May, 2023

• 11 May

  Iran increases trade with BRICS including China, as it eyes to join bloc

  

  Iran has seen a 14% year-on-year increase in non-oil trade with members of the five-state alliance, which includes Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa. Iran has been ramping up trade with members of the BRICS group, as Tehran looks to join the five-nation alliance that is often seen as …

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• 11 May

  Can Russian Overseas Publishing Emulate Its Cold War Success?

  

  The publication of Russian-language writers abroad is unlikely to be very successful in the long term. An author’s main objective is to be read, and that is more easily accomplished inside Russia. One of the phenomena spawned by the Cold War era was tamizdat: the publication, free from censorship, of …

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• 11 May

  Yes, Erdogan’s rule might actually end this weekend

  

  Can elections remove an autocrat like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power? If you pose this question to Turkey watchers in Western capitals to get their take on the country’s upcoming election, you will get a resounding “no” from a significant number of them. Some will say Erdogan is …

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• 11 May

  Turkey’s 2023 Elections: Perspectives on a Critical Vote

  

  It is a cliché for politicians to claim that an upcoming election is the most critical vote in the history of the country. In Turkey’s case, however, the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14 are indeed the most consequential ever. The prospects for Turkey’s democratic future are at stake. …

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• 11 May

  How to Spot an Autocrat’s Economic Lies

  

  In China and Elsewhere, Forget the Numbers—Look at the Lights Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell’s 1984, spends his days as an employee at the Ministry of Truth adjusting documents to conform to the fluctuating political needs of Big Brother’s regime. “Who controls the past controls the future, who …

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• 11 May

  Beyond Ukraine’s Offensive

  

  The West Needs to Prepare the Country’s Military for a Long War As the Russian winter offensive reaches its culmination, Ukraine is poised to seize the initiative. In the coming weeks, it plans to conduct an offensive operation, or series of offensives, that may prove decisive in this phase of …

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• 11 May

  Why Is Pakistan Moving Towards A Failed State? Drastic Structural Reforms Are Required – OpEd

  

  During the Second World War, the allied powers of the US, former Soviet Union, Great Britain, Germany, and France, being eminent winners in the war, laid the foundation of the United Nations and made international arrangements at the end of colonialism. Consequently, post-colonial nations emerged, and geographical boundaries were drawn …

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• 11 May

  Will The US And Turkmenistan Finally Grow Closer? – Analysis

  

  In April 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Rasit Meredow, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Turkmenistan for a working meeting in Washington, D.C. The meeting followed the Blinken-Meredow meeting at the U.S.-Central Asia (C5+1) ministerial meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan in February 2023. The U.S. statement on …

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• 11 May

  The Privatization of War, American-Style

  

  The way mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private army have been waging a significant part of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has been well covered in the American media, not least of all because his firm, the Wagner Group, draws most of its men from Russia’s prison system. Wagner …

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• 11 May

  Iran: IRGC Opens Airbase In Southeast

  

  The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Ground Force opened a new airbase in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan. The new air base, named after Ali Arabi -an IRGC Ground Force serviceman martyred in October 2009- has come into service in the city of Zahedan. IRGC Commander Major General Hossein …

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