On January 30, the Russian government approved a number of acts concerned with rendering new economic benefits and subsidies to businesses or investors willing to engage in projects in the country’s High North. The adopted proposals were jointly prepared by the Ministry of Finance (Minfin),... MORE

As hard as it is to believe, given President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s long record of successfully wrenching concessions on energy prices from Moscow, Belarus’s relationship with Russia may finally be approaching a critical turning point. On February 7, Lukashenka was in Sochi to continue the negotiations... MORE

Russian experts have compiled a list rating the relative levels of intra-elite conflict plaguing southern Russia, including the republics of the North Caucasus. According to this ranking (produced by a group of researchers headed by the Expert Analytical Center “South”), political and business elites in... MORE

At this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that transporting Russian natural gas via the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) is technically possible but that Azerbaijan has never received an official proposal for such... MORE

The message from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to his Norwegian counterpart, Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Spitsbergen Treaty was rude even by the standards of Russian diplomacy. Russia has, on several previous occasions, signaled disagreements with... MORE

Introduction Since the outbreak of the Libyan civil war in 2011, Moscow has been trying to demonstrate a balanced and pragmatic approach — considered in Russian conservative circles to be “excessively conformist” and even “defeatist” (YouTube.com, January 30, 2013). Director General of the Russian International... MORE

The stalemate in Belarusian-Russian negotiations over oil and natural gas continues. Following President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s emotional speech in the city of Shklov, in which he openly complained that Moscow was only willing to make concessions in exchange for Belarus losing its sovereignty (see EDM, January... MORE

Just as the single blade of grass, no matter how small, inevitably breaks through a concrete walkway, no matter how thick, so, too, the Circassian nation is now overcoming a long history of repression and domination. Since the beginning of its contact with the Russian... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Dmitry Kozak as deputy head of the presidential administration and principal representative for policy toward Ukraine, on top of Kozak’s continuing mission as presidential envoy for Moldovan affairs. Kozak will be handling the conflicts in Donbas and Transnistria, as... MORE

Belarus is officially Russia’s closest ally. In addition to joint membership in the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO, a regional defense alliance) and Eurasian Economic Union, Belarus and Russia together form a Union State—a loose confederative structure initially intended to transform into a federation... MORE