Belarusian Protests Are Spilling over into Poland but Warsaw Is Beginning to Blame Russia

Belarusian Protests Are Spilling over into Poland but Warsaw Is Beginning to Blame Russia

Polish leaders at all levels continue to speak with enthusiasm about the need to fully support “peaceful protests” in Belarus and to help them morally and financially. However, with widespread protests across Poland now, the same national leaders are angrily condemning their “peaceful protesters.” Not only do they condemn the protestors, they are also supporting…

People to Autocrats: Not So Fast

People to Autocrats: Not So Fast

With a week to go, nearly 70 million voters have sent in their ballots or stood on line for early voting. The pandemic hasn’t prevented them from exercising their constitutional right. Nor have various Republican Party schemes to suppress the vote. Some patriotic citizens have waited all day at polling places just to make sure…

The Endgame in Belarus is in View

The Endgame in Belarus is in View

After a lull of the past 3-4 weekends, the anti-government protests in Minsk, Belarus, roared back to life today. This comes in the wake of three things. One, there are some incipient signs that Moscow feels frustrated with the Belarus strongman President Alexander Lukashenko for retracting on the assurances he gave to President Vladimir Putin…

Lithuanian Government Impoverishes Its Own Citizens As a Means to Topple Belarus President Lukashenko

Lithuanian Government Impoverishes Its Own Citizens As a Means to Topple Belarus President Lukashenko

Since the re-election of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on August 9, deemed a rigged election by the West, protests have persisted for nearly three months. Led by opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the protests do not only continue to persist, but neighboring countries are actively intervening in the domestic affairs of Belarus in the hope that…

Why Wasn’t There Any Post-Election Turmoil In Tajikistan?

Why Wasn’t There Any Post-Election Turmoil In Tajikistan?

Unlike fellow former Soviet Republics Belarus and even neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan’s latest elections didn’t result in any turmoil even though one might have expected it to have due to some similarly discernible risk factors, but that wasn’t the case (at least not yet) for five primary reasons. Tajikistan’s latest elections came and went without any…

RAND and the Malevolent Encirclement of Russia

RAND and the Malevolent Encirclement of Russia

Over recent weeks a series of events in the states surrounding the Russian Federation has erupted that certainly are not being greeted with joy in the Kremlin. Each crisis center of itself is not a definitive game-changer for future Russian security. Taken together they suggest something far more ominous is unfolding against Moscow. A recent…