The top stories on Belarus from the past year collectively tended to feature four major interrelated refrains, listed in descending order of frequency: relations with Russia; the national character, including national identity, collective memory, and a growing sense of the need to defend Belarusian sovereignty;... MORE

The five non-Russian republics in the eastern half of the North Caucasus—Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, North Ossetia and Kalmykia—have enough in common that they deserve to be treated as a region distinct not only from the rest of the North Caucasus but also from areas to... MORE

The Moldovan government, controlled by pro-Russian President Igor Dodon, is starting the new year with major economic concerns. A key agenda for officials is to ensure Dodon’s victory in the presidential elections, to be conducted at the end of 2020. To achieve this goal, the... MORE

For Ukraine, the year 2019 was full of sweeping changes. The elite that came to power in the wake of the anti-establishment Maidan uprising in 2014 was swept away in elections won by political amateurs. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a former comedian, and his team of young... MORE

Russia is easing into 2020 under expectations of continued economic stagnation and deeper political limbo. And yet, over the previous 12 months, Russia’s foreign policy behavior was rather cautious and passive, as if President Vladimir Putin assumed that global drivers were working in his favor,... MORE

Author’s Note: This is the second part of a two-part series that addresses new directives issued by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the field of ideological “education.” The first part (The CCP’s Renewed Focus on Ideological Indoctrination, Part 1: The 2019 Guidelines for “Patriotic... MORE

Introduction The recent leak of secret Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documents in Xinjiang provides irrefutable evidence of the CCP’s radical plan to fundamentally remake Xinjiang society and transform the thoughts and behaviour of its Muslim minorities (ICIJ, 24 November). Less well known, however, is the... MORE

Introduction China’s top annual economic policy gathering, the Central Economic Work Conference (中央经济工作会议, Zhongyang jingji gongzuo huiyi), or CEWC, was held between December 10 and 12 in Beijing. This year’s CEWC focused on the theme of “achieving developmental progress on the basis of first ensuring... MORE

One of the most commented developments in Russian business news this past November was the reported attempt to “nationalize” one of the country’s largest high-technology companies, Yandex. Russia’s leading search engine, Yandex holds 51 percent of the domestic market share in its category and is... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. The four “Normandy format” (Ukraine, Russia, Germany, France) leaders’ post-summit press conference (see Part One, EDM, December 11), unusually lengthy and detailed, allowed some instructive glimpses into their discussions behind closed doors in Paris, France, on December 9.... MORE