Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
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Moscow May Not Be Able to Count on North Caucasians Any Longer to Fill Draft
Moscow has long counted on young males from the North Caucasus to ensure that each seasonal Russian military draft is filled. Men from that region typically view military service as a social lift out of the extreme poverty most find themselves in, a way of... MORE
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With Russian Route Blocked, Uzbekistan Looks to Indian-Iranian-Afghan Chabahar Port Project
The Russo-Ukraine war, the extensive Western sanctions against Russia, and the growing possibility that European border states will block east-west transit corridors traversing Russian territory into Europe are having far-reaching implications for the landlocked countries of Central Asia, which have historically relied on road and... MORE
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In Russia’s Camp but Keeping Its Options Open: Belarus’s Maneuvering During the War
In a store at one of Minsk’s shopping malls that sells Russian-made t-shirts decorated with a “Z,” the symbol of the Russian military offensive against Ukraine, the shop owner admitted to a journalist that she wholeheartedly backed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin but “we support the... MORE
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Failure Looms Over Russia’s Decisive Offensive in Donbas
Triumphalist rhetoric coming out of Moscow notwithstanding, Russia’s war in Ukraine is not progressing according to plan (see EDM, April 11). Nevertheless, President Vladimir Putin repeated yet again last week (April 12) that the central objective of the massive re-invasion of Ukrainian territory starting on... MORE
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In Brussels, Armenia and Azerbaijan Make Progress in Peace Talks
On April 6, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, met in Brussels—their first and, so far, only physical meeting this year. The summit, organized by the European Union and mediated by European Council President Charles Michel, was the third EU-arbitrated discussion... MORE
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Kremlin’s War Against Ukraine Divides Russians in the Baltics
Ethnic Russians today compose around a quarter of the population of Estonia and Latvia and about 5 percent in Lithuania. For the most part, these communities are made up of the descendants of migrants to the Baltics after the Second World War, whom the Soviet... MORE
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Returning Veterans of Putin’s War in Ukraine Pose Serious Threat to Russia’s Future
When veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan—the so-called “Afgantsy”—and veterans of the two Russian campaigns in Chechnya returned to their homes, many had a difficult time fitting back into a peaceful life. Some used the military skills they had acquired to engage in various... MORE
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‘Accomplice’ No More? How the War in Ukraine Stokes Anxieties in Belarus
Both directly and indirectly, Russia’s ongoing “special military operation” in Ukraine (launched by the Kremlin on February 24) triggers anxieties across the border in Belarus. Thus, on March 30, the authorities apprehended a group of perpetrators of the so-called rail-track war (see EDM, April 6),... MORE
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Russia Involving Transnistria in Ukrainian War, Raising Stakes for All Parties
Transnistria, the breakaway Slavic-majority region in Moldova, usually attracts attention only when Moscow seeks to use to limit Moldovan moves toward unification with Romania or membership in European institutions. At times, analysts also point to it as an illustrative model for Russian expansion or Moscow’s... MORE
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In Southern Ukraine, Russian Occupation Policy Takes Shape (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Russia’s 2022 re-invasion of Ukraine resulted, by mid-March, in the capture of Ukraine’s entire Kherson province, a considerable part of the Zaporyzhzhia province, and the littoral portion of the Donetsk province. Russia has decided to separate this latter... MORE