Hi everyone,Welcome to my Eyes on Eurasia podcast with Glen Howard! In today’s episode, we will examine the ongoing situation in Mali, where in the past week, al-Qaeda-linked militants launched a coordinated offensive, striking the heart of the Malian state — killing Defense Minister Sadio Camara, Moscow’s key ally in Bamako. Militant attacks also forced Russian-backed forces into retreat across multiple strategic points in the country, including their abrupt departure from their northern stronghold of Kidal.For those who have not been following developments in Mali, just a few years ago, Mali’s military junta made a decisive break with the West, expelling French forces and instead betting on Russia to restore order. Moscow stepped in with mercenaries, as the former Wagner forces were rebranded as the Africa Corps after the failed coup by Yevgeny Prigozhin to oust Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023. Since then, Russian mercenaries have continued to work in Mali under a rebranded name, providing security to a new Russian-backed Malian military-led government.Last week, however, that strategy unraveled dramatically, creating a setback for the Malian junta and Russian-backed forces. As Mali is back in the news and teetering on the edge again in a potential state collapse, the implications extend far beyond Bamako — threatening to destabilize the entire Sahel and reshape the geopolitical contest for influence across Africa.So what went wrong with the Russian intervention and is Mali become a Sahelian version of Afghanistan? What does this mean for the future of Mali’s junta? And could this crisis draw the United States back into a region it has largely stepped away from? Joining us to discuss all these issues are seasoned Sahel experts Andrew McGregor and Jacob Zenn.👉Dr. Andrew McGregor is director of Aberfoyle International Security, a Toronto-based consultancy specializing in the security issues of Africa and the Islamic world, and a frequent contributor to The Saratoga Foundation and its analysis on the Horn of Africa. Andrew is a graduate of the Near Eastern Studies Department of the University of Toronto and the author of A History of Darfur and the Modern Military History of Egypt. 👉Jacob Zenn is a noted expert on militant movements in Africa, the Editor of Terrorism Monitor, a Senior Fellow on African and Eurasian Affairs at The Jamestown Foundation, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program. He is the author of Unmasking Boko Haram: Exploring Global Jihad in Nigeria (Lynne Rienner, 2020) and has published widely on militant movements in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. For those of you who are interested in watching the full video of this interview, you can watch the full video 👉 here on my YouTube channel,Enjoy the podcast! Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe

Hi everyone,Welcome to the 27th episode of my Eyes on Eurasia podcast. Today, we are looking at an area of Eurasia that is back in the news: the Horn of Africa, and I am going to examine the Houthis of Yemen. Recently, after a month-long wait to enter the war, the Houthis have launched a series of missile attacks on Israel in the past week, joining the regional conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran. Despite a month of silence since the start of Gulf War III, one of the key questions Middle East experts are asking is how far the Houthis are willing to go in the ongoing Gulf War between the US, Israel, and Iran.Helping us to understand this question in an extended in-depth discussion is long-time Yemen expert Michael Horton, who joined my podcast. Michael is a noted expert on Yemen and the co-founder of Red Sea Analytics International (RSAI). Michael specializes in security, conflict, and political risk across the Middle East and Horn of Africa — regions where he has spent years conducting field-based research and assessment. He has advised senior members of the U.S. and U.K. governments and is a frequent visitor to the region.Michael recently wrote a detailed assessment of the Houthis for the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, which was featured in their March 2026 CTC Sentinel that examined the state of the Houthis and their tribal alliances. He also wrote an assessment of Saudi Arabia’s strategic approach to the Yemen conflict for The Saratoga Foundation that offers an assessment of the changing Saudi approach to the Houthis after their intervention last year, including a glimpse at the Houthi leadership and their attacks on Red Sea shipping. For those of you who are interested in watching the full video of this interview, you can: 👉 watch the full video here on my YouTube channel,Enjoy the podcast! Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe

