In the ninth month of Russia’s war against Ukraine, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Russian army is being gradually overtaken by “shell hunger.” This should be expected based on earlier analyses made in August 2022 (see EDM, August 16, 18) and has been... MORE

The enforcement of the price ceiling for Russian oil transported by sea enacted on December 5 is not a surprise, as this measure was being discussed by the Unites States and its key partners as early as September 2022. It is, nevertheless, important proof of... MORE

Since at least mid-October 2022, Iran and Azerbaijan have been grappling with the latest and most serious wave of escalations between the two neighboring, Shia-majority Muslim nations in recent years. The escalation has manifested itself most clearly through the war games being conducted along the... MORE

Moscow’s all-out war of aggression against Ukraine, which commenced on February 24, has vividly demonstrated that Russia’s militarism and drive toward colonial expansion has not disappeared. This has, in turn, revealed that arguments supporting the notion that economic growth and inclusion in major international organizations... MORE

After his re-election, Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made his first foreign visit to Moscow on November 28, an action that, up to now, most observers would have seen as a clear expression of loyalty or even subservience to Russia by the head of a post-Soviet... MORE

On October 24, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Georgia for a one-day working visit. The abrupt nature of Aliyev’s visit was characterized as “strange” and “mysterious” by many experts in Tbilisi (Civil.ge; Netgazeti.ge, October 24). Indeed, the brevity of the visit and its format... MORE

On November 18, the Azerbaijani parliament approved a bill on the opening of Azerbaijan’s embassy in the Israeli capital of Tel Aviv (Report.az, November 18). This is a historic decision, as until now, Azerbaijan had refused to reciprocate the opening of an Israeli embassy in... MORE

The news of Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei’s sudden death has, for now, overshadowed all other news coming from Belarus. Exactly two years ago, Makei’s deputy Oleg Kravchenko also died from a sudden heart attack. Both Makei and Kravchenko used to be the major champions... MORE

On November 15, at approximately 3:40 p.m. local time, an explosion killed two people in the Polish village of Przewodów, located in Lublin Province, around six kilometers from Poland’s border with war-torn Ukraine. Due to massive Russian missile strikes that had been targeting Ukraine at... MORE

Since the start of the Russian all-out assault on Ukraine on February 24, Gazprom’s natural gas supplies to Europe have been cut by approximately 80 percent (Bruegel.org, November 22). Such a drastic reduction is primarily due to Moscow’s own decisions aimed at stoking political and... MORE