Russia’s largest independent oil refiner, New Stream, recently emerged from financial devastation to resume operations. But multi-million-dollar fraud charges against its former board chair underscore the problems in an industry reeling from decrepit facilities and a new, profit-gutting tax code. At the same time, the... MORE

The leadership of the Russian Armed Forces at the defense ministry and General Staff levels is exploiting lessons learned from the country’s recent involvement in foreign conflicts as part of a process to enhance military capability. This forms part of a much wider “lessons learned”... MORE

In recent weeks, Russian media has been actively reporting on Uzbekistan’s various contracts to purchase Russian military equipment—some of it apparently state of the art (see below). The multiple deals indicate Tashkent’s determination to elevate arms-sale negotiations with Moscow to a higher level. In 2017,... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. Moldova’s regime change in June 2019 has overtaken some of the key assumptions of Western diplomacy in the Transnistria conflict-settlement negotiations. One Western assumption relates to the settlement’s content. It holds that the settlement (“special status”) must be... MORE

The United States and Russia have entered the final fortnight before time runs out on their pro forma commitment to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty (1988)—one of the major achievements of then–Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s “new political thinking.” Last October, US President Donald Trump... MORE

The Ukrainian snap parliamentary elections are scheduled for July 21. According to the latest opinion survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KMIS), at least four political parties are expected to enter the Verkhovna Rada: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People (polling... MORE

Moldova’s Socialist President Igor Dodon seems to have cast aside his old, pet “federalization” project, which would have empowered Transnistria in Chisinau and thereby empowered Russia in a federalized Moldova (see EDM, July 17). Dating back to 2013, his project is still displayed on the... MORE

In the Russian Federation, there are two groups of people who are referred to as “Cossacks.” The first consists of 3 million-5 million people who trace their ancestors to the 13 Cossack hosts of the imperial period and celebrate their tradition as free men. According... MORE

For centuries, Russia has spent vast amounts of blood and treasure and fought multiple wars in the hopes to either directly annex the Turkish Straits—the Bosporus and the Dardanelles—or to establish a friendly vassal regime there that would control the strategic waterway and allow only... MORE

The Union State Treaty between Russia and Belarus (signed in April 1997) declares, in Chapter II, Section II, Articles 17–18, that border security falls into a group of key bilateral issues that must be solved jointly. In practice, this gives Russia control over Belarus’s external... MORE