Russia conceived of the Arctic as a military bastion long before Vladimir Putin rose to power. Yet, since coming to the Kremlin, Putin has explicitly tried to turn the Russian High North into a showcase of his dreams of developing the next Russian “El Dorado.”... MORE

Vasyl Hyrtsak, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), announced, on March 9, that a prominent public figure, in collusion with the Moscow-backed leadership of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), part of the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas, had been systematically transporting weapons... MORE

Momentous developments have taken place over the past several weeks in China. The entire government has been reorganized, key personnel appointments have been made, the Party’s imprint on the State has been institutionalized, and Xi Jinping has opened the door to an indefinite term as... MORE

In many more ways than one, this year’s Two Sessions—an annual March meeting of China’s two highest legislative bodies—marked the end of an era. Among other developments, Xi Jinping signaled his unmatched control of the levers of power by remaking, seemingly at a stroke, China’s... MORE

During the March 14 Astana summit of the leaders of all five Central Asian states (see EDM, March 20, 21), the minister of religious affairs and civil society of Kazakhstan, Nurlan Yermekbayev, and the chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee of the government of Tajikistan,... MORE

The Muslim population of the Russian capital has grown dramatically in recent years, with the arrival in the 1990s of North Caucasians fleeing from violence in their home areas and of Central Asians and Azerbaijanis in the 2000s seeking work. Some estimate the total number... MORE

President Vladimir Putin was reelected in a landslide on March 18, winning over 76 percent of the popular vote. With turnout of more than 67 percent, Putin obtained over 56 million votes—more than half of the overall number of registered voters (Interfax, March 19). Of... MORE

The Verkhovna Rada’s (Ukrainian parliament) committee charged with national security and defense delayed the progress, on March 19, of Draft Law 8068 “On National Security”  (Rada.gov.ua, accessed March 21), which had been submitted to the legislature by President Petro Poroshenko on February 28.  The Rada... MORE

Despite having banned its contract soldiers (kontraktniki) from using online social networks (VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, in particular) (see EDM, October 20, 2017), the Russian Ministry of Defense has not dismissed the idea of using social networks for its own purposes. These policies are driven both... MORE

A memorial to the Lutskevich brothers was installed, on March 13, in downtown Minsk. It consists of a large engraved stone commemorating two houses where, in 1896–1906, Anton and Ivan Lutskevich lived with their families (Tut.by, March 13). Both led the Belarusian national movement and... MORE