June 12 is Russia Day, a national holiday traditionally celebrated by awarding Russia’s annual State Prizes in the fields of science, technology, the arts and literature, followed by a lavish reception in the Kremlin. This Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin awarded the State Prize to Sergei... MORE

The construction of barbed wire fences by Russian border troops, crossing from South Ossetia into previously uncontested Georgian territory (see Part One, EDM, June 11), caught Tbilisi and its Western partners by surprise. With this operation, Russia de facto annexed several additional bits of Georgian... MORE

The Russian Ministry of Education recently awarded, on a “competitive basis,” funding for the education of foreign students to some of the country’s universities. Circassian activists expressed indignation over the fact that no educational institutions in either Kabardino-Balkaria or Adygea received funding for foreign students.... MORE

The Soviet Union conducted a robust policy toward Africa, but that ended with the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As Russian analysts today admit, Africa, relatively speaking, fell off the map of Russian foreign policy after 1991. It is only in the... MORE

On May 19–20, the President of Tajikistan Emomalii Rahmon paid a state visit to China where he had talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and with several heads of Chinese state corporations. Rahmon’s official visit resulted in several multi-million-dollar investment projects in the infrastructure,... MORE

For Beijing, the status of Taiwan represents the last unresolved issue from the Chinese Civil War that ended with victory for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949. Taiwan-policy has, unsurprisingly, long been a policy focus of the CCP since the establishment of Taipei as... MORE

China’s deployment of the world’s first operational anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) has just been confirmed with unprecedented clarity by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). The ASBM’s development path was unusual in many respects, but may increasingly represent the shape of things to come for... MORE

When U.S. President Barack Obama meets Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time in their current capacities on June 7–8, Washington will run squarely into Beijing’s recent efforts to strengthen China’s ideological bulwark against international influences. For all their merits, Xi’s two signature ideas—the... MORE

Justas Paleckis, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Belarus, issued his Draft Recommendation to the Council, the Commission, and the European External Action Service (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-506.234+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN). The document reiterates “the need for the unconditional and immediate release and rehabilitation of the political and civic rights of all... MORE

The Barack Obama administration has been doing its best to befriend President Vladimir Putin’s regime, but seems to be failing. Despite intensive attempts by Europe, the United States and Israel to prevent Russian shipments of advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, President Bashar al-Assad announced... MORE