Preface for Digital Eastern Europe
During the Euromaidan protest movement-as in the first years of the Arab Spring-it was the power of social media that galvanized civil society. …read more Source: Carnegie Endowment for International...
Why Mariupol Will Not be the Next Frontline
Analysts and journalists have begun to ask where the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine will go next now that the second ceasefire agreement has failed. Skirmishes on the frontline in Shyrokyne, less than ten miles from Mariupol’s city limits, have raised concerns that Mariupol will be the next target. Geographically and...
An EU Special Envoy for Ukraine?
As EU leaders gather for a summit in Riga to discuss the union’s Eastern neighborhood, they should consider appointing a special representative for Ukraine. …read more Source: Carnegie Endowment for International...
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 19:30 (Kyiv time), 19 May 2015
This report is 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 *. In Minsk the Chief Monitor of the SMM chaired the Trilateral Contact Group’s Working Group on...
Moscow Patriarchate Rapidly Losing Out in Ukraine—and Beyond
The Moscow Patriarchate is rapidly losing influence in Ukraine and may be dissolving from below. These trends could open the way to the formation of a single autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, independent of Moscow, and undermine the influence of Patriarch Kirill and his Church at home and abroad. More than half of all the parishes of the...
Russian Spetsnaz Personnel Detained in Ukraine
Ukrainian military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, told a press conference on May 17 that two Russian Spetsnaz (special forces) personnel were arrested by government forces 15 kilometers from Luhansk. The details surrounding the detentions are important to understand Russian actions in southeastern Ukraine. Since the outset of the conflict in Donbas...
Europe Needs to Help Ukraine Now!
Ukraine bleeds, but reforms impressively, while the West ignores it. The Minsk ceasefire agreement does not hold, though the intensity of the fighting has faded. In mid-March, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) doubled Ukraine’s international reserves, but the country’s finances remain fragile. Europe’s central banks should...
OSCE Representative calls on President of Russia to veto new restrictive law that would have negative effect on free expression, free media
RIGA, 20 May 2015 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today said new restrictive laws in the Russian Federation would have a negative effect on freedom of expression, media freedom and pluralism of opinions. “The broad and imprecise wording of this legislation would impose serious restrictions on a wide-array of...
Low inflation and slow recovery test ECB policy
Sir,Your editorial (“Draghi perches nicely on both sides of the fence”, May 16) urging the European Central Bank to keep open its monetary spigot, might have been stronger had it recognised two important considerations.The first is that, beyond monetary policy, an important factor contributing to the green shoots now appearing in the European...
Ukraine’s Poroshenko Says He Doesn’t Trust Putin
May 20, 2015 …read more Source: Center on Global...
