Executive Summary: Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has secured another five-year presidential term and now seeks to secure the country’s regional and international interests, including a role in peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. Lukashenka’s first visit, as per tradition, was to Russia, where he sought... MORE

Executive Summary: Two waves of recent purges in the People’s Liberation Army have focused on Xi Jinping’s two major bases of support, the Shaanxi Gang and the Fujian Clique, likely eroding his power over the military. A series of articles in the PLA Daily in... MORE

Executive Summary: The annual “Two Sessions” meetings in Beijing are increasingly insignificant affairs, as the lack of genuine policy announcements and restrictions on delegates reduces the space for consultation and deliberation. The government unveiled a new RMB 1 trillion national innovation investment guidance fund, but... MORE

Executive Summary: The Kremlin’s decision to restrict and, in some cases, ban abortions by region rather than country-wide is leading to abortion tourism, in which women travel from one region where it is difficult to terminate pregnancies to another where it is accessible. Abortion tourism... MORE

Executive Summary: The Russian Foreign Intelligence (SVR) has been accusing the European Union of conducting influence campaigns in Georgia through funding anti-government protests. EU officials denied these claims, calling them a disinformation campaign aimed at undermining EU-Georgia relations. The ruling Georgian Dream party has escalated... MORE

Executive Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the Russian courts part of his repressive machine, transforming them from being potentially the last line of defense of Russians’ constitutional rights into agencies to suppress those rights and keep Russians from protesting. Putin has done so... MORE

Executive Summary: On February 12, Belarus released three political prisoners, including a U.S. citizen and two Belarusian nationals, signaling an attempt to reset relations with the United States. The releases are part of Belarus’s broader strategy to de-escalate tensions with Western countries, particularly under the... MORE

Executive Summary: The militarization of Russia’s education system demonstrates that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to continue an aggressive foreign policy and to ensure that Moscow will follow a similar approach even after he departs. Studies on the effect of Nazism in Germany indicate that... MORE

Executive Summary: The year 2024 witnessed sudden removals of high-level People’s Liberation Army (PLA) commanders, a continuation of the purge of 15 defense industry leaders and military commanders in 2023. Xi Jinping’s possible motivations include combating corruption, managing factional conflicts, asserting dominance as an aging... MORE

Executive Summary: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has made another move to subordinate Ingushetia (a neighboring republic within the Russian Federation) by organizing talks intended to create a Chechen-controlled muftiate in Ingushetia.  Kadyrov’s efforts to gain leverage over Ingushetia may be initially successful because of the... MORE