Not Frozen!
Since 2014 German and European attention has been largely absorbed by the annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbas and the crisis in relations with Russia. Yet the eastern neighbourhood also contains four unresolved territorial conflicts, which have in some respects developed very dynamically since 2014. The authors of this study examine the role...
Trump, Putin and Race
The real reason behind this odd bromance. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Russia Slams Western Charges of ‘War Crimes’ in Syria
UN envoy Vitaly Churkin blames breakdown of ceasefire on Syrian rebels, dismisses reports of mass killing in eastern Aleppo as faked. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Russia’s Next Move on Ukraine
The most likely scenario for eastern Ukraine is that a low-level conflict will continue to simmer. Moscow needs to give up its pipe dream that a pro-Russian government will come to power in Kiev, and forget its convenient but misleading stereotypes about its large neighbor. | Русский …read more Source: Carnegie Moscow...
Belarus and Russia Experience New Bout of Tensions
In recent years, there has been no shortage of bad blood between Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the Russian Kremlin. For example, in February 2004, Lukashenka referred to the stoppage of Russian natural gas flows into Belarus, in retaliation for Belarus’s insistence on lower prices, as “terrorism at the highest level.” And...
Prosecutor demands harsher sentence for Crimean Tatar political prisoner
There are absolutely no grounds, but the case against Ruslan Zeitullayev; Ferat Saifullayev; Rustem Vaitov and Nuri Primov now looks bad for the prosecutor, since even the court in Rostov could not ignore the lack of any evidence to back the charges and passed the minimum sentences possible. …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights...
Leading from below
Complaining about the weaknesses of European military forces has long been a favorite sport of American politicians, defense officials and pundits; this is one issue on which populists and the Establishment agree. Indeed, presidential candidate Donald Trump’s threats to withdraw from NATO unless European members pay up are really only...
The national security crisis neither candidate is talking about, but should be
During the 1988 presidential debates, no one asked either of the candidates about Iraq, yet soon the US was at war in the Persian Gulf to repel Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. During the 2000 presidential debates, no one asked either candidate about the threat from al Qaeda, yet within months al Qaeda had attacked the American homeland and the...
Russia’s European game
Russia / World It is not entirely clear what the motives behind Russia’s confrontation with the West are. On the one hand, everything is straightforward: Moscow wants recognition of Crimea’s unification with Russia and sanctions to be lifted. It demands that the post-Soviet space is considered a sphere of its special interests and...
How American Media Serves as a Transmission Belt for Wars of Choice
Several weeks ago the mainstream media (MSM) gave saturation coverage to a picture of a little boy pulled from the rubble of Aleppo after his home and family were crushed in what was dubiously reported as a Russian airstrike. Promptly dubbed “Aleppo Boy,” his dusty image immediately went viral in every prestige outlet in the United States and...
