Following President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s pronouncements about Crimea being effectively part of Russia (see EDM, March 26), Ukraine recalled its ambassador in Minsk for consultations. After Belarus voted against the United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea, damage control on the part of... MORE

With a patriotic frenzy under way in Russia in connection with the crisis in Ukraine, annexation of Crimea and ensuing tensions with the West, ethnic minorities living in Russia are predictably coming under increased scrutiny by the state security services and Russian nationalists. As one... MORE

Visiting Moldova on March 29, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland declared that US-Moldova relations “have never been stronger” (Moldpres, March 30). Nuland’s visit was the latest in the series of high-profile US-Moldova meetings following Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.US President Barack Obama... MORE

Two high-level visits of Mongolian officials to Seoul in the past six weeks indicate that Mongolian–South Korean relations are rapidly intensifying. This trend and Mongolia’s mid-March facilitation of the reunion of Japanese relatives with the daughter of a North Korean abductee illustrate the desire of... MORE

After the rapid sequence of actions culminating in its annexation of Crimea in mid-March, Russia has only slightly increased pressure on Ukraine during the last week. Rather, President Vladimir Putin has taken a pause of sorts in order to consolidate his perceived gains and prepare... MORE

On March 25, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev completed his three-day visit to the Netherlands, where he met with the Dutch authorities and attended the World Nuclear Summit in The Hague. While nuclear issues took center stage at this international gathering of heads of state and... MORE

During a March 8 meeting in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Tajikistani Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov drew comparisons between the EuroMaidan protests and Tajikistan’s bloody civil war (Ozodagon, March 8). The comments closely mirrored those given four days earlier by Igor Lyakin-Frolov, Russia’s... MORE

Belarus’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs may have set a record for evasiveness while formulating its March 19 statement vis-à-vis the crisis in Ukraine. “Belarus cannot be indifferent to the events in Ukraine, including the referendum held on March 16, 2014, in the Crimea, and the... MORE

Following the Russian Anschluss of Crimea, most Ukrainian, Russian and Western commentary has focused on the possibility that Moscow will use a similar strategy to move into the predominantly ethnic-Russian areas of eastern Ukraine. That is still an all too real possibility— especially if, after... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech on the incorporation of Crimea into Russia (kremlin.ru, March 18; see EDM, March 19) aimed far beyond Crimea in scope and ambition. Explicitly, Putin called into question the legitimacy of the Ukrainian state. Implicitly, he laid a basis for challenging... MORE