Author: Andrew KORYBKO

Lavrov-Russia-India-Iran

Interpreting Lavrov’s Proposal That India Mediate Between Iran & The Gulf Kingdoms

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed during a Q&A session after the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting in India that his host nation become the long-term mediator between Iran and the Gulf Kingdoms. The context concerned him being asked about the de facto state of armed conflict between two of the group’s members, Iran and the UAE, […]

US-Middle-East-Iran-China

Five Reasons Why The US Should Withdraw From The Gulf

So long as the US is willing to accept Iran spinning this as an unprecedented strategic defeat of the “Great Satan”, it’ll arguably be able to advance its actual interests much more robustly as was explained, all while giving Iran the “face-saving” pretext for significant concessions to end the war. […]

Russia-Mali-terrorists-retreat

Russia’s Tactical Pullback From Northeastern Mali Shouldn’t Be Spun As A Retreat

They’re not the same thing, unlike what many might think, and the difference is important. Reports indicate that Russia has withdrawn from three bases in Northeastern Mali, which the local Tuareg call Azawad, after the offensive by “Azawad Liberation Front” (FLA) Tuareg separatists and al-Qaeda-affiliated “Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin” (JNIM) radical […]

US-intelligence-ussian-diplomats-children-citizenship

The US’ Botched Recruitment Of A Russian Diplomat Risks Worsening Bilateral Ties

There’s an unspoken rule that intel agencies aren’t supposed to implicitly threaten foreign diplomats’ children to coerce them into becoming informants. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova published an article in the Russian business daily Vedomosti on Monday about the curious case of a Russian diplomat in the US. An unknown employee […]

Russian-African-Corps-Mali-insurgency

Five Questions That Russia Should Consider Amidst The Malian Insurgents’ Outreaches

The common denominator connecting these five questions is the ultimate one about how Russia’s top brass really assesses the conflict’s overall military-strategic dynamics. The latest Malian insurgency took a twist after the terrorist-designated groups, the Tuareg “Azawad Liberation Front” (FLA) and the al-Qaeda-affiliated “Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin” (JNIM), reached out to Russia. Their messages […]

Mali-terrorists-Tuareg-rebels

Five Reasons Why Counterinsurgency Remains Such A Challenge For Mali

The solutions are difficult to implement during the crisis, however, but hopefully that’ll happen after (if?) it passes. Saturday’s coordinated attacks across Mali by terrorist-designated Tuareg rebels in the rural north and Islamic terrorists in the urban areas, which were described as “unprecedented” by Al Jazeera and Le Monde, caught the government by surprise. This […]