The annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (May 24–26) managed to attract more high-level foreign guests than could be expected considering Russia’s stagnant economy and relative lack of interest from international investors. Arguably, the organizers should have expressed gratitude for this success to United States... MORE

May 2018 has been a critical test for Georgia. Over the past several weeks, a series of events in the capital of Tbilisi have collectively raised questions in some quarters about the actual level of consolidation of Georgian democracy and have challenged Georgi Kvirikashvili’s government... MORE

This year as every year for more than a century, the nearly 500,000 Circassians in their North Caucasus homeland and the more than five million Circassians in the diaspora paused, on May 21, to remember the losses they suffered during their 101-year-long resistance to Russian... MORE

On May 28, Azerbaijan celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR)—the first democratic state with a parliamentary form of government in the Muslim World. Baku has launched a worldwide campaign to mark the centenary in an effort to attract... MORE

The death of Richard Pipes, one of the United States’ foremost Russian scholars, generated quite a resonance in the Russian media. Some honored him as a respected enemy (Zavtra, May 18); while others lauded him as a preeminent scholar, one of the precious few Westerners... MORE

Kaliningrad oblast, the westernmost region of the Russian Federation, celebrated the 73rd anniversary commemorating the end of World War II on May 9, Victory Day (Newkaliningrad.ru, May 9). Similar to the commemorations happening across the rest of the country, the long-prepared parade (the night-time rehearsals... MORE

Armenian protest leader Nikol Pashinyan, whose peaceful campaign resulted in the resignation of the country’s former president and recently appointed prime minister Serzh Sargsyan (see EDM, April 23, 24, May 3), was elected the new head of government on May 8. Before that, on May 1, the... MORE

Following Vladimir Putin’s reelection to a fourth term as president, Russian authorities officially announced the final composition of the “new” government last Friday, May 18. And several days earlier, former finance minister (2000–2011) Alexei Kudrin was promoted chief of the parliamentary budgetary watchdog Accounts Chamber... MORE

This Sunday, May 20, Moldova will hold early mayoral elections in the capital city of Chisinau, the second-largest city of Balti, and five other small localities. The mayoral seats in the two largest cities became vacant after the resignation of Balti mayor Renato Usatii, on... MORE

Few recent events have alarmed Russian society as much as the on May 5 Cossack whip (nagaika) attacks in Moscow on street demonstrators who had been organized by opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The incident had obvious echoes of the tsarist government’s use of Cossacks to... MORE