Eurasia

In 2007, the year Apple first started making iPhones in China, the country was better known for cheap labor than for technological sophistication. At the time, Chinese firms were unable to produce almost any of the iPhone’s internal components, which were imported from Germany, Japan, and the United States. China’s …

The events in Georgia related to the new laws are not over, but are just beginning. Attempts to adopt the law “on foreign agents” at least in some version will be made again, and then, if the Georgian authorities have time and opportunity, norms (or existing ones) related to the …

Iran’s highest-ranking military commander said the country has manufactured an advanced ballistic missile that can hit moving targets in the sea. In comments on Monday, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri said Iran has gained the technical know-how to produce ballistic missiles capable …

Russia’s defense minister said Tuesday that capturing the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was important to launching offensive operations deeper in the region, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged to keep fighting for Bakhmut. Russian defense chief Sergei Shoigu called Bakhmut an important defensive hub for Ukrainian forces as he …

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday during an unannounced visit to Iraq that U.S. forces operating in the country are focused on supporting Iraqi forces and defeating the Islamic State group, while highlighting the need for security to carry out that mission. “Our defense cooperation against Daesh is a …

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday received Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki at the Royal Court in Al-Yamamah Palace in the capital, Riyadh, the Saudi News Agency reported. At the beginning of the reception, the crown prince welcomed the Polish premier to the Kingdom, wishing him and …

If there is one place Saudi Arabia was happy to be low on the totem pole, it was Iran. Those days are over. Strategic thinkers in Tehran have upgraded their perception of the threat posed by the kingdom. Rather than simply viewing Saudi Arabia as a Middle Eastern extension of …

What happened at the end of Soviet times and ultimately killed off the USSR is happening again in Russia today, Boris Grozovsky of Important Stories says. The country is producing rockets and tanks “but people don’t feel” any benefit from this as a result because those increases are being paid …

The sudden unannounced arrival of the top US military officer General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a dusty American base in Syria’s remote northeast on Friday may call to mind a famous quote by Dick Cheney, vice-president in the George W Bush presidency: “The good …

The eastern city has long been seen as a prize by Russia but in recent days, Western officials and analysts have questioned its significance. That is what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in December during his brief visit to Bakhmut, a largely-destroyed and depopulated southeastern city that has become the …