Victory Day and Belarus’s Diplomatic Offensive
On May 9, Belarus celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. According to Emmanuel Ioffe, an authoritative Minsk historian (no relation to this author), the overall number of Belarus’s casualties in that war amounted to 3,074,000, whereas the country’s population on the eve of war was 9,183,000, within current...
Donetsk, Luhansk ‘People’s Republics’ Seek International Legitimization Through Local Elections (Part One)
The possible international recognition of “elections” staged in the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (“DPR, LPR”) is one of the major innovations of the Minsk Two armistice agreement on Ukraine. It is Moscow’s innovation, with Germany and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on board. From 1991 to...
Six Recommendations to Strengthen the Ukraine-NATO Partnership
Introduction The year 1997 might not necessarily be engraved in our collective memory as a moment of great historical shift. Some might remember U.S. President Bill Clinton’s second inauguration, or Great Britain handing back Hong Kong to China. But arguably for European geopolitics, 1997 was a year of enormous significance. That was when...
A Military ‘Pivot to Asia’
As China reclaims land in the South China Sea, the US sends in spy planes to buzz the construction. China warns the US to leave them alone. US, with bases all over the South China Sea area, objects to what it views as Chinese military activity in the region. Is this Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”? Or a diversion from the failed wars...
Chrystia Freeland on Ukraine’s struggle for independence
“What is happening in Ukraine is a tremendous threat to Putin’s Russia precisely because of the kinship that Russians feel with Ukraine,” says Chrystia Freeland in this podcast. Freeland, a Member of Parliament in Canada and also a journalist and author, talks about her own family’s connection to Ukraine, why the Russian propaganda...
Anders Åslund, leading expert on Ukrainian and Russian political economy joins the Atlantic Council
Anders Åslund, one of the world’s most renowned experts on Ukrainian and Russian political economy and chairman of the CASE Advisory Council, has been appointed as a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Dr. Åslund is a leading specialist on East European economies, and has served as an economic adviser to several European governments....
Transnistria expects no good from Ukraine
Ukraine abolished legislation on the transit of Russian military men, that are temporarily deployed in Moldova, through the Ukrainian territory, as well as supply support for the peacekeepers in Transnistria. …read more Source:...
Cameron warns EU renegotiation will not be a smooth process as senior EU politicians back EU reform
Cameron warns EU renegotiation will not be a smooth process as senior EU politicians back EU reformArriving at the informal EU leaders’ summit in Riga yesterday, Prime Minister David Cameron said that “there will be ups and downs [during the EU renegotiation]. You will hear one day that ‘this is possible’; the next day something is...
OSCE Project Co-ordinator and Ukraine Parliament Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice agree to co-operate on legislation in justice and elections
Kyiv, 21 May 2015 – OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine Vaidotas Verba and Ruslan Kniazevych on behalf of Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Judicial Policy and Justice, signed a memorandum of co-operation on 21 May 2015. The document provides for the development and joint implementation of projects that would help parliamentarians draft...
Russia Prepares for Possible New Summer Military Campaign in Eastern Ukraine
Summer is the best time for major offensive military action in the Donbas region (Donetsk and Luhansk provinces) of eastern Ukraine. In the spring and autumn, long periods of bad weather turn unpaved roads and plains into a mud quagmire (Rasputitsa), seriously hampering troop maneuverability and logistic support. In 2014, intensive summer...
