Russia & CIS

On August 15, Azerbaijan’s Khizi district will be hosting a groundbreaking ceremony for a greenhouse complex, to be jointly built by Azerbaijani CTC Holding and Hungarian companies, the Embassy of Hungary in Baku said on Aug. 14.

Alexei Navalny has reacted to accusations of leadermania. Alexei Navalny's "election campaign" deserves special attention here as well. Navalny often says "when I am president" and the like. At the same time, everyone understands that there will be no presidential campaign for Mr. Navalny as such

According to information as of July 31, 2017, Georgia’s foreign debt and volume of loans received under government guarantee totaled $ 4.9 billion.

Nizami Ganjavi International Center will organize Global Young Leaders Forum on August 21-24 in Baku with the support of the State Committee for Work with Diaspora.

"The US introduces sanctions against Russia so easily because we have a minimum turnover with the States only $40 billion. We need to learn to produce something unique, something competitive to change this, and we have to understand in which sectors we are strong indeed," head of the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society Mr. Kostin said

Russia continues buying large quantities of gold. In July, Russia purchased 9.1 tons of gold. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, because of new US sanctions, Russia is forced to start developing a system, within which the dollar will not be needed. Sanctions get tighter and tighter, and Russia may find self in the position of Iran

I wrote the following article for The National Interest.

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The Zapad-2017 military exercise that will take place in September in Russia and Belarus has already begun to draw attention in the Western press. In recent days, media outlets have published somewhat panicked accounts about the unprecedented numbers of Russian troops conducting drills on the borders of vulnerable eastern European countries like Poland and Lithuania. Others are arguing that once Russian troops enter Belarus to participate in the exercise, they are likely to stay behind “in order to give Moscow a more-advanced forward base in Europe” or, in the less carefully chosen words of some Ukrainian officials, to occupy Belarus possibly as a prelude to an invasion of Ukraine from the north. Given this level of excitement about a military exercise still six weeks away, it may be useful to analyze what we actually know about the upcoming exercise and its predecessors.

The Zapad exercise is a regularly scheduled event that has been held quadrennially since 1999. What’s more, it is part of an annual rotating series of large scale exercises that serve as the capstone to the Russian military’s annual training cycle. The series rotates through the four main Russian operational strategic commands (Eastern, Caucasus, Central and Western) that give name to the exercises. Similar major strategic operational exercises were held in the fall throughout the Soviet period as well. In other words, everyone has known that this exercise would be held in the early fall of 2017 since at least four years ago. The only uncertainty was regarding the scope and exact parameters of the exercise.

These aspects remain uncertain at the present time. Official Russian sources have indicated that the total number of troops involved in the exercise will not exceed 13,000, while Western officials and analysts have been quoted as sayingthat as many as 100,000 Russian personnel may be involved. Previous Zapad exercises have been on the larger side, with Zapad-2013 involving approximately 75,000 troops and personnel. Part of the discrepancy in numbers may stem from a disagreement over who should be counted. The highest Western numbers usually include not just members of the Russian armed forces, but also personnel from security agencies and civilian officials who may be involved in parts of the exercise. Furthermore, the Russian military may choose to conduct other related exercises that are not technically part of Zapad-2017 and would therefore not be included in the official declaration on the number of troops involved.

What we do know is that the total number of Russian troops on Belarusian territory is not expected to exceed 3,000 personnel. … <To read the rest of the article, click here>

Russia introduced the food embargo against the EU, the USA, Canada, Australia, Norway and other countries three years ago, on August 6, 2014. Since then, the amount of domestic food products in Russian stores has been growing steadily against the backdrop of the steady decline in the share of imported foodstuffs

Russia will see a politician one day, who will be able to reestablish the country and negotiate conditions for Russia to surrender with honors. He will be a pragmatic patriot, free of imperial ambition and obsessed with an idea to save the nation. It is only Russia that must take steps towards the West, whereas the West should not do anything

Solemn opening ceremony of "Masters of Artillery Fire" and "Sniper Frontier" contests held in Kazakhstan.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of Swiss Confederation Doris Leuthard on the occasion of the national holiday of the Swiss Confederation.

At a news conference on Monday, Vilen Khachatryan noted that 22% of Armenia’s exports go to Russia whose economy is now facing the major challenge.

A baby boy was born 'pregnant' with his own twin brother.

Germany had completed the withdrawal of Tornado jet fighters from the Incirlik air base in Turkey, a representative of the country’ Federal Ministry of Defence said.

The new 23rd 'University'metro station is scheduled to open in Tbilisi in early September 2017, Sputnik Georgia reported.

US President Donald Trump has dismissed Anthony Scaramucci from the White House communications director post only 10 days after he was appointed.

A video from Shusha has been spread in social networks.

Military units of the armed forces of Armenia violated ceasefire 135 times throughout the day.

The Jerusalem Post has published an article titled 'Armenian-Israeli relations : myth or reality?' by Arye Gut.

Armavir residents are demanding to remove the memorial plaque to a Nazi supporter.