Maidan 3.0: Another Revolution in Ukraine?
Will Ukrainians take to the streets in sufficient numbers to overthrow their US-backed leaders? Over the weekend a large protest in Kiev was violently broken up by masked men while the police looked on. No word from the US condemning the violence. Elsewhere, the US admits sanctions are hurting Europe and not harming Russia, but still it presses...
Hungary Gets Tough on Migrants, Ukraine Rebels Try to Find Crimea
Plus, Albania seeks arrest of Italian investor/TV mogul and Chechnya’s strongman leader accused of running a private taxation racket. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Russian foreign policy: domestic constraints
President Putin is often presented by Western media as an autocratic leader free of checks and balances who imposes his will in foreign policy. If we could only climb ‘inside the head of Vladimir Putin’, to paraphrase the title of a recent book by French philosopher Michel Eltchaninoff, we could divine his intentions and predict his next...
Scrapping purdah biggest point of contention as EU Referendum Bill easily passes its second reading
Scrapping purdah biggest point of contention as EU Referendum Bill easily passes its second readingThe Government’s EU Referendum Bill yesterday passed its second reading by 544 votes to 53. During the debate, a number of backbenchers complained that the government’s intention to suspend the 28-day ‘purdah’ period – during which...
Putin’s pivot: The Russians are coming to Asia
Vladimir Putin has told the West that it has nothing to fear, yet the conflict in Ukraine is flaring again. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is warning his citizens of a full-scale Russian invasion. Contacts between NATO and Russian forces have increased markedly. Reports of Russian strategic bombers close to the UK, and of a Russian...
Weekly Update from the OSCE Observer Mission at Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk based on information as of 10:00hrs (Moscow time), 09 June 2015
SUMMARY Kamensk-Shakhtinskiy, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both BCPs. The overall cross-border traffic increased at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs). DETAIL OM’s staff composition The OM is currently operating with 20 staff members, consisting of 19 permanent international observers (incl. the...
Moscow-Backed Terrorism Likely to Spread Across Ukraine
All eyes are currently on the actions of Moscow-supported units in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Speculations abound as to when and where these forces will attack next and whether the Ukrainian military will be able to hold back or even repulse them. But an even larger threat, albeit one that has so far attracted less attention, is the...
Moscow Announces the Creation of Rapid Reaction Forces—Again
Russia’s top brass re-announced the creation of rapid reaction forces, with overall numbers of up to 70,000, based upon the existing elite Airborne Forces (Vozdushno Desantnye Voyska—VDV). The idea of creating such a capability is hardly new, but the timing of its latest incarnation is interesting in that it coincides with the summer combat...
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 19:30 (Kyiv time), 8 June 2015
This report is provided for the media and the general public. The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM was unable to monitor in Shyrokyne due to security considerations. The SMM unmanned...
OSCE supports Belarus and Ukraine in assessing environmental risks to facilitate safe border demarcation in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
KYIV, 9 June 2015 – The concluding meeting of the project “Assessment of Environmental Risks in the Exclusion Zone along the Ukrainian and Belarusian Borders” was organized by the OCEEA on 9 June in Kyiv. With some 500 kilometres of the common border crossing the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Belarus and Ukraine face the challenge of ensuring the...
