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New Year’s Elite Cycles Already Begin in Chechnya

Harold Chambers on Chechnya’s accelerating elite reshuffle
Riddle Political News Week
A Sermon from the Kremlin
Andrey Pertsev sums up the political week (5−9 January)
Andrey Pertsev sums up the political week (5−9 January)
By Andrey Pertsev
Riddle Economic News Week
Marching to Nowhere
Nicholas Trickett with the economic summary of the week (January 5−9)
Nicholas Trickett with the economic summary of the week (January 5−9)
By Nick Trickett
Inequality in Russia at War

Jem Morrow on why inequality, not military spending, will shape Russia’s wartime future
Russia and the «Trump Middle East»: New Realities or Old Patterns?

Vladimir (Ze'ev) Khanin on the Russian Factor in the Syrian-Israeli Settlement
Living in the Middle: Central Asia’s 2025 in Review

Roman Chernikov on how the five Central Asian states have learned to speak with one voice
Steeringless Auto Industry: How Sanctions Have Thrown the Sector Back Decades

Vakhtang Partsvania on the sanctions-induced exhaustion of Russia’s automotive industry and how the sector mirrors deeper structural problems in the economy
The Fall of Maduro: How Russia Lost an Ally but Gained a Like-Minded Thinker

Ivan U. Klyszcz on how the capture of Maduro will affect Russia's policy
Top reads
  • Russia’s Pivot to the Eastern Route: Balancing Azerbaijan with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan?

    Nurlan Aliyev on the International North-South Transport Corridor Eastern Alternative

  • Russia-Africa Ties Catch Global Tailwinds in 2025

    Ivan U. Klyszcz on Russia — Africa dynamics in 2025

  • The End of Russian Hegemony: How Azerbaijan Rewrote the Rules in the Caucasus

    Roman Chernikov on the transformation of the South Caucasus in 2025

  • Irkutsk and Kemerovo: warning signs for regions at war

    Andras Toth-Czifra on how declining extractive rents, stagnant wages, and unsustainable social obligations signal rising fiscal fragility in Russia’s industrial periphery

  • From «Discrediting» the Military to High Treason and Terrorism

    Sergei Davidis on the evolution of political repression in Russia since the start of the war

  • The Fall of Maduro: How Russia Lost an Ally but Gained a Like-Minded Thinker

    Ivan U. Klyszcz on how the capture of Maduro will affect Russia's policy

  • Informal Economy and the Fiscal-Military State: Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object

    Jem Morrow on why Russia’s fiscal-military state keeps crashing into the immovable object of mass economic informality — and why the war only sharpened the paradox

  • The Power Vertical Under Siege: Repressions, Nationalizations, and the Erosion of Loyalty Guarantees

    Andrey Pertsev on the Key Political Developments of 2025

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