Moscow is relocating the home base of its Caspian Flotilla from Astrakhan to a new port facility in Kaspiysk, Dagestan (see EDM, June 4), an action scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. This move is taking on a more menacing aspect... MORE

Four years ago, then–United States President Barack Obama famously stated that Georgia is not presently on the path to membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (Civil Georgia, March 27, 2014). Nevertheless, Tbilisi persisted in its efforts to maintain ever-closer relations with the transatlantic... MORE

After the end of the Cold War, both the East and the West agreed they were no longer enemies, and Russian delegations regularly visited summits of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The last such delegation attended NATO’s Chicago Summit, in 2012, though it was... MORE

Despite the relatively slow pace of Russian military modernization (see EDM, November 8, 2016), the country’s Ministry of Defense announced in May that more than 50 percent of the equipment in service with the Armed Forces will be “modern” by the end of 2018 (Mil.ru,... MORE

During June 18–28, Russia’s southern city of Novorossiysk (Krasnodar Krai) hosted the trilateral joint tactical military exercise Slavic Brotherhood 2018, at the Raevsky training center (Tvzvezda.ru, June 26). Observed by defense attachés from 42 countries, these drills were the largest international maneuvers of the Russian... MORE

Iran has traditionally had enormous influence in Nakhchivan, the large western exclave of Azerbaijan. Partially, this is an outcome of history—Nakhchivan’s population was more Persianized than other portions of Azerbaijan. But more recently, and perhaps more importantly, Iranian influence stemmed from the fact that it... MORE

On June 13, the Russian Northern Fleet set sail for an exercise unusual both for its timing and for the numbers of ships and units that participated. The exercise began less than a fortnight after the summer training period started—a time of the year when... MORE

Once an important Mediterranean port in the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans, the city of Derna is currently being leveled by artillery and airstrikes supporting a ground offensive led by 76-year-old “Field Marshal” Khalifa Haftar. A former loyalist of Muammar Gaddafi, a veteran... MORE

Syria: Government Forces Move on the South Syrian government forces have begun their assault on parts of Syria’s southwest, effectively ending a ceasefire agreement in place since last year and raising fears that Iranian-backed fighters could be left to infiltrate the area. In the weeks... MORE

The Russian navy has boosted its presence in the Sea of Azov to approximately 40 ships, giving it the ability to control that body of water and to strike virtually at will along Ukraine’s coastline there, Vadim Skibitsky, a representative of the main intelligence directorate... MORE