For most of the Soviet period after 1945, Russians informally viewed Mongolia as “the 16th Soviet republic” not only because it tried to become one during World War II, but also because, even more than Bulgaria, it slavishly copied Soviet laws and practices. Notably, Mongolia... MORE

Gitanas Nausėda was elected the next president of the Republic of Lithuania on May 26. The race was intense in both the first and second rounds. But in the end, Nausėda triumphed, crushing his opponent, Ingrida Šimonytė, 66 to 33 percent (Vrk.lt, June 3). Such... MORE

Billionaire Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky returned to Ukraine on May 16—his first time back in the country since June 2017, when he had to leave due to an unfolding conflict with then- president Petro Poroshenko over Privatbank (Gordonua.com, May 16). The businessman has well-known ties... MORE

Something quite extraordinary happened in Russia last week: a loud public outcry forced the authorities to set free Ivan Golunov, an investigative journalist crudely framed by the police for drug possession. Neither the motley crowd of activists who joined ranks in protest against this selective... MORE

Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev was inaugurated as the second president of post-Soviet Kazakhstan, on June 12, following his confident victory a few days before. Though the results were as unsurprising as in all previous votes, the 2019 presidential election was unmistakably remarkable in one respect: having stepped... MORE

Belarus’s location between Russia and the collective West is not a consequence of political considerations—it is a fact of geography. Likewise, the cultural proximity between Belarusians and Russians represents another objective reality, encouraging at least some Russian elites to entertain ideas of ever “tighter integration”... MORE

Note to readers: Moldova is presently facing perhaps its worst political crisis in almost three decades. As a result of the complex and fast-moving developments surrounding this volatile situation, The Jamestown Foundation is releasing a special, extended-length article in Eurasia Daily Monitor, analyzing the details... MORE

On May 28, as Azerbaijan marked its most important national holiday, Republic Day, and finalized preparations to host the UEFA Europa League Final at the Baku Olympic Stadium (May 29), events around the sprawling Davit Gareja (named Keshkichidag, in Azerbaijani) Monastery complex again started to... MORE

Two texts on issues of existential importance for Belarus appeared at the end of May. The author of the first is Sergei Lepin, an archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Belarusian exarchate (regional entity) and a chairperson of its Information Department. On several occasions in... MORE

Introduction—Divisions Within the Communist Party Set the Stage for Tiananmen We don’t know how many demonstrators or ordinary citizens were killed during the Tiananmen Massacre, but it was bloody and brutal. After June 4, 1989, the CCP set the death toll at 200—of which it... MORE