Black Sea

The breakup of the Soviet Union brought freedom, independence, and sovereignty to its member republics without clearly demarcating their borders. The non-demarcated boundaries created numerous conflicts and points of contention in countries across the South Caucasus. The origins of...

In the first scene of Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky’s hit sitcom Servant of the People, three faceless oligarchs stand above Kyiv’s Maidan Square one week before the presidential election. They agree to stop competing with one another to buy...

In February 2019, the Government of Georgia hit a new low when news of its “attack” on TBC Bank, one of the biggest banks in the country, became public. The National Bank of Georgia and the Prosecutor’s Office confronted...

The February 2019 Moldovan parliamentary elections might seem like a story of triumph against adversity and the victory of an underdog. A small party that had single-digit ratings a few months ago managed to rally at the polls. Now,...

As Ukrainians prepare to elect a president on March 31, the West and the East wait to see which candidate will emerge victorious and what, if any, impact he or she will have on the direction of the country’s...

Many Western scholars studying Russia and policymakers dealing with Russia have long found it an exhausting and bewildering endeavor. Winston Churchill famously described it in 1939 as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” More recently, Bobo...

Long before the Kerch Strait incident in October 2018, Russia had already begun to strengthen the forces in its Southern Military District, which spans from near Volgograd to Russia’s border with Georgia and Azerbaijan. Naturally, that has caused concern...

As Ukraine’s March 2019 presidential election nears, the Kremlin has not masked its interest in the outcome. Indeed, in November, nearly five years after Kyiv sanctioned Russia for the annexation of Crimea, Moscow finally decided to respond with retaliatory...

No real honor or glory accrues to those who after the fact resurrect past predictions, but the ascension to global fame of fighters from the tiny Russian region of the North Caucasus is one that I anticipated in 1990....