Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern For half a millennium, Russian foreign policy has been characterized by soaring ambitions that have exceeded the country’s capabilities. Beginning with the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century, Russia managed to expand at an average rate of 50 square miles per …

Will Ukraine Bring Russia the Superpower Status It Seeks? On Saturday, Russia invaded and effectively annexed Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea. In doing so, Russian President Vladimir Putin shrewdly took advantage of the political uncertainty that arose when Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s former kleptocratic president, took flight last …

Ali Baqeri, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and lead negotiator in the talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, held talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in Moscow. The twitter account of Russia’s diplomatic mission in Vienna said in a post that Baqeri and Ryabkov held a …