Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
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Russia Alarmed and Awed by the Belarusian Revolution
Five weeks of peaceful mass protests in Belarus after the falsified elections on August 9, have profoundly changed this formerly rather stable and conservative country, impressed its European neighbors, and set a sharp challenge for Russia, which is tied to this partner in a peculiar... MORE
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Azerbaijani President Rebukes Putin Over Russian Military Cargo Deliveries to Armenia
The Kremlin’s website reported, on August 12, that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had initiated a phone call to congratulate Vladimir Putin on the Russian vaccine against COVID-19 and to discuss bilateral issues. The next day, however, in a wholly unprecedented move, Aliyev’s press service sharply... MORE
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Lukashenka Threatens to Shut Belarusian-Baltic Transit Routes: Who Will Suffer Most?
On August 28, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka threatened to redirect all of his country’s trade flows as well as the transit of foreign goods across its territory from Lithuanian ports to Ust-Luga and Primorsk, in Russia’s Leningrad Oblast, if Europe were to impose anti-Belarus sanctions... MORE
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Russia Poised to Arbitrate Regime Change in Belarus (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Regime change remains Moscow’s political objective in Belarus (see Part One). This is defined as easing out President Alyaksandr Lukashenka with his assent, as part of an internal constitutional settlement. Russia wants this settlement to be negotiated... MORE
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Russia Poised to Arbitrate Regime Change in Belarus (Part One)
What looks to the world as another “color revolution,” this time in Belarus after the August 9 presidential election, outgrew and overwhelmed an initial Russian operation against the disobedient President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The unforeseen, spontaneous popular protests against electoral fraud have compelled Moscow to change... MORE
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A Problem for Putin: Belarus Is Not Ukraine Either Now or If Moscow Annexes It
Belarus is not Ukraine either now or should Moscow try to annex it, Russian analysts are warning. It is far more integrated as a society than Ukraine is, with far fewer regional, linguistic or even religious divisions than exist in Ukraine; and it is far... MORE
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The Navalny Poisoning and Russia’s Nerve Agent Politics
Prominent Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny (44) suddenly became critically ill on August 20, onboard a passenger jet destined for Moscow soon after takeoff from the western Siberian city of Tomsk. The pilot made an emergency landing in the nearby city of Omsk. An ambulance... MORE
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Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov Announces Creation of New Agency Focused on Compatriots Abroad
The pro-Kremlin ruler of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has unveiled plans to set up a republican government agency for relations with compatriots living abroad. The announcement came several weeks after the killing of a critic of Kadyrov in Vienna, Austria. Some observers contend that the Chechen... MORE
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Belarus at Moscow’s Mercy All Over Again
Alexei Dzermant is a Belarusian champion of closer amalgamation with Russia and the author of the upcoming book Belarus-Eurasia: Borderland of Europe and Russia. “There is one thing the white-red-whites ought to be appreciated for,” he writes, “Their active role in this political crisis has... MORE
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Kaliningrad—A Key Factor in the Kremlin’s Calculations on Belarus
Commentators in Russia and the West have often focused on the geopolitics of the Belarusian situation, arguing that Moscow wants a friendly regime in Belarus in order to expand its military presence there and thus be in a position to project power into Central Europe... MORE