In recent years, Ukraine has been fostering a national ideology that has significantly impacted the quality of relations with its western neighbors, notably Poland and Hungary. Ukrainian national ideology, on the one hand, helps it to effectively resist Russian aggression; but on the other hand,... MORE

Grand geopolitical scheming took a break in Moscow last week. The main news—improbably—turned to the fiasco of the government trying, since April 16, to ban the popular instant messenger Telegram. Millions of Russians remain blissfully unaware about this “state failure,” but probably as many others... MORE

The April 14 coordinated missile attack by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, targeting Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons facilities, has been met in Moscow with a bout of acute anti-US anger mixed with proclamations of utter Western military failure and ineptitude. The Russian... MORE

Though most Western scholars do not believe that a real Russo-Chinese alliance actually exists, the arguments of Russian experts and the results of the recent bilateral ministerial meetings of the two countries’ foreign and defense ministries (both held on April 5, in Moscow) suggest otherwise.... MORE

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili recently announced an “unprecedented” peace initiative aimed at the country’s occupied territories of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region (South Ossetia). The new initiative, made public during an April 4 cabinet meeting, is called “A Step Toward a Better Future.” The wide-ranging plan... MORE

On April 12—on the eve of the United States’ and its allies’ airstrikes against Syria in response to the recent chemical attack in Douma—Russian foreign ministry press secretary Maria Zakharova stated that the US, through programs financed by the Pentagon, is creating a network of... MORE

Russia is continuing to shift away from its earlier support of the government of Morocco toward the Polisario Front (Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro—POLISARIO), which is challenging Rabat for control of a large portion of the Western Sahara.... MORE

For a week following the April 7 chemical attack in Douma (a suburb or Damascus, Syria), Russia was high-strung with anxiety about the United States’ forthcoming punishment of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Moscow issued every kind of denial that a crime had actually been committed,... MORE

From Moscow’s point of view, its loss of control over much of the Black Sea littoral and ports as a result of the disintegration of the Soviet Union is a serious problem, one that Russian moves first in Abkhazia and then in Crimea were intended... MORE

A near-perfect storm has rocked Moscow, starting at the end of last week. On April 6, the United States Department of the Treasury published an additional blacklist of wealthy Russian government officials, oligarchs and business entities that would be sanctioned for differing misdeeds connected to... MORE