Eurasia

With Recep Tayyip Erdogan securing another five years in power, the Turkish president is seeking to increase Turkiye’s influence in the Balkans — a region that was part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. Spiking tensions in northern Kosovo present such an opportunity. Although southeastern Europe remains firmly in America’s …

The United States said Sunday that the brief rebellion of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin against Russia’s military leadership shows “very serious cracks” in the two-decade rule of President Vladimir Putin and “questions the very premise” of his 16-month war against Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC’s “This …

The Central Asian republics are self-organizing in the wake of the NATO evacuation from Afghanistan in August 2021. The republics are wedged between Russia, China, Iran, and Afghanistan, and are pursing multi-vector foreign policies to ensure economic growth, and to ensure they can navigate among the local powers, and the …

In a bizarre series of events, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the notorious Wagner Group, seemingly dared to challenge Moscow with what appeared to be a “mutiny” triggered by a rocket attack on Wagner camps allegedly “ordered by [Russian Defense Minister Sergei] Shoigu” and the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) (T.me/concordgroup_official, …

The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam on June 6 has evoked strong moral loathing against Russia, the alleged perpetrator according to major Western international media, and considerably diminished momentum toward a frozen conflict in Ukraine. The incident has spoiled the common understanding in the making across major Western countries …

Most heads of giant corporations are drunk with their own power. These corporate CEOs push the envelope in ways that harm defenseless people. They believe they can get away with anything, and they do, with few exceptions. The few corporate crime prosecutions keep declining from Obama to Trump to Biden, …

Germany will help prop up NATO’s eastern flank further by permanently stationing 4,000 additional soldiers in Lithuania, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Monday (26 June), reversing a previous policy. Berlin leads the so-called Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) in Lithuania, a mission set up by NATO in 2017 to …

Since Belarus’ authoritarian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka suppressed the protests that followed his certain rigging of elections in August 2020, Belarus has largely been written off as an extension of neighboring Russia. Its internal politics have slipped off the international radar. Yet, Belarus’ political dynamics and public opinion are different from …

Prigozhin’s political and financial future remains uncertain as he seeks exile in Belarus, Iyad el-Jaafara writes. During the tense hours of anticipation, analysts closely monitored the developments surrounding Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against the Russian Ministry of Defense. There were discussions about the possibility of this uprising extending into Syrian territory, …

We have yet to see the full repercussions of the Wagner Group’s march on Moscow. “Bombing Voronezh” is an expression in the Russian language that roughly translates to hurting yourself while trying to do damage to someone else. On June 24, language met reality as Russian forces bombed the southern …