Executive Summary:  The Russian State Duma announced that it conceptually supports a new law to ban “the childfree ideology,” that is, the conscious refusal to have children in Russia, in an effort to “preserve family values.” In practice, these measures are not capable of improving... MORE

Executive Summary: Since early July, at least 115 political prisoners have been released from Belarusian prisons, raising important questions about the reasons for such decisions and how they might pave the way for a potential reopening of Belarus’s relations with the West. The Belarusian opposition... MORE

Executive Summary: The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) proposed amendments to the Supervision Law aim to strengthen the National Supervision Commission’s (NSC) authority, particularly its ability to conduct extraterritorial anti-corruption enforcement. The amendments align with Xi Jinping’s “foreign-related rule-by-law (涉外法治)” concept, extending PRC legal and... MORE

Executive Summary: A recently leaked copy of the audit of Volkswagen’s much-criticized joint-venture factory in Xinjiang indicates that claims made by Volkswagen inside the report are misleading or false. These include suggestions that the audit applied the SA8000 social accountability standard, followed International Labor Organization... MORE

Executive Summary: Türkiye could be a key player in the People's Republic of China's (PRC) strategy of coopting foreign journalists in order to create a more favorable image of its policies in Xinjiang. Türkiye’s participation in PRC state-backed tours for journalists, along with recent economic... MORE

Executive Summary: The largest prisoner swap between Russia and the West since the Cold War occurred on August 1 in Ankara and seemed to work in Moscow’s favor based on those prisoners swapped. The uneven status of those swapped confirmed the effectiveness of Moscow’s strategy... MORE

Executive Summary: New Economic and Technology Development Zones (ETDZs) in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) are focused on pockets of the Han population, which will exacerbate tensions within the region. The Tibetan economy is already largely under Han control (except for in the agriculture and... MORE

Executive Summary: The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe declared that the “decolonization of the Russian Federation is a necessary condition for sustainable peace” and that Russia is pursuing a “policy of genocide” in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine did... MORE

Executive Summary: An estimated 120,000 Russians have died in the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. The rate of losses is increasing over time, boding discontent among Russians as they continue to be used as cannon fodder. Ethnically non-Russian regions have borne the brunt of the losses... MORE

Executive Summary: As part of Belarus’s Independence Day festivities, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka presented an amnesty plan to release thousands of convicts and political prisoners. He also introduced a series of personnel changes that may provide an opening for future rapprochement with the West. Two main... MORE