Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said he expects to secure almost $7 billion in aid for reconstruction, while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv needs concrete commitments for projects that will help post-war development and further modernization. Shmyhal told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on June 21 that the war …
Read More »Competition of the main players in the geopolitics of Central Asia
The continuation of the war in Ukraine has caused important changes in the geopolitics of the peripheral regions and the axis of Eurasia, which is one of the most visible and noisy by a little distance in Central Asia, a region that plays an important role in the historical and …
Read More »Turkey Drone Strikes Kill 16 In Syria: Monitor
Turkey has escalated drone attacks on Kurdish-held regions of north and northeast Syria this week, killing 16 people including one civilian in a single day, a war monitor said Thursday. The strikes mostly targeted Kurdish-held Tal Rifaat and Manbij in the country’s north near the Turkish border, areas Ankara has …
Read More »Detroit-area man gets 14 years in prison for fighting for Islamic State
A Detroit-area man who was captured on a Syrian battlefield in 2018 fighting for Islamic State was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison. Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli of Dearborn was convicted in January of providing support to a designated terrorist organization. “For his betrayal of our nation and his fellow …
Read More »Syrian Kurds Launch New Attempt to Prosecute Captured IS Foreign Fighters
U.S. allies in northeastern Syria are intent on prosecuting hundreds of Islamic State foreign fighters for war crimes despite a lack of support from the international community. The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) announced Thursday it would begin judicial proceedings for about 2,000 IS foreign fighters …
Read More »Russia-Iran Ties Are Transactional — And Warming Fast
Iran-Russia relations have entered a new era of mutual cooperation. Thanks to the war in Ukraine, Moscow and Tehran’s interests — whether military, economic or geopolitical — have aligned to an extent not seen for many decades. The contrast with the period before the Russian invasion of Ukraine is striking. …
Read More »Russian Private Military Companies Thriving Due to War with Ukraine
The war in Ukraine has brought the Wagner Group, Russia’s largest private military company, or PMC, out of the shadows. Before the February 2022 invasion, it operated mostly covertly in Ukraine, Africa and Syria. Its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, even denied the group’s existence and his role until last fall. Today, …
Read More »Georgia Becomes Marriage Hub for Russian Emigres Amid Uncertainty of War
Alexei Yermolaev hardly expected that he’d be proposing to his girlfriend Anna Volshuva in the dead of night, surrounded by packed bags. It was a few days after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Yermolaev had just bought a one-way ticket to Tbilisi in …
Read More »Ideology, Money or Freedom? Why Fighters from the Global South Join Russia’s Army in Ukraine
The family of Tanzanian-born Nemes Raymond Taremo first heard rumors that their beloved relative had been killed on the frontlines in faraway Ukraine in December last year. They received their last message from Taremo, 37, two months earlier — on Oct. 17 — shortly after he joined Russia’s Wagner mercenary …
Read More »War and SPIEF: Russia’s Flagship Economic Forum Flatlines
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), often called the “Russian Davos,” opened Wednesday in what is predicted to be the least impressive showing in the event’s 25-year history. Russia’s annual four-day economic showcase, which had once drawn crowds of foreign investors to President Vladimir Putin’s hometown, has been boycotted …
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