The United States’ plans to levy sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin would be an “extreme” step that would signify a complete breakdown in ties between the two countries, the Kremlin said Thursday. U.S. senators, with support from the White House, unveiled a package of hard-hitting sanctions Wednesday evening intended …

A staggering 40% out of 650 Chinese investments in Europe in the years 2010-2020, according to Datenna [a Dutch company that monitors Chinese investments in Europe], had “high or moderate involvement by state-owned or state-controlled companies.” When the Chairman of the UK parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, wrote that …

Far-right European politicians such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán have been making common cause with Serb nationalists who seek to tear Bosnia and Herzegovina apart. In February 2018, Giorgia Meloni, a seasoned Italian right-wing politician, tweeted a photo of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán attending a roundtable meeting in his …

The unintended consequences of analytical doctrine may make us more vulnerable to surprises. Two recent events, the surprise Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the massing of Russian troops on Ukrainian borders, have brought to the surface the debate about the role of assessment and analysis in informing policy decisions. In …

The riots in Kazakhstan may have abated, but the country’s problems remain unresolved, and its leaders’ challenges have never been greater. Dr Neil Melvin, RUSI’s Director of International Security Studies, identifies what these are. Riots prompted by higher fuel prices are not exactly unusual. We have seen them in places …

The Russian-led ‘peacekeeping’ operation has helped to restore state order, but how will it respond to an escalation of violence? The outbreak of unrest across Kazakhstan at the beginning of 2022 took international audiences by surprise. The protests, which were triggered by rising fuel prices, quickly morphed into demonstrations across …

Kazakhstan’s violence emphasizes the relevance of often overlooked communities. Kazakhstan’s violent upheaval this month underscores that governments and international organizations need to more effectively help Central Asia’s 76 million people build responsive, effective governance across their five nations. Mass protests or communal violence also have struck Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan …

As Moscow deploys troops at the behest of its Central Asian neighbor, where do Kazakhstan’s explosive protests go from here? What started last week as a protest against fuel price increases has quickly turned into a nationwide movement that is taking aim at Kazakhstan’s elite political and economic leaders — …

Taliban’s repudiation of Pakistan’s position on the Durand Line challenges a pillar of Pakistan’s security policy. In at least two incidents in late December and early January, Afghan Taliban soldiers intervened to block an ongoing Pakistani project to erect fencing along the shared border between Afghanistan and Pakistan — the …

What started as Russian saber-rattling along the Ukrainian border last April has now evolved into a fully-fledged international crisis, created entirely by Moscow: An attempt to force concessions from the United States and NATO by threatening to invade Ukraine. When Russia first began amassing troops along the Ukrainian border, some …