U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will urge Russia to “take immediate steps to de-escalate” tensions along its border with Ukraine in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva Friday. Blinken is heading to Ukraine this week for talks with the country’s president amid continued fears that …

The peoples of the North Caucasus and the majority of Russians are going in different directions mentally, increasing misunderstandings and hostility between them and the probability that this trend will lead to a fundamental break between them, Aleksandr Zhelenin says. And what is most alarming, the Rosbalt commentator says, is …

New evidence emerged at a Senate hearing and in media reports about the Polish government’s alleged use of the Pegasus spyware against both the opposition and the ruling Law and Justice party’s own former allies. The Polish Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, CBA purchased the controversial Pegasus spyware in 2017 with money …

Außenministerin Baerbock und Bundeskanzler Scholz haben Deutschlands Position im Ukraine-Konflikt deutlich gemacht: Kommunikation statt Konfrontation, aber ohne dabei Russlands Verhalten schön zu reden. Richtig so. Wir können noch miteinander reden. Das war die Botschaft von Deutschlands erster Botschafterin, Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock, heute in Moskau. Reden – nicht gegeneinander, sondern miteinander. …

Roberta Metsola began her political career as a university student campaigning for Malta to join the EU as its smallest state. Less than two decades later, she has been elected to preside over its most important democratic institution. Former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, said he recognised her talents from her …

The statement from the First President came just after evidence of elite conflict began surfacing in earnest, with suggestions of a purge of Nazarbayev elites. After two weeks with nary a peep, save a spokesman statement that he had not fled the country, Kazakhstan’s First President Nursultan Nazarbayev surfaced with …

India and China held a 14th round of military talks earlier this week to resolve the border confrontation between the two countries that began in mid-2020. The corps commander-level talks were held at the Chushul-Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that separates …

The standard logic of the division of labor between Moscow and Beijing in Central Asia holds that Russia is responsible for security and China is in charge of the economy. Following that narrative, it can be asserted that neither power suffered losses during this month’s tumultuous events in Kazakhstan. The …

Iraqi security authorities have announced a state of maximum alert as they anticipate armed attacks in Baghdad and other cities. Hours after the visit of the commander of the Iranian “Quds Force,” Ismail Qaani, armed factions held several meetings to discuss “mechanisms to stop Muqtada al-Sadr’s project of forming a …

The formal proceedings began 14 months after the Sweden-based dissident was lured into a “honeytrap” in Turkey before being smuggled home by Iran-assigned operatives. A “Revolutionary” court in Tehran opened the trial of Habib Chaab, the leader of a foreign-based pan-Arab movement, on terror-related charges. Reading out the indictment in …