Executive Summary: Li Qiang’s government work report offered no significant incentives to help the nation’s three sectors most in need of government support. Economic targets were practically identical to those for 2023 but will be harder to achieve. Xi amassed more power through sidelining Li... MORE

Executive Summary: Georgia is experiencing the effects of Russia’s soft power through the presence of pro-Russian organizations, media outlets, and parties that assert closer ties to Moscow will settle disagreements between the two countries. Recent polls have indicated that a significant segment of Georgian society... MORE

Executive Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin asserts that participants of the “special military operation” should be viewed as the new elite of Russia and participate in the governing the country to sustain support from those on the front. The Kremlin will be forced to show... MORE

Executive Summary: Polish farmers object to the EU Green Deal and the influx of Ukrainian agricultural products into Europe, which they assert will harm the domestic agricultural market. The protests are exacerbating already turbulent Ukrainian-Polish relations, a development that Russian propaganda could attempt to exploit... MORE

Executive Summary: Russia will hold presidential elections this week in an attempt to demonstrate the population’s sustained loyalty to President Vladimir Putin and support for his war.       On the battlefield, Moscow’s primary tactic of mobilizing massive amounts of weapons and manpower is... MORE

Executive Summary: Russia has transformed the education system in the occupied territories of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk, replacing educators and curriculum with pro-Russian, military-patriotic education aimed at militarizing Ukrainian children against their homeland. The Kremlin has started to erase the Ukrainian language, rewrite history books,... MORE

Executive Summary: Moscow recently carried out a counterterrorism operation against what it describes as Islamist radicals in Ingushetia—the smallest, poorest, and arguably most restive republic not only in the North Caucasus but also in the Russian Federation. The Kremlin took this step lest violence in... MORE

Executive Summary: Belarus’s government outlawed opposition parties in anticipation of last week’s parliamentary election, contrasting previous elections that had offered a platform for opposition parties to spread their views. Oppositionists have primarily been forced into exile, which raises doubts about how effectively they can communicate... MORE

Executive Summary: New Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze is playing a delicate balancing act of attempting to gain EU membership while reproaching the United States in public statements.  Kobakhidze’s strategy toward the West resembles the Kremlin’s approach: divide the West into two camps, Europe and... MORE

Executive Summary: Russia is scheduled to hold presidential elections from March 15 to 17, which will predictably result in the reelection of President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin is doing everything in its power to prevent opposition figures from gaining traction in presidential elections, including preventing... MORE