Hi everyone,Welcome to my Eyes on Eurasia podcast. In this episode, I’m delighted to be joined by a special guest who sits at the very edge of NATO security in the Baltic—Mr. Kaupo Rosin, Director General of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service (EFIS). Director General Rosin helps us unpack the newly released EFIS 2026 Annual Report, ‘International Security and Estonia 2026.’ You can read the report online here or download the PDF version, and if you haven’t had a chance to review it yet, I highly recommend doing so. You can also 👉 watch the full video of this conversation on my YouTube channel, where I’ve posted the complete interview.In this conversation, Director Rosin generously gives us an hour of his time to explore a wide range of pressing security challenges facing Estonia. We examine the evolving threats posed by Russia—including recent threats to create a Narva’s People Republic, the impact of Russia’s new Minister of Defense, Andrei Belousov, and his emphasis on unmanned systems, including his involvement in the creation of the new elite Russian drone unit Rubicon, the growing role of Russian cooperation with North Korea —and the implications of Russia’s recent Starlink disruptions for battlefield Command and Control (C2). Finally, Director Rosin shares his perspective on the emerging lessons for Baltic security from the ongoing conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran in the Persian Gulf—and why the lessons of the Ukraine war remain so relevant.This is a rare opportunity to hear an intelligence-level assessment from Tallinn and to better understand how Russian threats are shaping NATO’s eastern flank today. If you want a clear view of the evolving Russian threat in 2026 from Estonia’s perspective, you won’t want to miss this conversation.Enjoy! Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe

Hello everyone,Welcome to the latest episode of my Eyes on Eurasia podcast! In this episode, we are going to explore the troubled state of the Russian space program. Borrowing from the 1960s classic television series Lost in Space, this episode will also, in true Star Trek fashion, boldly go’ where few have gone before and ask a simple but urgent question: Where is Russia’s space program - headed upward — or downward?Following a major explosion last November at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan — long Russia’s primary launch site — serious questions have emerged about Moscow’s strategic launch capabilities and the future of its manned space program. As Russia suspends its participation in the International Space Station (ISS) mission and its launch numbers fall to their lowest levels since 1961—the year Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space—the future of Moscow’s space ambitions is increasingly uncertain.To discuss these developments, I’m joined by Dr. Pavel Luzin, Senior Fellow at The Saratoga Foundation and a Visiting Scholar at The Fletcher School. In my view, Pavel is one of the West’s leading experts on the Russian space program, who is currently writing a book on the future of Russia in space.In this episode, we will examine the Baikonur accident, Russia’s stalled transition to the Vostochny Cosmodrome, delays in the development of next-generation spacecraft, and the recent developments with Russia’s hijacked use of Starlink to mount a series of devastating drone attacks on Ukraine earlier this month. We will also discuss why the Russian space communication satellite program is in the dismal state it finds itself in today, and what all this means for the broader trajectory of Russian space power.Enjoy the podcast!Glen Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe

Hi everyone,Welcome to Episode 24 of my Eyes on Eurasia podcast with Glen Howard. This episode is available exclusively to paid subscribers of Glen’s Substack. If you’d like to unlock the full podcast and get access to all premium content, consider upgrading to a paid subscription. Your support helps keep this publication going and brings you even more great episodes. Simply click below to subscribe and start listening!We have a great lineup for this podcast and are going to examine in-depth the recent mission to Moscow by US special envoy Steve Witkoff. Having recently traveled to Moscow and held a five-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a small group of Kremlin advisers. US negotiations efforts have taken a new turn. The past week has been a whirlwind of news about bringing peace to Ukraine, first with a US-imposed Thanksgiving deadline for Ukraine as part of a revised US peace plan that has been whittled down from 28 points to 19-20 points that serve as a new diplomatic goal for the Trump Administration. Helping us to dissect all of this news is Ambassador Daniel Fried, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, who is one of America’s most seasoned and influential diplomats. Over a remarkable career spanning seven US presidential administrations, Ambassador Fried has helped shape U.S. strategy toward NATO expansion and America’s long-running approach to Russia. Our second speaker is former Kremlin insider Andrei Illarionov, who once served as a presidential adviser to Vladimir Putin on the Russian economy. Mr. Ilarionov is now a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy and a frequent commentator on US-Russian relations and a frequent guest on my Eyes on Eurasia podcast.Enjoy the show! Glen! Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe

Hi everyone,Welcome to the Eyes on Eurasia podcast with Glen Howard! Another menacing cloud is emerging within Putin’s Russia known as: Russkaia Obshchina (Russian Community), which is a new utra right wing nationalist group that is rapidly attracting thousands of new followers across the country. Once a marginal nationalist initiative, Russkaia Obshchina has rapidly evolved into a powerful, state-linked paramilitary formation that fuses xenophobic populism, Orthodox fundamentalism, and ultranationalist ideology. Russkaia Obshchina bears a disturbing ressemblance to the anti-semitic Black Hundreds group that terrorized Russia’s Jewish community in Tsarist pre-revolutionary Russia prior to World War I and continued to plague Russian society until the country’s collapse in 1917. Helping us to examine the rise of Russkaia Obshchina—its similarities and differences with the Black Hundreds, and the nature of Russian state support for the group—are two leading experts on the issue: Sergey Sukhankin, a Senior Fellow at The Saratoga Foundation and Paul Goble, a Distringuished Fellow Emeritus at The Saratoga Foundation and author of the blog: Window on Eurasia. Enjoy the podcast!Glen Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe

