In January 2022, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Moscow to discuss monetary and banking issues between Russia and Iran, and the two sides agreed to the removal of trade barriers to increase trade between one another to $10 billion per year (Middle East Monitor,... MORE

Read Part One here. As was noted by retired US Lieutenant General Ben Hodges (24tv.ua, November 9) and thoroughly explored by Jamestown Foundation Senior Fellow Janusz Bugajski in his new book, Failed State: a Guide to Russia’s Rupture, Russia may well be on its way... MORE

After some initial caution, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (ROC MP) has become a slavish propaganda tool for President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. Overall, this shift has done nothing to stem the decline in the church’s influence in... MORE

On November 30, with mass protests only recently suppressed in Beijing and Shanghai and still simmering in Guangzhou and Chongqing, state media notified the “whole party, army and country” that former General Secretary Jiang Zemin, who led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from mid-1989 to... MORE

On November 25, right before Russia’s observation of Mother’s Day, President Vladimir Putin met with women who were purportedly mothers of soldiers serving in the “special military operation” in Donbas. In a move not seen since the Russian president met with the mothers of those... MORE

The Belarusian press has been actively debating the legacy of Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, who passed away suddenly on November 26 at the age of 65, supposedly from a heart attack. Whereas the state-run media limited itself to dispassionate obituaries, though appreciative of Makei’s... MORE

In the ninth month of Russia’s war against Ukraine, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Russian army is being gradually overtaken by “shell hunger.” This should be expected based on earlier analyses made in August 2022 (see EDM, August 16, 18) and has been... MORE

It is still three weeks before the fall conscription campaign in Russia ends. This conscription hopes to draft 120,000 new soldiers for all branches of the Russian Armed Forces, including several thousand recruits for the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia). It has also been five weeks... MORE

The enforcement of the price ceiling for Russian oil transported by sea enacted on December 5 is not a surprise, as this measure was being discussed by the Unites States and its key partners as early as September 2022. It is, nevertheless, important proof of... MORE

The news of Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei’s sudden death has, for now, overshadowed all other news coming from Belarus. Exactly two years ago, Makei’s deputy Oleg Kravchenko also died from a sudden heart attack. Both Makei and Kravchenko used to be the major champions... MORE