Russia’s Caucasus Campaign: SVR Handlers, Hired Killers, and Compromised Ex-Officials

With Armenian parliamentary elections set for June 7, Moscow has activated an unusually wide operational spectrum against Yerevan — ranging from clerical intelligence assets and a resident SVR station to a paid foreign lobbyist reportedly financed by Russian-based oligarchs and, most recently, a filmed death threat against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. What looks, in isolation, like a series of domestic political pressures is, on closer inspection, a coordinated effort to replace a pro-Western government with one more amenable to Moscow’s preferences in the South Caucasus.

Russia’s Autumn 2026 Elections: A Plebiscite for the “Systemic Opposition”

Russia’s autumn 2026 elections cannot be characterized as routine. In many respects, they will constitute a plebiscite on the very survival of the “systemic opposition” model - a model that has endured without fundamental change for two decades. Even the Kremlin’s opponents do not dispute United Russia’s commanding electoral advantage. What remains in question is the architecture of the internal-systemic opposition to the party of power - an architecture that, by all indications, will look markedly different from the present one.

Thirty Years After the USSR: Who Actually Won?

The dissolution of the Soviet Union was preceded by a promise, implicit in the logic of market transition, that integration into the global economy would deliver prosperity. For some successor states, that promise was kept. For others, it has not been kept to this day.

A Visit That Moscow Cannot Ignore: Zelensky in Baku and the Remaking of the South Caucasus

Volodymyr Zelensky’s April 25 visit to Gabala and his joint appearance with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev produced six bilateral agreements spanning defense, energy, and trade — and positioned Baku as a prospective venue for trilateral Ukraine-Russia-U.S. negotiations. The episode crystallized a broader realignment already underway in the South Caucasus, one that Russian state media, wire services, and pro-war commentators struggled to process with composure.

“The Path to Freedom”: Program Of The Bashkir National Movement

A book by one of the leaders of the Bashkir national movement, Ruslan Gabbasov, “The Path to Freedom” has been published. In 2011, Gabbasov joined the Bashkir youth movement “Kuk Bure,” and in 2014 became one of the leaders of the nationalist organization “Bashkort,” created on its basis, which was banned in the Russian Federation in 2020.

Dismantling the Apparatus of Exile: Georgia’s Abolition of the South Ossetian Provisional Administration and Its Domestic Political Significance

On January 1, 2026, a quiet but politically charged institutional death took place in Georgia: the Provisional Administration of South Ossetia - formally titled the Administration of the Temporary Administrative-Territorial Unit on the Territory of the Former Autonomous Region of South Ossetia - ceased to exist as a legal entity. The abolition was the culmination of legislation adopted by the Parliament of Georgia on December 17, 2025, by a unanimous vote of 83 deputies, all from the ruling Georgian Dream party. This article examines the decision, its legal and administrative mechanics, its place in Georgian domestic politics, and its broader strategic implications.

The Kremlin’s Open Season on Pashinyan

With Armenia’s parliamentary election set for June 7, 2026, Moscow has moved beyond its customary displeasure with Yerevan and into something resembling an all-out campaign to remove Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan from power. The tools are familiar — state media invective, economic threats, curated street protests, and electoral interference — but the intensity is not. What makes the moment additionally curious is that Moscow’s talking points on the U.S.-brokered TRIPP corridor are being faithfully echoed by parts of the Armenian-American diaspora.

Representation of Jewish and Israeli Issues in the FSU region in Light of Operation “Lion’s Roar.”

The commencement of Operation “Rising Lion” on June 13, 2025, triggered a subsequent wave of intensified hostility, synthesizing: classical antisemitic motifs, conspiracy theories, and state-aligned political propaganda. Notably, this period marked the first instance in which anti-Israeli hate speech in the post-Soviet sphere exhibited clear evidence of coordinated external influence.

Between Two Fires: Tajikistan’s Strategic Crossroads in an Age of War

As Russia bleeds in Ukraine and Iran confronts a devastating military campaign by the United States and Israel, Tajikistan — bound to both by history, language, and structural dependency — faces a moment that is as dangerous as it is clarifying. The correct response is not to find a new patron, but to build sovereignty.

Kyiv, Moscow and Three Scenarios For Iran

By the time of this writing, the Israeli and US military operation “Lion's Roar/Epic Fury” against the fundamentalist ayatollah regime in Iran had passed its eighth day. The strategic objective of this operation would be either the collapse of the Iranian regime or the infliction of such severe damage that it would be unable to restore its military and geopolitical capabilities for a long time. This strategy relies heavily on targeting the leadership.