Russian propaganda excels at shifting the blame for every one of the country’s problems—even those caused by bad luck, devastating mismanagement, or natural causes—on to the purported main source of all disasters in the world, the United States. In the first hours after the deadly... MORE

The putative detachment of Belarus from Russia as well as a twin topic, the supposed annexation of Belarus by Russia, are never-ending refrains in both countries’ media. The former is predictably pursued by Russia’s media outlets, whereas the latter can generally be found by reading... MORE

On October 28, the citizens of Georgia will elect a president for the last time via a direct ballot. According to the new constitution, which will come into force immediately after the inauguration of the fifth president of the republic, the sixth and all subsequent... MORE

The decision of Universal Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I to move toward granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (see EDM, September 13) is an existential threat to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his conception of a “Russian World” (“Russkiy Mir”). For one thing, the... MORE

Armenia’s interim Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held talks with Iranian President Dr. Hassan Rouhani, on September 26, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York (Premierminister.am, September 26). The meeting, initiated by the Iranian side, was immediately heralded as signifying a... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a surprise official visit to Azerbaijan, on September 27. The formal reason for his arrival was to hold talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as well as to jointly attend the Ninth Interregional Russia-Azerbaijan Forum (Kremlin.ru, September 27; AzerNews, September... MORE

The Latvian Russian Union (LKS) and Headquarters for the Protection of Russian Schools (HPRS) organized a demonstration in the capital city of Riga, on September 15. The publicized goal of the event was to “prevent educational reform in Latvia, which will lead to a total... MORE

On September 6, Russian military correspondent Semen Pegov posted information on his Telegram-channel WarGonzo (WG) about “members of one Russian Private Military Company [PMC] being currently deployed in Yemen.” He ascribed this information to data received from “three anonymous sources in the siloviki [security services... MORE

Moscow has been putting ever more pressure on the new Armenian leader, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Since coming to power this past spring, Pashinyan’s government has domestically taken punitive actions against Russian oligarchs and Armenians linked to them, much to the Kremlin’s displeasure (see EDM,... MORE

President Vladimir Putin visited New Delhi last week (October 4–5) with a large posse of top businessmen and ministers to promote trade and large arms contracts. India has been a major Russian (Soviet) ally since gaining independence from the United Kingdom and a major consumer... MORE