With two years left in the second and last term of Ma Ying-jeou’s presidency, Taiwan has been embroiled in a political crisis since March 18 that will have serious, and possibly long-lasting, repercussions on the dynamics within Ma’s Kuomintang (KMT) and the island’s relationship with... MORE

On April 2, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov who had headed the country’s government since September 2012. On the same day, the president met with leaders of parliamentary groups to discuss the candidacy of a new prime minister.... MORE

As the charged pause in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict drags on, policymakers in Moscow discover that their bold breakthrough into the territory beyond the boundaries of international law has brought rather unexciting consequences. Last Monday (March 31), President Vladimir Putin called German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seeking... MORE

As the West prepares economic sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine, the head of the government-owned State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) nuclear complex, Sergei Kirienko, said that Russia’s nuclear industry contracts with other countries could be affected, observing, “Considering an array of comments... MORE

Shortly after the swift proclamation of Crimea’s short-lived independence, Ramzan Kadyrov announced that Chechnya would invest in Crimea and build close ties with it. However, Kadyrov’s notorious reputation is more likely to repel the residents of Crimea than win them over. On March 16, as... MORE

On March 19, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev held a government meeting in Grozny, Chechnya. Two primary issues were discussed—disrupting the financial channels that feed the insurgents in the North Caucasus and developing additional measures to prevent extremist outbursts in the Russian Federation and,... MORE

The hottest issues for Belarus these days are prospects for further economic growth under new conditions—in part informed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Belarus’s official position with regard to this groundbreaking event. Even before the crisis in Ukraine, Belarus faced dwindling economic growth, an... MORE

On March 13, Alexei Navalny, arguably the most popular Russian opposition figure, weighed in on the crisis surrounding the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Pointing to the fact that the Russian government does not allow the Russian people to hold referendums inside the country, Navalny asked... MORE

Though considered a healthy—albeit developing—democracy (https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/105158; https://www.santmaral.mn/en/publications), Mongolia has in recent years become dominated by the competing interests of its political and business factions, whose collective actions undermine the country’s democratization trends as well as complicate Ulaanbaatar’s foreign policy. For now, Mongolia resides in a... MORE

On March 6, the government-funded company Northern Caucasus Resorts reported that the Russian Ministry for Regional Development approved including the Veduchi multi-purpose resort project in Chechnya’s special economic zone. The decision opens the way for investing in this enterprise under preferential conditions. According to the... MORE