On November 24, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strictly condemned Sukhumi and Moscow’s joint approval of a program to create a common socio-economic space uniting breakaway Abkhazia and Russia. Tbilisi slammed it as “another illegal step toward the de facto annexation” of its occupied... MORE

Introduction Rumors swirled about a crackdown on the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba following an incendiary speech given by its founder Jack Ma in late October, which criticized global banking standards and the Chinese regulatory system (TechNode, November 9). The suspension on November 3 of the... MORE

Turkmenistan, far and away the most closed country in the former Soviet space, seldom receives much attention except as the butt of dismissive jokes or, more recently, when its leaders tried to deny that COVID-19 is present in their country even as they took measures... MORE

COVID-19’s “second wave” is pushing back economic recovery all over the globe, giving rise to predictions of massive recorded drops in GDP this year followed by a robust recovery in 2021 and decent growth rates after that. Official economic forecasts in Russia notably mirror those... MORE

On October 26, President Vladimir Putin formally adopted the “Strategy for the Development of the Russian Arctic Zone and Provision of National Security Through 2035,” which aims to implement a “region-specific approach” for dealing with problems facing the country’s vast, strategically important, yet increasingly problematic... MORE

The economic crisis in the Russian Federation has resulted in the central government further tightening its control over the republics of the North Caucasus. Ingushetia now faces a loss of its financial autonomy. Similarly, the property rights for a key tourist enterprise in Kabardino-Balkaria have... MORE

Introduction Mongolia responded quickly to the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in China this past January. The country issued its first public health warning about the new virus and asked citizens to wear masks on January 10; shut down schools throughout the country by January 24;... MORE

On October 26, President Vladimir Putin formally adopted the “Strategy for the Development of the Russian Arctic Zone and Provision of National Security Through 2035” (Pravo.gov.ru, October 26). The document is to be implemented in three stages: 2020–2024, 2025–2030 and 2031–2035. In a related comment,... MORE

Introduction The Fifth Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee, which took place from October 26 – 29, has elevated the status of President and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping to that of Helmsman, a title once reserved only for the late... MORE

On October 19–20, Tallinn, Estonia, hosted the fifth summit of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI), a forum for dialogue involving a dozen European Union member states located in Central and Eastern Europe (ERR, October 19). The regional initiative was informally inaugurated in September 2015, on... MORE