RFE/RL in the Media
# Read Daud Khattak in Foreign Policy on the Pakistan Taliban's desperate act
# Yahoo uses RFE/RL Radio Mashaal video from Peshawar on the day after
# "Washington Times" cites RFE/RL report on Russian TV's racist advice for New Year's
Russia
# Behind the scenes in February, Putin advisors said an eastern Ukraine adventure was affordable -- they may have been wrong
# "How Crimea Crashed the Russian Economy" - Anna Nemtsova, Daily Beast
# Leon Bershidsky: Recent Russian actions in Scandinavia about Arctic, not Ukraine
# "Will the Real Russia Please Stand Up?" - Michael Kofman, Reuters
# Why nothing is working right now
Ukraine
# With Russia in economic crisis at home, questions over what that means for Ukraine
# Ukraine military says separatists resume attacks in eastern Ukraine
# Ukraine bans News Year's Eve fireworks out of respect for east
Belarus
# Lukashenka says Russian behavior arouses "suspicion"
Iraq/Syria
# Some 97 percent of all December air strikes in Iraq were carried out by U.S.
# IS murders 150 women for refusing to marry, according to Iraq's Human Rights Ministry
# Iraq says it could revise oil supply plans
# What the unmasking of an IS troll tells us about the Syrian jihad's message around the world
Iran
# Is Obama's Cuba announcement a hint of things to come with Iran?; Khamenei opposes normalization
# Iran says it requested extradition of Sydney gunman 14 years ago
# What is behind Hamas-Iran rapprochement?
Afghanistan/Pakistan
# Drone strike in Afghanistan kills four Pakistani Taliban
# Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan targeting children of the elite
# The Pakistani Taliban is weakening
# "Pakistan’s Dance With Terrorists Just Backfired" - Chris Allbritton, Daily Beast
# "Afghanistan: The Making of a Narco State" - Matthieu Aikins, "Rolling Stone"
Central Asia
# Kazakhs react to video of their countrymen fighting with IS militants being used as “cannon fodder”
Of Interest