When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine inherited custody of roughly 1900 strategic nuclear warheads. But they gave these up in exchange for security assurances from Russia, the US, and the UK, including a pledge to respect Ukraine’s borders and never use force against it. So would Ukraine have been invaded if they hadn’t given up those nuclear weapons?
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Why does Russia use satellites in strange orbits to watch for nuclear launches?
A typical geostationary satellite orbits the Earth roughly over the equator. But a lot of Russian military and intelligence satellites fly very strange orbits that linger far above the Arctic. So why do Russian satellites operate like this, and what impact does it have on geopolitics?
Read MoreWhy is Russia occupying Georgian territory?
Ukraine is not the only country under Russian occupation. Nearly a fifth of the country of Georgia is under Russian control. But why would Russia care about a small country buried in the Caucasus Mountains?
Read MoreHow does Russia’s Kaliningrad survive surrounded by NATO?
The exclave of Kaliningrad is not only disconnected from the rest of Russia, it’s also wedged between two NATO countries, making it an obvious target during a potential war. So how does Kaliningrad survive without a connection to the rest of Russia, and just how vulnerable is it?
Read MoreWhy does Russia want Crimea so badly?
Crimea has been a focal point of the Ukraine war since Russia seized and annexed it in 2014. But why does Russia care so much about Crimea to begin with?
Read MoreIs Russia weaponizing Russians in the Baltics?
Estonia and Latvia are home to hundreds of thousands of Russian-speaking non-citizens, and since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has worked hard to turn them into leverage. But why are all of these people in the Baltic States to begin with, and what impact do they actually have on Europe's security?
Read MoreWhy is Siberia Russia’s greatest strength and weakness?
Siberia makes up over three quarters of Russia’s territory but has only one quarter of its people, and its vast landscape serves as a massive treasury of resources, including oil, palladium, gold, diamonds, and timber. In fact, Siberia is in many ways the reason Russia is considered a great power. So how has Russia’s exploitation of Siberia shaped its geopolitical dynamics?
Read MoreWhy hasn’t Russia’s economy collapsed yet?
Russia’s economy hasn’t collapsed yet, but more than four years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, things are not looking good. Russia, it appears, is not immune to the effects of international sanctions, and even with the country fully migrated to a wartime economy, economic growth has stalled to roughly zero amid collapsing oil and gas revenue and declining cash reserves, despite a brief windfall from this year's war in Iran. Still, how has Russia managed to stay afloat for so long, and how does their economic reorientation away from the West influence geopolitics?
Read MoreWhy did Armenia rapidly turn away from Russia and ally with the West?
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Armenia became an independent state. But a year later, Russia led the signing of an intergovernmental military treaty called the Collective Security Treaty, whose signatories today comprise Russia, Armenia, and four other post-Soviet states, with Russia as the primary guarantor of security. For almost thirty years, Russia and Armenia were incredibly close, but since 2020 things have shifted dramatically, with its own prime minister calling the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, a threat to the country’s national security. So what happened to change Armenia’s relationship with Russia?
Read MoreHow has Russia’s relationship with Cuba changed since the Cold War?
In June 2024, a Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine called the Kazan pulled into harbor at Havana, Cuba. It was joined by a guided missile frigate, a fuel tanker, and a rescue tug. US destroyers and unmanned surface vessels shadowed them the entire way in, and though the Pentagon publicly waved it off, that single port call was the loudest signal in a very quiet relationship between Russia and Cuba that has been rebuilding since the Cold War ended. We all know the stories about the Cuban Missile Crisis and Soviet patronage, but how and why are the two countries collaborating today?
Read MoreHow does Vladimir Putin outsource Russia’s dirty work to the Kadyrovs?
There’s a family in Russia that has been credibly tied to political assassinations on European soil, and Vladimir Putin uses them as his preferred subcontractor for dangerous work. The Kadyrov family has ruled Chechnya since 2000, and though they haven’t always had a positive relationship with the rest of Russia, they have repeatedly done Putin’s dirty work in exchange for money and independence. In many ways, this one family is the case study for how Putin runs Russia.
Read MoreWhy is Belarus dominated by Russia?
Belarus is more than just a Russian ally. As of 2026, it is effectively a Russian satellite state. In fact, Russia controls or routes roughly 90% of Belarusian exports, leverages Belarusian airspace and territory for military operations, dominates the Belarusian economy via fused regulatory and financial environments, and hosts tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil. If Vladimir Putin hadn’t intervened during Belarus’s mass protests in 2020, Aleksandr Lukashenko’s regime likely would have collapsed. So how exactly did Belarus become subjugated by Russia?
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