Following a turbulent chain of events, Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia and the opposition activist leader of the Ukrainian Rukh Novykh Syl, last week found himself under house arrest in his Kyiv apartment. But today, on December 11, in yet another plot twist,... MORE

Belarus openly admits to pursuing a multi-directional foreign policy. And Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has made multiple statements about the difficulties of balancing between East and West under growing tensions and belligerent rhetoric from both sides (see, for example, Belta, June 2). But if Belarus’s... MORE

A Russian court in occupied Sevastopol sentenced Ukrainian former military expert Dmitry Shtyblykov, on November 16, to five years imprisonment in a strict penal colony (Regnum, November 16). Shtyblykov worked at the think tank Nomos, which, prior to the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014,... MORE

In late October, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) detained the interior minister’s son, Oleksandr Avakov. Allegedly, he was indicted in a corruption scheme that cost the Ukrainian budget over 14 million hryvnas (about $520,000). The younger Avakov and two other senior officials at... MORE

In recent months, Russia has repeatedly used Belarus for provocations against Ukraine. The latest example was the arrest of Ukrainian journalist Pavel Sharoyko by the Belarusian KGB—an incident in which the hand of Moscow is clearly perceptible. The Sharyoko case, as well as a series... MORE

The Ukrainian Rada (parliament) successfully passed health reform bills on June 5 and October 19. Spearheaded by the American-born, Ukrainian acting minister of health, Dr. Ulana Suprun, the medical reform was strongly criticized in leading Russian media outlets. However, the Kremlin’s attacks on Ukraine overshadow... MORE

According to the chief of the General Staff of Russia, Valery Gerasimov, in the last five years Russia has profoundly increased its military presence in key regions of the world, in some areas “reaching the level of the Soviet Union” (Vpk.name, November 9). Speaking on... MORE

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has never been our genuine friend, declares the Russian media outlet EurAsia Daily. According to an article there by Kirill Nemiga, in the early 1990s Lukashenka was ready to lead the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) but realized that its strand of... MORE

September and October saw a fresh wave of house searches, arrests and increasing oppression of regime critics on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. But last week (October 25), two Crimean Tatar political prisoners, Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, were freed and extradited to Turkey after Turkish... MORE

Vladimir Putin’s Anschluss of Crimea gave him a big political boost, and Russians still overwhelmingly support the annexation of that Ukrainian peninsula. But support for Russian forces and their clients in Donbas is declining, with ever more Russians against backing these breakaway groups and expressing... MORE