Eurasia

For nearly two months, Belarusians have been taking to the streets to protest the results of the fraudulent presidential election of August 9. According to Ales Bialiatski of the Human Rights Center “Viasna,” close to 12,000 people have been detained since the night of the election. As of September 1, UN experts have received reports of 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment in detention. International human rights organizations raised concerns over the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades by riot police.

Following the meeting of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka with Vladimir Putin on September 14 in Sochi, one might get the impression that the Russian leader fully supported his counterpart amid the ongoing mass protests in Belarus. In particular, Putin confirmed his commitment to provide Minsk with a $1.5 billion loan and reiterated his recognition of Lukashenka as the legitimate president of Belarus. In turn, the Belarusian president again tried to demonstrate his loyalty to Moscow and to the ideas of the “allied states” of Belarus and Russia.

Introduction Turkey is a significant regional player whose posturing cannot be overlooked in the context of the Syrian civil war. Turkey and Syria both share a border, having had a… read more →

Russia – in the long run – is in decline and should rethink its policies towards the Former Soviet Union.

BY ELANUR URAL Prior to 2014, both Crimea and the Tatars were relatively unknown names to household news in the West. Now they are mentioned almost daily, most recently in… read more →

BY ELANUR URAL VICE’s crew visited it with protective suits, but David Farrier of Netflix’s Dark Tourist jumped right in after a shot of vodka. Kazakhstan’s ‘Atomic Lake’, though sitting… read more →

BY AUSTEN DOWELL While American foreign-policy experts and politicians are consumed with the threat of the so-called “rise of China” to US regional and global interests, it is easy to… read more →

BY DANIEL ROSSELL-EVANS Shanghai Cooperation Organization Introduction The end of this year’s G7 Summit in Canada provoked images of an alliance divided, with key partners airing their grievances in public.… read more →

BY AUSTEN DOWELL Nowhere is Uzbekistan’s constant juggling act between advancing national security interests and producing much-needed economic growth so readily apparent as at its long Ferghana Valley border. Foreign… read more →

BY ELANUR URAL Filbert, fındık, call it what you will: Turkish hazelnuts are about to flood the international market. Turkey has a near monopoly on hazelnuts, producing about 70% of… read more →