On March 13, a draft law on increasing the age of conscription for military service in Russia was introduced to the State Duma. The planned increase, from 18 to 26 years old (“before 27 years old” as worded in the current law) to 21 to... MORE

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Moscow, which starts today and is expected to go for three days, is certain to be rich in pomp and ceremony. Yet, its content remains rather uncertain. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in most cordial terms, invited his Chinese... MORE

On March 10, at the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), Xi Jinping was unanimously "reelected" president (主席) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with 2,952 delegates in the rubber-stamp legislature voting in his favor and zero abstaining or voting against... MORE

Introduction Since 1949, Myanmar has experienced the world’s longest ongoing armed conflict. Following the February 2021 coup, which overthrew the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, fighting has intensified, with nearly 3,000 people killed (Reliefweb, January 30). In addition, roughly 1.5 million people have been... MORE

For many years, the successive leaders of Kyrgyzstan could not capitalize on their country’s strategic location along the shortest route connecting China to Central Asia and further onward to the Middle East and Europe. Now, hopes are cautiously mounting that this might be changing. Current... MORE

From February 28 to March 2, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka paid a state visit to China. Somewhat unexpectedly, the visit attracted enormous international media and political attention (Belta, March 2). The reason for that, however, had more to do with Russia’s war against Ukraine than... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the opening of a north-south trade route between the Russian Federation and the Indian Ocean via Iran a priority for more than a decade. But the project has run into increasing difficulties on both of the two possible land... MORE

In February 2023, on the one-year anniversary of its re-invasion of Ukraine, Moscow stepped up relations with the two occupied regions of Georgia—Abkhazia and the so-called “South Ossetia” (Tskhinvali region). For example, mutual working visits have become more frequent. The leaders of the puppet regimes... MORE

From January 24 to February 3, Chatham House conducted another (14th) online national survey of Belarusians. The analyzed sample consisted of 813 urban respondents. “Despite the fact that our sample has been weighted to accurately reflect the make-up of Belarusian society, it is possible that... MORE

*Read Part One and Part Two Russia basically revised its strategic agenda regarding Ukraine midway through this war. Moscow’s initial agenda aimed to control the whole of Ukraine politically and economically, integrating Ukrainian territory and resources with those of Russia (alongside Belarus) into an anti-Western... MORE