With the world’s gaze fixed on Russian troops to the east of Ukraine, or perhaps to its north in Belarus or south in Crimea, the United Kingdom has raised awareness of their presence to the west. Due to an obscurity of post-Soviet geopolitics, 1,500 soldiers of the Operational Group of
On Sunday 17 October, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) suspended its Special Monitoring Mission in eastern Ukraine in response to protests by pro-Russian separatists outside its headquarters in Donetsk. Reuters reports that roughly 200 protesters blocked the entrance to the hotel which houses some of the
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday 31 August that although it found no evidence of Russian state involvement in the 2009 murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, the authorities had failed to effectively investigate the case. Estemirova had risen to prominence within Russia and abroad
Last month’s U.S.-German agreement to allow for the completion of Nord Stream 2 involved a German pledge of national and E.U.-level sanctions against Russia if the state deploys the natural gas pipeline to “use energy as a weapon or launch further aggressive acts against Ukraine.” Published on July 21st, the
Classified documents from the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) — discovered by a member of the public at an English bus stop — offer some insight into British military thinking on last week’s naval incident near the Crimean coast. Of primary concern in the documents is the expected Russian response
Russia has given official notice that it will leave the Treaty on Open Skies in six months, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Friday 18 June. The decision follows the U.S. withdrawal last year, reaffirmed by President Biden upon taking office, which Moscow claims “significantly upset the balance of interests”
On 6 June 2021, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that experiments are currently being conducted at Novaya Zemlya, the nuclear weapons test site in the Arctic Ocean. Major-General Igor Kolensikov, Head of the Defence Ministry’s 12th General Directorate, told the TV channel Zvezda that the tests are ‘non-nuclear’ – also
Amidst the extraordinary whirlwind of events that heralded the collapse of the Soviet Union, a law was passed in Moscow which reverberated into the distant reaches of the soon-to-be-formed Russian Federation. The statute ‘On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples,’ signed on April 29th 1991, has been described by human rights
Although the question of Moldova’s identity has plagued it since it gained statehood at the fall of the Soviet Union, the recent escalation of tensions between its neighbour Ukraine and Russia has served as a reminder of the stakes involved. Moscow was unwilling to let Ukraine pivot towards NATO, and may be similarly loath to see Moldova align itself more closely with the EU.
In Central Asia, geography has not apportioned access to natural resources equally. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, its five Central Asian successor states have had no central mechanism to redistribute resources and thus overcome each’s a deficiency. Kyrgyzstan, while not blessed with the oil wealth of
As the dust settles on last year’s forty-four-day Nagorno-Karabakh War, questions have been raised over the purpose and value of the OSCE Minsk Group. Created in 1992 under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the group has sought to facilitate a peaceful resolution to the
Amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, announced the separatist region’s first-ever programme of military conscription on Thursday, April 1st. Citizens born between 1994 and 2003 will be eligible for the draft, which is currently legislated to last until July
The U.K. government has announced plans to reverse 30 years of gradual nuclear disarmament in its Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, published on 16th March. Increasing the self-imposed limit on Trident nuclear warheads, from 180 to 260, is perhaps the policy document’s most eye-catching decision, though
The Chairman of the State Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov, announced on Wednesday 10th March that the body is planning to bring a “lawsuit against Ukraine due to the losses caused to the peninsula by the water blockade.” Since April 2014, shortly after the Russian annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian
On February 16th, 2021, the BBC’s Panorama programme broadcasted a series of previously unseen videos in which Princess Latifa Al Maktoum alleged she was being held hostage. The daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, claimed she had been imprisoned by her father in a Dubai
