Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
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Rationalizing the Tonoyan Doctrine: Armenia’s Active Deterrence Strategy
Even as Armenia and Azerbaijan have intensified their diplomatic contacts over the future status of the latter’s breakaway Karabakh region (see EDM, February 13, March 4, April 1), both rivals concurrently continue to consolidate their military capabilities, considering an escalation in tensions almost inevitable. Both... MORE
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Russia Launches ‘Passportization’ in Occupied Ukrainian Donbas (Part Two)
The Kremlin’s decree, offering Russian citizenship (“passportization”) to residents of the Russian-occupied Donbas (eastern portions of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces), is the latest in the series of legislative and economic moves to wrest this territory from Ukraine in real terms, absorbing it de facto—though not... MORE
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Immigration Collapse Undermines Kremlin Hopes to Recover Russia’s Dominance in Former Soviet Space
The Kremlin is losing the most important “weapon” in its campaign to restore a semblance of Moscow’s former empire in the post-Soviet space. According to Russian commentator Semyon Novoprudky, that weapon is the economic dependence of many post-Soviet countries on the Russian labor market (Spektr.press,... MORE
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Russia Steps Deeper Into the Venezuelan Battleground
In the early morning of April 30, in Caracas, opposition leader, speaker of the National Assembly and the self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, declared that the Venezuelan Armed Forces had abandoned the socialist autocratic president Nicolás Maduro. The “usurper” would be ousted, he... MORE
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Russia Launches ‘Passportization’ in Occupied Ukrainian Donbas (Part One)
On April 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree—with immediate effect—simplifying the procedure for granting Russia’s citizenship to residents of “certain areas of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces” (Kremlin.ru, April 24), i.e., the Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine’s Donbas. Those residents are, by legal definition... MORE
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Putin Sacrifices Babich to Keep His Plans to Integrate Belarus on Track
Something unusual happened in Moscow yesterday (April 30), and it has dominated media coverage in Russia and Belarus over the last 24 hours. Though Russian President Vladimir Putin never wants to appear to back down in the face of pressure, it seems the Kremlin leader... MORE
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Azerbaijan Eyes More Cooperation With China Within Belt and Road Initiative
On April 24, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in China to attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (Report.az, April 24). This was Aliyev’s second official visit to the world’s most populous country, since 2015. In light of growing Chinese involvement in... MORE
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Lukashenka’s Trip to China, New Complications in Belarusian-Russian Relations, and the Fallacy of Symmetric Thinking
On April 25–27, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka paid a visit to China to participate in the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, devoted to the Chinese government’s continental strategy of infrastructure development and investments in 152 countries in Eurasia and around the world.... MORE
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Putin Tries to Score Three Diplomatic Victories in the Far East
Russian President Vladimir Putin had long requested a meeting with North Korea’s youngish leader, Kim Jong-un, but it was only in mid-April that Russian diplomatic persuasion started to show promise. And a good-neighborly handshake between the two men finally took place in Vladivostok last week... MORE
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One Year After Armenia’s ‘Velvet Revolution’: The Plans and Challenges Ahead
One year ago, in April 2018, a quasi-authoritarian regime collapsed as a result of a nationwide protest movement in Armenia labeled the “Velvet Revolution” (see EDM, April 23, 2018). And the following December, the first non-fraudulent election in 20 years secured a comfortable parliamentary majority... MORE