With the 2016 parliamentary elections barely over, Georgia is readying itself for the October 2017 local elections. Their importance is hard to overestimate. Five mayoral posts for five self-governing cities and 67 gubernatorial offices (referred to in Georgia as Gamgebeli) for 67 municipalities, are up... MORE

In 1953, subscribers to the third edition of the Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopedia were told to cut out the pages in one of its volumes devoted to a biography of the by-then-disgraced Lavrenty Beria, Joseph Stalin’s last secret police chief, and replace them with an article... MORE

Several weeks ago, during the annual St. Petersburg Economic Forum (June 1–3), Vitaly Savelyev, the director general of Russia’s flag carrier, Aeroflot, confirmed a fact that was already well known to industry insiders: experienced airline pilots are becoming a rare asset in Russia, since too... MORE

The Circassian national movement in the North Caucasus as well as in the diaspora is on the rise. In part, this trend is powered by new activism among Circassian young people, who, reports show, are increasingly turning away from an Islamic to an ethno-national identity.... MORE

In recent weeks, Moldova has been dealing with one foreign policy scandal after another. Relations with Russia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the Council of Europe and even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have all been strained to varying degrees.... MORE

It is worth noting that, in recent months, two segments of the Belarusian analytical community—zealously Russia-oriented commentators on the one hand, and the radical Westernizing opposition on the other—have conspicuously not published anything of substance. The leading wordsmiths from the former group are in jail... MORE

President Vladimir Putin’s annual call-in show (this year held on June 15) directed at the citizens of Russia, who can ask him any kind of question, was meant to offer a bit of fresh excitement to the boring summer political season. But Putin’s televised performance ended... MORE

President Vladimir Putin (64) has not yet officially announced whether he will run for a fourth term as head of state on March 18, 2018. During the traditional annual nationwide live multi-hour televised phone-in, held this year on June 15, Putin did not announce his... MORE

On June 8, Georgia’s months-long, contentious constitutional reform debate took a new turn when the Georgian parliamentary speaker, Irakli Kobakhidze, declared that the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party would no longer include in the new constitution a clause legally enabling foreign citizens and entities to... MORE

Russia’s best chances to claim a prominent role in the Middle East usually come amidst a regional escalation of tensions. But the confluence of diplomatic rows, terrorist attacks and air strikes at the start of June did not exactly play into Moscow’s hands. As usual,... MORE