*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine pushed the world’s largest, most advanced economies to introduce several rounds of economic sanctions against the Russian Federation (Meduza, March 8). Russia’s energy sector (a key pillar of... MORE

Allah Nazar is the leader of the Baluchistan Liberation Front (BLF), a banned militant group engaged in a war against Pakistan and seeking the independence of Baluchistan province. As a separatist Baluch leader, Allah Nazar’s BLF has thus far carried out hundreds of terrorist attacks on... MORE

On January 5, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) killed most wanted rebel Menandro “Ka Bok” Villanueva, who was one of the country’s longest-active Communist insurgents and was involved in one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies (Manila Times, January 7). Ka Bok was killed... MORE

Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, a founding member of Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), surrendered to the Afghan Taliban on March 4 and pledged allegiance to the group’s emir, Hibatullah Akhundzada (Twitter/Ab. Sayed, March 4). Dost appeared on March 4 in the capital city of... MORE

Following the start of Russia’s large-scale military re-invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, concerns arose about the role that the Transnistrian region of Moldova could play in the Kremlin’s war plans. The territory has been under Russian military occupation since 1992, with Moscow’s military, security... MORE

As Russian losses in Ukraine mount and resistance in the Russian army to being deployed there increases (Mediazona [1] [2], April 6), Moscow faces growing difficulties with mobilizing soldiers to fill the gaps. This problem is especially acute in places where the funerals of those... MORE

On April 22, General Rustam Minnekayev, the acting commander of the Central Military District, announced that one of the goals of the second phase of Russia’s “special military operation in Ukraine” is to gain full control of Donbas and Ukraine’s south. According to him, achieving... MORE

On April 27, Russia’s Gazprom completely suspended natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria under long-term contracts that were supposed to be valid through the end of 2022. The move was explained by Gazprom as a necessity, as the Russian gas importers in both countries... MORE

The deadlocked war with Ukraine has pushed Russia into an irreconcilable dilemma: it can neither accept reality nor keep denying it. This contradiction can be seen both in the official discourse on the unfolding disaster and the societal response to it. As one example, rampant... MORE

Introduction At the fifth session of the 13th National People’s Congress in early March, the Chinese government announced a defense budget of 1.45 trillion yuan (about $229 billion) for fiscal year 2022, which is a 7.1 percent year-on-year increase from 2021 (Xinhua, March 5). After... MORE