Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
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Abkhazia Highlights Challenges Moscow Faces in Integrating Belarus
The political difficulties and expenses Moscow will face if it seeks to more fully integrate Belarus (see EDM, September 10) are patently visible in the problems—albeit on a smaller scale—the Russian government has had over the past decade in its efforts regarding Abkhazia and South... MORE
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Russia’s Regime-Change Experiment in Belarus Runs Into Difficulties (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. For now, the Belarusian authorities are holding out confidently against regime change on both fronts: against the domestic opposition and against Russia’s initial regime-change project. The latter could be seen lurking behind the thwarted presidential candidacies of Valery... MORE
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Russia’s Regime-Change Experiment in Belarus Runs Into Difficulties (Part One)
The Kremlin is conducting a regime-change operation in Belarus, the first-ever Russian operation of this type in its “near abroad.” Belarus’s presidential election campaign from May to August and the election‘s aftermath have provided the launching pad for this operation. It is premised on the... MORE
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Post-Lukashenka Belarus: Close Ties to Moscow but Improved Relationship With the West?
Arriving at some clarity regarding the situation in Belarus has become harder than ever before. An unstable equilibrium begets a cacophony of opinions that do not lend themselves to generalization or to teasing out a common idea. Alexander Klaskovsky of Belapan writes, “[Presidents Alyaksandr] Lukashenka... MORE
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Chechen Minister Voices Support for Azerbaijan in Its Clashes With Armenia
Chechen Healthcare Minister Elkhan Suleymanov has come out in support of Azerbaijan in the latter’s armed conflict with Armenia over Karabakh. Suleymanov wrote on his Instagram account that Azerbaijan, where he was born and grew up, was going through difficult times. “[T]oday, I want to express my... MORE
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The Coronavirus Crisis Undercuts Russia’s Geopolitical Ambitions
The sharp rise of COVID-19 infections in Russia in the last couple of weeks was predictable given the relatively high “plateau” of new cases over the summer after the sharp peak in early May. Yet the escalation of the pandemic has apparently caught the authorities... MORE
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Energy Resources and the New Great Game in the Eastern Mediterranean
Control over energy resources and transit routes has long been a source of rivalry and competition among major powers with interests in the Middle East, Caspian Sea basin and Central Asia. And since the early 2000s, a new “great game” of sorts has embroiled local... MORE
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Belarus a Blip, Russia Looms Large on Macron’s Baltic Visit (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Visiting Lithuania and Latvia on September 28–30, French President Emmanuel Macron communicated a complex message. On one hand, he reassured both countries of France’s intention to continue participating in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) missions in the... MORE
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Belarusian Cossacks—An Option for Putin?
Due to certain superficial similarities between the ongoing post-election demonstrations in Belarus and the EuroMaidan protests in Kyiv in 2013–2014, some commentators have speculated about the possibility of “another Crimea” in Minsk. President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Ukrainian territory six and a half years ago... MORE
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Belarus a Blip, Russia Looms Large on Macron’s Baltic Visit (Part One)
French President Emmanuel Macron’s meeting with Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouska in Lithuania turned out to be even less than a side-show: a half-hour private meeting, without a joint public appearance (BNS, Agence France Presse, September 28, 29). Instead, Russia loomed large on Macron’s agenda... MORE