Russia's Invasion of Ukraine
After months of buildup and half-hearted attempts at diplomacy, Russia launched a full, unprovoked invasion of it’s neighbor Ukraine on February 24, 2022. On the false pretexts of safeguarding its own security from NATO expansion and countering Ukrainian radicals, Russia initiated the largest ground war in Europe in decades.
Belarus Must Live
The Eastern European country of Belarus is known primarily for its autocratic leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, who since 1994 has presided over the former Soviet state as if the USSR had never collapsed. Its economy is largely state-run and political freedoms essentially nonexistent, although a thriving IT industry and relatively low levels of corruption have brought a modicum of comfort to the growing middle class in the capital city of Minsk. It remains a geopolitical fulcrum, shrewdly playing close ties with Russia against Western desires for openness.
