This is a legacy website featuring a collection of work by the Carnegie Endowment’s global network of scholars on topics including Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, and the post-Soviet states. This site is a product of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Washington, D.C. For more recent work by Carnegie scholars in this field, please visit Carnegie Politika.
Russia has the opportunity to move beyond saving the doomed Syrian regime to save the country itself from civil war and devastation and to bring about a political transition that leads to a stable and democratic Syria.
Despite the overlapping interests of Russia and China, the two countries are not allies. Moscow will not accept a junior position vis-à-vis Beijing, while the Chinese regard Russia as a fading power.
Russia and China are suspicious of multilateral institutions created by the West and hostile to anything that could justify external intervention in a sovereign state’s affairs, but both are learning to use international forums to their advantage.
The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost popular and political credibility, and this will likely result in the regime’s removal from power.
The turbulent events of 2011 in Kazakhstan have forced the country's ruling elite to consider economic and even political change in order to enable their continued rule.
Russia has entered a new period in its political history and protests are likely to continue long after the election results are in.
Reports that NATO troops burned copies of the Koran in Afghanistan help boost the Taliban’s recruitment efforts and can be used to support the Taliban’s attempts to portray conflict in Afghanistan as religious rather than political.
Russia lacks the resources for dealing with the situation in Syria and, despite its current support of the Bashar al-Assad government, will likely lose influence in the country regardless of the future political situation.
Russia has been in a post-empire state for the last 20 years. There is no way back to an empire now—Russia has passed the point of no return in this respect.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a nuclear power, Russia has substantial leverage in the post-Soviet space and is the EU's most important neighbor. However, in the coming decades Russia will face serious internal and international challenges.