Hi everyone,Welcome to Episode 22 of the Eyes on Eurasia podcast with Glen Howard. Pakistan and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are back in the news. This time it is not about Pakistan’s support for the Taliban but an eruption in border fighting between the two countries that has created the worst tension between the two countries in recent memory. At the heart of this conflict is the still unresolved Pashtun question. My podcast dives into the headlines on the recent clashes along the Afghan-Pakistan border to discuss the recent fighting and explore the deep rooted nature of this current round of tension. During the past week, tensions have surged between the two countries after the Taliban-led government in Kabul claimed its forces killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in a retaliatory operation along the 2,600-kilometer frontier. This latest confrontation marks one of the most serious border clashes in years and highlights the worsening relationship between the two countries.Helping me to dissect the roots of the conflict between the Taliban ruled government in Kabul and Islamabad is Abubakar Siddique, a journalist, author, and research scholar specializing in coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has reported on South Asia and the Middle East for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for nearly two decades and is widely recognized as one of the leading experts on the region.Mr. Siddique’s expertise is reflected in his landmark 2014 book, The Pashtun Question: The Unresolved Key to the Future of Pakistan and Afghanistan — a work considered among the most insightful analyses of the deep-rooted tensions shaping relations between Kabul and Islamabad. Siddique frequently speaks at leading think tanks across Europe and North America, contributes to research publications, and is regularly cited in major Western media outlets.Enjoy the podcast!GlenGlen’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe

Hello everyone,Welcome to Episode 21 of my Eyes on Eurasia podcast with Glen Howard — a special edition on the recent Alaska Summit! This is a particularly timely issue. Superpower summits are back: last Friday, President Trump met in Anchorage, Alaska with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Earlier this week, he hosted seven European leaders at the White House, including NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, following his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Now, speculation is growing about a possible trilateral summit between Trump, Putin, and Zelensky. At the heart of the debate: the mysterious “NATO-style” security guarantee being discussed for Ukraine — despite the absence of a ceasefire — as Washington pursues the unusual strategy of seeking a peace agreement with Russia first, while simultaneously floating potential land swaps between Russia and Ukraine as part of those negotiations.To help us make sense of these fast-moving developments in U.S.–Russia relations, I’m joined by Andrei Illarionov — former presidential adviser to Vladimir Putin on the Russian economy, former Kremlin insider, and now a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy. A frequent commentator on Russian affairs, Andrei will share his impressions of the Alaska Summit, the recent meetings in Washington, and what we can expect in the weeks ahead.Enjoy the show!GlenGlen’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.* Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe

