Executive Summary: In early August, the Kremlin began discussing a project to move approximately 170 large state corporations from Moscow to the regions where they extract profits, primarily from natu...

Executive Summary: Beijing and Budapest have reportedly finalized the details of an extradition treaty that reflects Beijing’s growing involvement in Hungary’s internal security. The new treaty comes ...

Executive Summary: Moscow believes the upcoming Alaska summit will end Russian President Vladimir Putin’s international isolation, taking note of its location in Alaska, which Russia once owned.   Rus...

Executive Summary: Xi Jinping continues to dominate the Chinese Party-state system, based on an assessment of evidence from spring and summer 2025. Despite high-level purges, unusual military reshuffl...

Executive Summary: New laws upping the penalties for Russians who access “extremist” content through unauthorized means reflect Moscow’s growing paranoia with an increasingly frustrated population. Ru...

Executive Summary: Romania’s new government, sworn in on June 23, appears committed to modernizing the Romanian Naval Forces, but its naval forces remain severely underfunded and outdated. Bucharest h...

Executive Summary Russia became the first country to formally recognize the Taliban government in Kabul. Moscow has rationalized the move as a pragmatic concession in the fight against drug traffickin...

Executive Summary: Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, harsh sanctions, growing awareness among North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states of Russian intelligence tacti...

We are publishing this piece because Roman Bezsmertny is a Ukrainian diplomat who participated in nearly 60 rounds of talks with Russian representatives during the Minsk peace process. His experience ...

Executive Summary: The Ukrainian Air Force is seeing increased success in eliminating Russian aircraft and missiles, thereby opening up more opportunities for offensive air and ground operations. Ukra...

Executive Summary: The Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) announced its departure from Mali on June 6. The PMC’s operations in Africa enabled Russia to establish a network of influence on the conti...

Executive Summary: Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Khvtisiashvili expressed solidarity with Iran following the Israeli airstrikes, sparking outrage from the Israeli Embassy and raising dom...

Executive Summary: A Russian raid in Ekaterinburg targeting ethnic Azerbaijanis on June 27 resulted in deaths, injuries, and allegations of torture. This ignited a severe diplomatic crisis, with Baku ...

Executive Summary: Italy’s increased bilateral engagement with the Georgian Dream government sharply contrasts with broader EU skepticism toward Tbilisi’s democratic backsliding. Rome’s approach is sh...

Executive Summary: As Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved to reimpose totalitarianism on Russia, the Federal Security Service (FSB) increasingly mirrors its Soviet predecessors, including rebui...

Executive Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s appointment of Colonel General Andrey Mordvichev as Commander in Chief of Russia’s Ground Forces highlights tensions in the Kremlin’s political-mi...

Executive Summary: Corruption in Russia worsens the longer the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine continues because the war creates expanded opportunities for bribery and the state seizure and misallocatio...

Decolonization for Security: Ukraine’s Strategic Policy Toward Indigenous Peoples Colonized by Russia, by Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Deputy Chair, Temporary Special Commission on the Development of State Po...

Executive Summary: Hungary hosted an informal summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in May 2025, aiming to strengthen Budapest’s strategic positioning between the East and West, diversify ...

Executive Summary: The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, held on June 18–21, was a showcase of artificial optimism for Russia’s economy, despite most of Russia’s economic sectors outside of...

Executive Summary: In response to what Moscow labels the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s militarization of the Arctic, Russia has significantly restructured its Arctic policies. Russia has expand...

Executive Summary: Russian soldiers fighting against Ukraine are making and sending home video protests to their local governments about a wide variety of issues, boosting the profile of opposition ca...

Executive Summary Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s recent visit to Hungary, by personal invitation of his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orbán, underlines growing cooperation between Tbilisi...