s ostentatious visits to the war zone in Ukraine. The lawmaker criticized Kadyrov’s behavior and alluded to... MORE

On June 28–30, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili took part in the ceremonial portions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit held in Madrid, Spain. In general, this latest gathering of Alliance leaders not only did not bring about anything new or substantial for... MORE

Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is sitting in prison after a Tbilisi court sentenced him to three and six years behind bars for abuse of power during his presidency (2004–2013), presented a historic initiative to resolve an existential problem of Georgian statehood: the status of... MORE

As Russian President Vladimir Putin approaches his 70th birthday and 23rd year in power, speculation about his possible successor has increasingly surfaced in newspaper articles, blog posts and even some official press releases (RIA Novosti, January 25; Meduza, April 7; T.me/CenterCounteringDisinformation, April 21). Predictably, most of... MORE

As expected, at the European Union summit in Brussels, on June 23, the European Council decided not to award membership candidate status to Georgia. The EU’s top agenda-setting body, composed of the bloc’s heads of state and government, only conceded its readiness to grant the... MORE

One after another, authorities in the North Caucasus republics are announcing the creation of volunteer units for fighting Ukraine. The Russian military command proposed the establishment of a Dagestani rifle company on the basis of the 136th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade, stationed in Buinaksk,... MORE

After implementing a number of trans-Eurasian energy and logistics mega-projects, such as the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan oil pipeline, Southern Gas Corridor and Trans-Caspian International Transportation Route, Azerbaijan has also strategically committed itself to policies designed to turn the South Caucasus country into a regional digital hub (see... MORE