On 24 June, President Vladimir Putin faced his biggest challenge in over two decades at Russia’s helm: a mutiny by a mercenary group fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. In this Q&A, Crisis Group experts explore the implications for Putin’s rule and Russian foreign policy.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant global upheaval, particularly in the form of fragmented supply chains. This was followed by the Taliban’s success in Afghanistan in August 2021, Russia’s intensification of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and China’s announcement in 2023 that the world is experiencing a geopolitical transformation.
In Istanbul, Tajik citizen Shamil Hukumatov, one of the leaders of the Khorasan cell of the Islamic State (IS-Khorasan) group, was arrested. Turkish media on June 22 reported that Hukumatov, also known as “Abu Miskin.” engaged in the recruitment of new militants for IG-Khorasan.
The PKK’s recruitment of new members from Europe is under the spotlight again as a man who surrendered reveals that he joined the terrorist group in France and stayed in a Greek camp before being enrolled in their bloody campaign in northern Iraq
The Iraqi forces in Kirkuk on Sunday announced that they had killed five suspected ISIS militants in an operation, according to a press release.
Wearing “explosive belts”, three members of the group were killed in the Turkalan area in southwestern Kirkuk by the Iraqi Army’s Eighth Division soldiers, a statement from the Security Media Cell read.
Following this weekend’s coup attempt in Russia by the Wagner Group, we are republishing our extensive JTTM study from August 31, 2022 on Wagner activity in Mali, where it has been working for the country’s military junta since December 2021. After it was announced that Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin would be relocating to Belarus, in a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko,[1] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 26, 2023 that the group will continue its operations in Mali and that the events of the past few days would not affect Russia’s ties with “partners and friends.”[2]
Prigozhin’s political and financial future remains uncertain as he seeks exile in Belarus, Iyad el-Jaafara writes.
During the tense hours of anticipation, analysts closely monitored the developments surrounding Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against the Russian Ministry of Defense. There were discussions about the possibility of this uprising extending into Syrian territory, where the Wagner militia was still actively engaged. However, analysts downplayed this possibility until the Belarusian-brokered deal brought an end to the Wagner rebellion within Russian borders.
We have yet to see the full repercussions of the Wagner Group’s march on Moscow.
“Bombing Voronezh” is an expression in the Russian language that roughly translates to hurting yourself while trying to do damage to someone else. On June 24, language met reality as Russian forces bombed the southern city of Voronezh trying to slow down the advance of the Wagner Group’s mercenary convoy towards Moscow.
Muslim countries refused to be satellites of Washington
The territory of the Middle East (from Western Asia to North Africa) has always attracted foreign powers. First, the region is the main source of hydrocarbon production, primarily oil. Secondly, it is the center of the logistics system for transporting energy resources. Suffice it to recall the Suez Canal, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Dardanelles, the Bosporus, etc. etc.
Tradition is a transcendent superhuman wisdom of the superhuman, divine knowledge transmitted to humanity through revelation, messages, sacred texts, fixed in the historical traditions of different peoples, in languages, rituals, customs, rules of conduct and morality, rituals, mysteries, reflected in metaphysics, philosophy, social structure, politics, statehood, art, etc.