Recent Posts

Report from Ukraine: Why They Fight

I asked what they now needed most from our countries. Of course more guns, more ammo, more tanks, more rockets plus combat planes always featured. But another consistent answer was striking even if not surprising: please do not try to force our country to make peace with the invaders. The …

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The Plot Against Russia

How Putin Revived Stalinist Anti-Americanism to Justify a Botched War When two drones crashed into the roof of the Kremlin in early May, the Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t need to wait for an investigation to identify the culprit. The attack was masterminded by the United States, not Ukraine, …

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Ukraine – National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS)

The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Ukraine of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and related equipment for an estimated cost of $285 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress. The Government of Ukraine …

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Karakalpakstan’s Sovereignty in Mirziyoyev’s Uzbekistan

Karakalpakstan has a constitutional right to secede from Uzbekistan via referendum, but calling for such a vote results in immense pressure and often prison terms. “Karakalpakstan is not Uzbekistan,” Aman Sagidullayev, the leader of the Alga Karakalpakstan movement stressed to The Diplomat. Sagidullayev fled his homeland in 2012 for Kyrgyzstan …

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Iran’s Coming Succession Crisis

The Race to Be the Next Supreme Leader Will Be Chaotic and Perilous For most of the last nine months, outside analysts have looked to Iran’s protests for signs that the country might experience political change. These demonstrators, the vast majority of them young, certainly rocked the country’s elite with …

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Who’s Who Among Russia’s Mercenary Companies

Never one to mince words, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the brash founder of the notorious Russian mercenary company Wagner Group, offered the latest in a series of often profane criticism of Russian military commanders in a video published on May 9. Prigzohin complained about supplies of ammunition to his fighters, who have …

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