Radicalized and Confused? The Russian Factor in the Latvian Electoral Politics

In 2022-2023, the current and future status of those residents of Latvia who hold Russian citizenship was hotly debated. Many residence permits were revoked, and some people who have not declared their intention to obtain a permanent residence permit or who have not passed the Latvian language exam are even getting ready to be forcefully removed from the territory of Latvia. These legislative measures have drawn further attention not only to the Russian citizens living in Latvia, but also to the ethnic Russians (or Russophones) who have Latvian citizenship and can participate directly in the Latvian political process. How has their electoral behaviour changed after February 2022 and which political forces can now claim to represent their interests?

Political Geometry of Armenia: Between Russia, Iran, and the EU

The Eurasian Economic Union declared 2024 the year of IT technologies. This sector has long been well-developed in Armenia, with Armenian IT companies maintaining a close cooperation with Silicon Valley. Thus, Iran will have a unique opportunity to develop its IT technologies, which seemed quite impossible not so long ago.

Kalmykia: Ethnic Separatism in the Lower Volga Region

Located in the very southeast of Europe, Kalmykia, a subject of the Russian Federation in the lower Volga region, has almost never been in the spotlight of the global community.

“The Middle Eastern Front” of the Russian-Ukrainian War: A View from Jerusalem

As the fighting in Gaza develops, Russia's position is becoming increasingly clear: Moscow almost openly supports Hamas as a satellite of Iran, Russia's closest partner in the Middle East. This significantly sets the current situation apart from the relatively balanced approach demonstrated by Moscow during, for instance, the IDF's Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and Russia’s subsequent policy of presenting itself as an “impartial mediator” between all participants in the Middle East conflict.

Anti-Semitiс Conservatives in the Russian Orthodox Church and Their Influence on State Ideology

Currently, Russia is in the process of forming a new state ideology, one that holds conservative values. The Russian Orthodox Church plays a significant role within this ideology. Consequently, the political significance of conservative circles within the Russian Orthodox Church concerning the Jewish question is becoming pronounced.

War In Ukraine and the Potential For Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Tuva

It is no secret that the Russian authorities mobilized mostly people from the provinces for the war in Ukraine in an effort to avoid growing discontent in the capital cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg. But a number of other population groups experience the feeling of disproportionate use of their human resources for military purposes.

BESA Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Digest No. 2 (November 2023)

In November 2023, the BESA Post-Soviet Conflict Research Program published a series of texts, half of which focus on the recent surge of anti-Semitism in the region of interest, and the rest on the recent dynamics of military supplies in the South Caucasus, Russian-Georgian relations, and the electoral behavior of Kazakhstan's Russian-speaking minority.

BESA Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Digest No. 2 (November 2023)

BESA Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Digest No. 1 (September-October 2023)

The Hamas Attack on Israel and the Wave of Antisemitism in the South Caucasus and Central Asia

The Hamas attack on Israel triggered a wave of antisemitism in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. The root causes of this surge are similar: anti-Israeli propaganda in Russia (which is anti-liberal and anti-Western in nature) and in the Islamic world (usually of a specifically religious nature), as well as in the West (typically taking on an extreme leftist nature).

Sociopolitical Dynamics of the Russians in Kazakhstan: Political Participation and Potential Risks

In the months after 21 September 2022, when the Kremlin announced military mobilization, nearly a million Russian citizens entered Kazakhstan; though, two-thirds had already left the country before January 2023. The reason for the unexpected rise in popularity of migration to the Central Asian state was that Russian citizens do not need a visa or even a “foreign travel” passport to go there.