TimeLine Layout

April, 2022

  • 20 April

    Turkish Journalist Details Russian Oligarchs’ Investments In Turkey

    On March 15, 2022, Turkish journalist Aytuğ Özçolak published an article titled “Russian Oligarchs In Turkey: Initiatives, Relations, And What They Own.”[1] Özçolak reviews the assets and investments in Turkey of Russian oligarchs including: Leonid Mikhelson, Vagit Alekperov, Vladimir Lisin, Vladimir Potanin, Alexy Mordashov, and Mikhail Fridman. While Western media …

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  • 20 April

    Russian Economic Expert Zubarevich: The Sanctions Will Hit Russia In Stages

    In an interview with Rosbalt media’s Anna Semenets, economist Professor Natalia Zubarevich of the Moscow State University’s Department of the Social and Economic Geography of Russia, outlines the effect of continuing sanctions. The sanctions full effect will not be perceived at once, as some will have immediate effect, while others …

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  • 20 April

    Yemen’s Cease-fire Is Challenging Popular Notions of How Wars End

    Earlier this month, the lead U.N. representative for Yemen announced a two-month cease-fire, the first major breakthrough since 2015 in the conflict between the Houthi rebels and Iran on the one side and the Yemeni government and its Gulf backers on the other. The news was a ray of hope …

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  • 20 April

    The UAE’s Africa Policy Is Full of Contradictions

    Dubai’s Expo 2020, the international fair hosted in the United Arab Emirates, closed last month to rave reviews. The mega event, which was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic but retained its official name for marketing and branding purposes, ran from October 2021 to March 2022. In that time, it …

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  • 20 April

    How Ukraine Can Build Back Better

    Use the Kremlin’s Seized Assets to Pay for Reconstruction The world’s attention has understandably been focused on the military side of the war in Ukraine. But in the next stage, the political-economic strategy may be decisive. As Tacitus once wrote of the Roman strategy in Britain, “they make a desolation …

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  • 20 April

    How Autocrats Endure

    Viktor Orban and the Myth of the Self-Destructing Strongman The timing could not have been more striking. On April 3, nearly six weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine had apparently reinvigorated and reunified the liberal democratic West, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was easily reelected to his …

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  • 20 April

    The New Nuclear Age

    How China’s Growing Nuclear Arsenal Threatens Deterrence In late June 2021, satellite images revealed that China was building 120 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos on the edge of the Gobi Desert. This was followed by the revelation a few weeks later that another 110 missile silos were under construction in …

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  • 20 April

    Factional infighting escalates in northern Syria

    Infighting continues among the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army factions in light of a power and influence struggle, conflict over crossings and smuggling corridors, and the lack of a unified military institution. Clashes and confrontations are taking place almost daily between the armed factions in the areas controlled by the Turkish-backed …

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  • 20 April

    Israeli coalition on verge of collapse as Jerusalem roils

    The tensions at Jerusalem’s holy sites is tearing apart what little is left of the Israeli coalition government. The compound that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al-Sharif, holy to both religions, is a perennial flashpoint, a powder keg that can always be counted on. In October …

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  • 20 April

    With Russian Route Blocked, Uzbekistan Looks to Indian-Iranian-Afghan Chabahar Port Project

    The Russo-Ukraine war, the extensive Western sanctions against Russia, and the growing possibility that European border states will block east-west transit corridors traversing Russian territory into Europe are having far-reaching implications for the landlocked countries of Central Asia, which have historically relied on road and rail corridors through Russia to …

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