Edward Lucas is a senior editor of The Economist. He was the weekly’s Moscow bureau chief between 1998 and 2002, later serving as its Central and East European correspondent. Lucas is author of three books: Deception, on Russia-West espionage, The New Cold War, on Putin’s Russia and the threat it poses to the West…

Has the crisis in Ukraine damaged Russia's ties with its compatriots abroad? We discussed the current situation with Eugenia Troitskaya, advisor for the Program Implementation Department of the Government Commission on Affairs of Compatriots Abroad at the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and…

“Arm Ukraine and Impose Energy Sanctions,” Our article, so entitled, was published in the oldest and most respected English language paper in the Ukraine, the Kyiv Post, on the day of Vice President Joe Biden´s arrival. It is also on our website  jvlv.net.  But we also address the issue of U.S foreign policy mistakes…

Following on from my fist article in the RIAC blog page – “A Step forward in Cooperation between Malaysia and Russia” dated 4 March 2014, I am happy to inform all readers of the RIAC blog page and friends of the RIAC that the Malaysian Government extends a warm welcome to Russian Youth, Youth Organisations and Universities to…

I do admire Madeleine Albright. I think she and I are the only Czech-born members of the Council on Foreign Relations. Having been mentored by her father, Josef Korbel, I was proud that she brought down the genocidal, Serbian dictator Milosevic. However, calling Vladimir Putin   an “irritant” to NATO in 2008 was not just…

I. Egypt deserves Russian attention because of its long-lasting political relevance During the last three years the Egyptian state has lived through a revolution and a military coup, and has shifted from military dictatorship to Islamic democracy and then again to military dictatorship. At least 840 protesters were killed during 2011…

Dear friend!  If you’re a young, aspiring international relations scholar, you’ve come to the right place. Are you interested in publishing your research or commentary online, but are unsure whether Foreign Affairs will accept it?  The Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) offers you an opportunity to show the world…

“Even the leaders were unsure about what they would do next or how to avoid fatal missteps. Each side called on its intelligence services to supply that knowledge.”
 
The quote is from an article by Markus Wolf and Tennent Bagley, two icons of the Cold War intelligence community with opposing ideologies writing in 1997 in the Los…

The debate over the applicability or non-applicability of international law to cyber war and the need for a cyber-specific international treaty might be irrelevant. Both camps, pro and con, argue about the need for cyber war to have the Law of Armed Conflict or some new international legal project properly cover the cyber domain. Both camps, however…

As the United States seeks to adapt to the ever-changing face of Islamic radicalism and growing anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, Washington is banking on its military to assert control, starting with Yemen.
 
Ever since Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai categorically refused to sign Washington’s Bilateral Security Agreement…

In the German political environment there is no common view towards Russian performance in Ukraine. Nonetheless the idea that “the fire made by locals, the matches are from Russia” is clear for all parties. There are a few “Putin-Versteher”, Admirer of Putins among German politicians. The former chancellor Helmut Schmidt…

Russia, China, the five members of European Union (France, Germany, the UK, Spain, and Italy) take the 66 percent of international arms transfer in the period of 2009~2013 (Siemon T. Wezeman, 2014). Compared with the 2004~2008, the percentage of arms importers of major weapon regional, Africa increase from 7% to 9% in the same period (see the below)…