With the fall of Syria’s Moscow-supported regime, a large chunk of Russia’s leverage over Türkiye is gone. But Erdoğan will not take the risk of challenging Russia. Rather, he will continue acting as an intermediary between Putin and the West.

While U.S. sanctions caused the Russian currency to drop sharply in November, the changing structure of trade flows means the ruble is doomed to weaken further. 

The Kremlin could offer support and international legitimacy to the new rulers in Damascus in exchange for being allowed to keep its military bases in the country. 

Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s enigmatic billionaire powerbroker, appears fixated on Western reactions while ignoring the mass protests engulfing his nation.

Hosting the landmark event raised Azerbaijan’s international profile despite criticism of the country’s limited climate achievements and its human rights record. 

The loss of Aleppo is a major reversal for Damascus and its allies and will return the issue of Syria to the top of the agenda in Russia-Türkiye relations.

The fact that the Russian elites have such high hopes for Trump speaks volumes. Internally, they are striving for normalization, rationalization, and pragmatism: things that Putin cannot give them.

Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to discuss Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine, the strike on Dnipro using the experimental Oreshnik missile, and the possibility of new strategic arms agreements between Russia and the US.

Moscow would be wise to recognize that Japan is standing against Russian aggression and in support of the international system not because of U.S. pressure, but to defend itself.