Special Reports

In December 2018, the Russian Federation sent two Tupolov-160 supersonic bombers around the world to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. On January 23, 2019, the U.S. and a series of Latin American countries recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido...

The People’s Republic of China is actively engaging Black Sea littoral states through various initiatives to open new markets for Chinese goods, facilitate the acquisition of valuable or strategic local industries, and offer loans for large development projects. These...

The Russian Federation’s recently provocative foreign policy results in part from structural weakness in the Russian domestic regime, a quasi-feudal system that requires certain actions abroad to maintain itself in power at home. Lacking real enemies, the Kremlin must...

In the summer of 2018, Greece and Russian Federation went through one of the worst crises in their traditionally friendly relations. The falling out was triggered by allegations of Russian meddling in Greek domestic politics aimed at undermining the...

This report studies the challenges of rebuilding Iraq’s public works infrastructure following the “perfect storm” of the ISIS insurgency and low oil prices. The major challenge is that the Government of Iraq’s estimate of $88 billion severely understates total...

The Republic of Turkey and the Russian Federation are at odds over multiple issues, not least the Syrian Civil War, where they back warring proxies. Yet the two countries have bounced back from crises and are quickly deepening their...

For the vast majority of Russians, the vlast’—regime—they encounter is neither the Kremlin nor the Duma. It is considerably more local: regional governors, mayors, municipal bureaucrats, local ministry representatives, and their proxies. Although the Kremlin projects a centralized vision...

Since 2011–2012, when the combination of the Arab Spring and anti-government demonstrations in the Russian Federation left the country’s political elites determined to bring the Russian internet, or Runet, under state control, Russia has witnessed the establishment of a...

The Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil exporters, were rocked by the collapse of oil prices in 2014. They both initially responded by trying to retain their positions on key export markets. But...

Over three years ago, in May 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that they would co-develop their Eurasian integration projects, the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the China-led Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB),...