The accord recently struck between Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany (P5+1) represents a watershed in Middle East diplomacy. The culmination of almost two years of negotiations, the deal outlines a plan to lift most international economic sanctions on Iran... MORE

Moscow is prepared to orchestrate local elections in the “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk (“DPR, LPR”), separately from Ukraine’s upcoming local elections. Donetsk and Luhansk announced this intention in early July (see EDM, July 9) and reaffirmed it during the Contact Group’s failed meetings... MORE

Events at the end of 2014 appeared to indicate that the end of the Caucasus Emirate (CE) was near. That was when the leaders of the CE regional branches in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia switched sides by taking an oath of allegiance to Islamic State... MORE

On July 31, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili announced, with some degree of pomp and theatrical showmanship, that he was vetoing a highly controversial and widely debated bill on banking supervision (Channel 1, Maestro TV, Rustavi 2 TV, July 31). The bill, adopted by the Georgian... MORE

Circassian villagers in Krasnodar region have come under pressure from the authorities for campaigning for the Circassian cause. Even school age children have reportedly been harassed by the authorities, sparking an uproar among Circassian activists. The first reports about the questioning of children by the... MORE

The financial intelligence services of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine have been intensively cooperating to prevent the financing of illegal armed groups, according to Vyachaslaw Reut, the head of the financial monitoring department of Belarus’ State Control Committee (KGK) (TASS, July 22). “Despite the existing political... MORE

Both certain Belarusians and some Russian analysts are convinced that Vladimir Putin’s next target will be Belarus. They have their reasons, and these reasons are compelling: Taking Belarus would give Putin a victory he has not been able to achieve in Ukraine; a move of... MORE

Local elections are looming in the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (“DPR, LPR”) in October. If validated internationally, such elections could lead to internal Ukrainian constitutional negotiations that would preserve the Russia-Ukraine conflict—unsolved, but in a different form. It would conclusively vindicate Russia’s thesis about... MORE

Western governments regularly disagree with the Kremlin over the meaning of democracy and free elections. Nevertheless, Western diplomacy currently supports Moscow’s goal for local elections to be staged in the Russian-controlled territory of Ukraine’s east. If validated as apparently intended by the Organization for Security... MORE

Russia’s policy toward the Islamic State (IS) group in the Middle East is controversial. On the one hand, involvement in IS activities officially became a crime in Russia in February 2015 (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, February 27). On the other hand, Russia does not seem to have... MORE