Latest Articles about Domestic/Social
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Vladimir_Putin_-_EDM_June_22__2015.jpg)
Putin’s Economic Forum: Delays, Obfuscations and Irrelevance
The annual St. Petersburg economic forum used to be a major gathering of investors and stakeholders, who would anticipate President Vladimir Putin’s keynote speech every year for hints about where to find the richest dividends in the Russian economy. This year, however, the traditional pomp... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Chang_Wanquang_01.jpg)
White Paper Expounds Civil-Military Relations in Xi Era
As the world observed the 26th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the focus has remained on how this cataclysmic event has rolled back reforms and exacerbated the trend of major clans in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) monopolizing the nation’s economic and political resources.... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/putinandxi.jpg)
Myth and Reality in Russia’s Asian Policy
According to Russian analysts and leaders like Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Russia has turned to Asia because of Western sanctions and is making steady progress there in achieving its objectives (RT, June 11). However, such talk is entirely unfounded. If anything, Russian relations with Japan... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/caucis.jpg)
Popularity of Islamic Sate Soars in Russia and Post-Soviet Space
With more and more former members of the Caucasus Emirate pledging allegiance to the “caliphate” of the Islamic State, the situation in the North Caucasus may destabilize further. What is happening is not the disbanding of one rebel organization and its replacement with a more... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/hdp.jpg)
The Turkish Election and Responses in the South Caucasus
The general election in Turkey on June 7 has radically changed the country’s political landscape. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has lost its absolute majority, winning only 258 of the 276 seats it needed, and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has now... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Belarusian_ballot_boxes_-_EDM_June_18__2015.jpg)
Elections and Politics in and Around Belarus
The chairwoman of the Central Electoral Commission of Belarus, Lidia Ermoshina, has proposed to conduct the upcoming presidential elections on October 11—that is, more than one month earlier than the previously set date of November 15. The official explanation of this shift has to do... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Doku_Umarov__Caucasus_Emirate_-_EDM_June_18__2015.jpg)
What Caused the Demise of the Caucasus Emirate?
Nearly seven years ago, in the fall of 2007, Islamic militants in the North Caucasus who were unhappy with the ideology of independence for Ichkeria replaced it with an Islamic ideology and declared the formation of the Caucasus Emirate (Kavkazsky Uzel, December 29, 2014). The... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Forum_3.jpg)
Bringing Belarus Back in From the Cold (Part Four)
To read Part One, please click here.To read Part Two, please click here.To read Part Three, please click here. To help lessen Belarus’s economic dependence on Russia, and reach out to mainstream Belarusian society, the European Union has a range of non-political instruments available. The... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Ramzan.jpg)
Is Russia’s Government Planning to Take on Chechnya’s Strongman?
Russian analysts are beginning to wonder whether Moscow has grown tired of Chechnya’s ruler, Ramzan Kadyrov, and wants to replace him. Recent attacks on human rights activists in Chechnya received unusually wide and negative media coverage in Russia, even though years of routine rights violations... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/1095034.jpg)
When Will Mikheil Saakashvili Return to Georgia?
The appointment of former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili as the head of government administration (governor) of Odesa province in Ukraine produced a wave of speculation about his future plans in Georgia. Immediately after taking office in Odesa, Saakashvili gave several interviews for Georgian media outlets,... MORE