Hi Everyone,Welcome to the 20th episode of my Eyes on Eurasia Podcast! Things have been heating up in the Caspian as a new series of events has unfolded regarding Russian relations with Azerbaijan in recent weeks. Tensions between Moscow and Baku have gone off the rails since the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijani brothers—Huseyn and Ziyaddin Safarov in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on June 27.To the outside world, Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin have often appeared to maintain stable and neighborly relations. Some even claim that Russia and Azerbaijan were allies due to Russian backing for Azerbaijan in its recent wars with Armenia over Karabakh. Nevertheless, beneath that veneer, long-standing frictions have persisted—and now, they’ve erupted into a full-blown diplomatic crisis.The recent unraveling in Azerbaijan-Russian relations began last year, when Russian air defenses in Chechnya struck a civilian Azerbaijani Airlines (AZAL) flight, which led to the crash of the AZAL airliner in western Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, Since then, the government of Azerbaijan has repeatedly demanded an apology from Moscow and accountability from the Russian side, but no such acknowledgement has been made.Following the deaths of the Safarov brothers, the situation escalated further: Azerbaijan detained several Russian journalists working for the Russian state outlet Sputnik, canceled high-level diplomatic visits, and accused Moscow of deliberately targeting ethnic minorities.Behind these developments, Moscow is quite unhappy as it now senses it is losing influence in the South Caucasus to Turkey following Armenian President Pashinyan’s June 21st visit to Istanbul and meeting with Turkish President Tayip Erdogan. The Russia-Azerbaijan crisis certainly reflects a deep transformation occurring in post-Soviet geopolitics, signaling not just a bilateral breakdown but the potential unraveling of Russian influence throughout the South Caucasus.Joining us today to discuss these recent events are Ambassador Farid Shafiyev, Chairman of the Center for Analysis of International Relations, and Ambassador Matt Bryza, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan and a senior American diplomat with over 30 years of experience covering Russia, Azerbaijan, and the Caspian region.Enjoy the podcast!Glen Speaker Bios:Ambassador Shafiyev is Chairman of the Center of Analysis of International Relations (AIR Center) a Baku-based thinktank and a former diplomat in the Azeri Foreign Ministry who previously served as Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2014 to 2019. In 2009, Farid Shafiyev was appointed Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Canada, where he served until July 2014. From July 2014 to February 2019, Dr. Shafiyev was the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Czech Republic. Dr. Shafiyev is the author of numerous op-eds, articles and several academic publications, including “Resettling the Borderlands: State Relocations and Ethnic Conflict in the South Caucasus” by McGill-Queen’s University Press (2018). Farid Shafiyev has been lecturing in the field of International Relations and Foreign Policy in Baku. Currently, he is an Adjunct Lecturer at ADA University.Ambassador Matthew Bryza is a former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan and a 23-year career as a U.S. diplomat that ended in 2012. Ambassador Bryza served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (2005-2009) and Director on the National Security Council Staff at the White House (2001-2005) for Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Central Asia, and the South Caucasus.From 1998 to 2001, Ambassador Bryza was the Deputy Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Caspian Basin Energy Security. He also served in the U.S. Missions to Russia (1995-1997) and Poland (1989-1991).Bryza is a frequent commentator in media outlets that have included CNN, Al Jazeera, The BBC, Fox News, Skye News, The Financial Times, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Chicago Tribune, as well as numerous outlets in Turkey and the South Caucasus. Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe

Hello everyone,Welcome to Episode 19 of my Eyes on Eurasia podcast with Glen Howard! In this episode, we’re taking a close look at what’s happening inside Belarus, which recently became the focus of U.S. diplomacy with the June 21st visit of Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s Ukraine envoy. Kellogg is now one of the highest-ranking American officials to visit Belarus since February 2020, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a landmark trip — the first by a U.S. secretary of state to Minsk since 1993.The success of Kellogg’s visit was underscored by the release of 14 political prisoners following a six-hour meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka — a major signal of improving U.S.–Belarus relations.During President Trump’s first term, we witnessed a remarkable shift in bilateral ties, marked by high-level visits to Minsk from Secretary Pompeo, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and A. Wess Mitchell, the former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. These visits helped pave the way for a transformation in U.S.–Belarus relations.To many observers, this renewed engagement indicates that Minsk is once again seeking to balance its strategic relationship with Russia — a key ally and neighbor of both Belarus and Ukraine — while reengaging with the United States. Belarus also borders three NATO member states: Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, making its geopolitical positioning especially significant.Joining the podcast to explore the positive trajectory of U.S.–Belarus relations are Grigory Ioffe, Professor Emeritus at Radford University in Virginia, and Dr. Yauheni Preiherman, founder and director of the Minsk Dialogue Council. Dr. Preiherman also organized the now-suspended Minsk Forum, a major conference that brought together leading foreign policy experts from across Europe to discuss Belarus’s role in international affairs.Enjoy the podcast!GlenSpeaker Bios:Grigory IoffeDr Grigory Ioffe is Professor Emeritus, Radford University, Radford, Virginia. Dr. Ioffe immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1989. Active in Belarusian studies since 2002. He has authored and co-authored multiple peer-refereed articles on Belarus. Ioffe’s book, Understanding Belarus and How Western Foreign Policy Misses the Mark, was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2008 and again in 2014. Published in 2014 by Palgrave Macmillan, his book Reassessing Lukashenka: Belarus in Cultural and Geopolitical Context is based on extensive interviews with the Belarusian leader. Ioffe also co-authored the third edition of Historical Dictionary of Belarus, published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2018. He used to regularly write about Belarus for the Eurasia Daily Monitor.Yauheni PreihermanDr. Yauheni Preiherman is the founder and director of the Minsk Dialogue Council on International Relations, a Belarus-based think tank that focuses on analysis and Track-2 engagement on regional security in Eastern Europe. His main research interests include the foreign policies of small states, international affairs in Eastern Europe, and Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security.Glen’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Glen’s Substack at glenhoward.substack.com/subscribe