Bulgaria is heading for new parliamentary elections once again, for the fourth time in 16 months. Kiril Petkov’s centrist government collapsed on June 22, after only seven months in office, when the opposition united around a no-confidence vote in parliament. Earlier, one partner, the There... MORE

Clearly desiring to give Moscow a taste of its own medicine, believing that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” a group of Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) deputies is pressing for the passage of bills that would require Kyiv to recognize the Chechen Republic... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. Russia has set up a military-civil administration (MCA) in Ukraine’s occupied Zaporyzhzhia region along the same considerations as it did in Kherson region. Moscow is now adding a Zaporyzhzhia “regional government” to the MCA, as it has done... MORE

Russia is fastening its grip on Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporyzhzhia regions through military-civil administrations (MCAs). Moscow employs MCAs as the main instruments of its occupation policy in southern Ukraine, quite unlike the familiar model of relying on local “republics” (i.e., Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Donetsk,... MORE

Within the span of a couple of days (July 20–21), a number of major Belarusian commentators made suggestive public statements: President Alyaksandr Lukashenka gave an hour-long interview to Agence France-Presse; Svetlana Tikhanovskaya made a speech at the Berlin-based ceremony devoted to the 78th anniversary of... MORE

The Russian full-scale re-invasion against Ukraine, launched in February 2022, was initially explained as the desire for “denazification” of Kyiv. This meant a struggle against the national self-determination of Ukraine, which entered into an insurmountable conflict with Kremlin imperialism. However, in the protracted war, Moscow... MORE

As the Kremlin’s ill-planned re-invasion of Ukraine wears on, much speculation has hinted at Russia’s manpower and other resources being depleted and wasted on the battlefield. One indicator that lends strength to such a narrative is the increasing use of Cossack reserve forces in Ukraine. ... MORE

The United States has finally taken notice of Russia’s plans to “attempt the annexation of additional Ukrainian territories,” citing “massive evidence from both intelligence and open sources.” The realization is belated, as displayed in the official briefing’s grand sense of urgency. The White House anticipates... MORE

In a social media post on July 5, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili admitted that “the public is still waiting for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.” She was referring to the events that took place one year ago, on July 5, 2021, when pro-Russian,... MORE

On July 14, both Western (Euractiv.com, July 13) and Russian (Rbc.ru, July 14) sources reported that the European Union’s seventh sanctions package will put an embargo on Russian gold imports. If this happens, the EU will join the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and... MORE