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

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin has struggled to maintain control over religious radicals and other aggressive advocates of his war against Ukraine, though his political ideology and worldview do not significantly differ from their own (see EDM, August 17). Conversely, these same radicals, recognizing the Kremlin’s... MORE

Nansen passports may soon be making a comeback as a means of coping with the possibility that thousands of Belarusians and potentially tens of thousands of Russians will be left without statehood due to actions by their governments and their flight abroad (Nezavisimaya gazeta, March... MORE

Russians have become increasingly accustomed to, if not comfortable with, the expansion of Chinese influence in the Russian Far East, along the Northern Sea Route, and in some of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the South Caucasus (see EDM, March 9, May... MORE

In recent months, tensions have been mounting between Moscow and the Circassian diaspora (see EDM, May 19, 23). The Circassian national movement has gained traction in promoting the Circassian language and encouraging a return to its historical homeland in the North Caucasus. Yet, the Kremlin... MORE

In the years following Stalin’s death, a certain type of journalistic doublespeak took shape in the Soviet Union. It allowed those who did not want to taint their public image to convey reasoning that veered off from the Communist Party’s dogma. Apparently, this writing style... MORE

As fall approaches, rumors have been picking up in Russia regarding a potential new wave of mobilization. At the same time, pro-Kremlin analysts and propagandists assert that the current methods of military recruitment should suffice to meet the manpower demands on the front (The Moscow... MORE

On September 11, Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s newly appointed minister of defense, held his first conversation over the phone with his American counterpart, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. As stated in the press release following their conversation, the two officials exchanged their views on the... MORE

At the beginning of September 2023, Pope Francis embarked on a four-day trip to Mongolia. The visit marked the 43rd foreign journey he has made since beginning his pontificate (Business-gazeta.ru, September 10). The Holy Father used the occasion to outline his views on the proper... MORE