Russia’s war on Ukraine reverberated throughout the Balkans, exposing regional divisions, allegiances with foreign powers, and security vulnerabilities. While North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia offered full support to Ukraine, the reaction of Serbia appeared in stark contrast to... MORE

On February 26, Azerbaijan donated a reported €5 million ($5.6 million) worth of medicine and medical equipment as humanitarian relief to Ukraine (Marja.az, February 26). The aid was announced by Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelenskyy on Twitter soon after his telephone call with Azerbaijani President Ilham... MORE

Introduction In November 2021 and January 2022, the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) Judiciary Police arrested 13 individuals involved in operating two separate casino VIP customer “junkets” for engaging in illegal gambling activities, running a criminal syndicate, and money laundering (Macau Judiciary Police, November 29,... MORE

On February 18, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka visited Moscow and held talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. In a statement to the media, Lukashenka mentioned that military-political issues have taken center stage due to “our Western partners […] scaring the whole world that tomorrow... MORE

The Kremlin’s official recognition of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (DPR, LPR) on Monday, February 22, further aggravated the confrontation between Russia and the West. As if preparing for such a scenario, Russian ideologists and propagandists had recently come up with a new... MORE

Over the last 30 years, demographic shifts in each of the post-Soviet countries have changed power relations both within and between them. The most obvious changes are in the size of the populations of each state, with declines in nine of the fifteen and increases... MORE

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on February 14 and went on to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow the following day. Preceding Scholz was French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with Putin and Zelenskyy (in... MORE

On January 20, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Szijjártó gave an exclusive interview to the state-owned Russian news agency TASS, advocating for long-term agreements for natural gas imports to Europe and voicing hopes that Hungary’s own supply contract with Gazprom will be extended (TASS... MORE

Relations between Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan underwent acute conflict and tension in September–October 2021. However, since mid-October, the two countries have endeavored to manage the frictions and reduce the disagreements in their relationship. Recently, on January 26, 2022, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov... MORE

Since consolidating power on January 5, when he assumed the chairmanship of the Security Council instead of Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstani President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev has generated unprecedented popular expectations for change. Tokayev is closely associated with the Nazarbayev regime (Nazarbayev was president of Kazakhstan from 1990... MORE