Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
Japanese Prime Minister Abe Declares Mongolia’s Increasing Importance for Tokyo’s Foreign Policy
The recent March 30–31 trip to Mongolia of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has yet to meet with Chinese leaders since assuming office in December 2012, was timed to solidify Japan’s relationship with the most vibrant mining economy in Northeast Asia. This visit has... MORE
The Magnitsky List and Chechnya
Lenin’s classic declaration on the 1917 revolution—“Comrades! The socialist revolution that the Bolsheviks were talking about for so long has come true!”—can be used to describe the Magnitsky Act. Yet, the much talked-about act did not turn out to be as comprehensive as expected.The Magnitsky... MORE
Moscow and Washington Exchange Blacklists of Undesirables
Last week (April 12), the United States government published, in accordance with the US Magnitsky Act adopted last December, a list of 18 Russians accused of involvement in the death in custody of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and other alleged rights abuses (https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20130412.aspx). The blacklisted... MORE
The Disappearance of Tajikistan’s Ethnic Uzbek Leader: A New Stage in the Struggle Between Tashkent and Dushanbe?
Salim Shamsiddinov, a leader of Tajikistan’s ethnic Uzbek community, went missing on March 16. According to Amnesty International, Shamsiddinov’s disappearance could have been a politically motivated abduction. In May of last year, Shamsiddinov was severely beaten by unknown attackers. That attack came after he suggested... MORE
Ukraine Continues to Play with the Rules, Not by the Rules
In October 2002, President Leonid Kuchma visited Warsaw where North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Javier Solana told him, “Sometimes Ukraine seems to be playing with, not by, the rules” (https://www.day.kiev.ua/en/article/day-after-day/play-not-rules). A most recent case in point is the April 7 “pardon” of former... MORE
Moscow Puts Moldova’s Bulgarian Minority into Play Against Chisinau
For more than two decades, Moscow has exploited the tensions between Transnistria and Chisinau to try to bring Moldova to heel. More recently, it has sought to use Moldova’s Gagauz minority to do the same thing. And over the past ten days, it appears to... MORE
The Georgian Orthodox Church: Some Aspects of Its Rhetoric and Practice
In trying to access the website of the Georgian Orthodox Church on Sunday, April 7, 2013, one would have ended up reading a message in Russian that said, “The owner of this account has suspended service” due to nonpayment (https://www.patriarchate.ge/). The fact that the official... MORE
Beijing Builds its Eurasian Transportation Network
China continues to make progress in building its Eurasian transportation networks with the aim of deepening its economic ties in Central and South Asia as well as providing a foundation for its regional security interests. Gwadar, a port town in western Pakistan close to Iran... MORE
Belarus: Geopolitical Preferences and Realities of Foreign Relations
Geopolitics remains the most common angle from which Belarus is looked at, not only by the analysts from Russia and the West but also by domestic commentators. A case in point is the national survey-based report by the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS), a... MORE
Amid Paranoia, Moscow Increasingly Cracks Down on Human Rights Groups
Since last March, Russian and international human rights organizations—including such prominent ones as Memorial, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International and others—have been harassed by Russian law enforcement and tax authorities, had their premises searched all over Russia, and had documents and computer disks... MORE