Gas in exchange for sincere warm feelings
Yulia Petrovskaya believes Moscow will not succeed in convincing Belgrade to recognise Crimea as Russian or give up European integration
Foreign policy
Will Russia march into Ukraine (again)?
Anton Barbashin looks into what’s motivating Russian military activity along the Ukrainian border
Armenia and Azerbaijan’s bitter peace in Nagorno Karabakh
Kirill Krivosheev looks at why it is still so tricky to get Azeri and Armenian leaders round the negotiating table
The Taliban Afghanistan: Between Radicals and Pragmatists
Anton Mardasov and Kirill Semyonov discuss whether the Taliban are ready to stop terrorist attacks by international jihadists and ensure the security in Central Asia and Russia
Russia and Uzbekistan’s 5 year rapprochement
Max Hess looks at how the post-Karimov era in Uzbekistan has been a strikingly fruitful one for Russia-Uzbek relations
Russia-Israel relations after the fall of Netanyahu
Milan Czerny takes stock of Russia-Israeli relations as a new government in Israel gets into its stride, and Iran pushes further into Syria
Deripaska Déjà vu?
Max Hess on why the raids on Deripaska properties in the US should be seen as part of the Biden Administration’s revised approach to Russia...
Russia-Moldova gas disputes: Is an “energy divorce” possible?
Denis Cenusa unbundles what lies behind the unfolding energy crisis in Moldova
Russian-Chinese Crisis Alliance in the Balkans
Yulia Petrovskaya on how Moscow and Beijing confront the “collective West” in BiH and Kosovo
Abkhazian Exceptionalism
Max Hess on why Abkhazia breaks away from the tendencies of other Russian-backed breakaway states
Germany’s Next Russia Policy
Dmitry Stratievski considers the future of Russo-German relations under Berlin’s next government
Arms trafficking in the shadow of the Taliban
Eric Woods warns that the Taliban takeover could be a boon for the region’s arms smugglers, with a major risk of weapons leaking north into Russia