Section: Atlantic Council (USA)
How Will Iran’s Oil Exports Rebound?
Global oil prices hit their lowest point since 2003 after the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations on January 16 lifted sanctions on Iran in response to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s conclusion that the Islamic Republic was in compliance with the terms of a nuclear deal. Brent Crude fell to $27.67 per barrel...
How to Help Ukraine: An Alternative Vision
Three former US Ambassadors to Ukraine recently wrote an op-ed article in the New York Times (“Investing in Ukraine’s Future,” December 30, 2015) that called for an increase in Western financial assistance to Ukraine and argued that the country is now “teetering on the brink.” I strongly support their willingness to...
How Ukraine’s Reformers Beat the Pharma Mafia
A little over a month after US Vice President Joe Biden told Ukrainian legislators that graft was eating Ukraine “like a cancer,” an order from Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers struck a decisive blow against pharmaceutical corruption. This order outsources the purchasing of numerous medicines for seriously ill Ukrainians from the...
Seven Key Reforms for Ukraine in 2016
After Orthodox Christmas, I spent a few days in Kyiv. It is quite striking how the mood has changed in a positive direction. The 2016 budget and the modified tax code were adopted on December 24. After two weeks of well-deserved rest, there is a sudden realization that Ukraine accomplished many important economic reforms in 2015. Admittedly, many...
The Complex History of the Ukrainian Nation: A Review of “The Gates of Europe”
During a time of war, history becomes a weapon used to justify claims and raise soldiers’ spirits. In this case, successful histories are simple, unequivocal, and confirmed by the experiences of past centuries.The current Kremlin version of history of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine fully meets these criteria. According to...
New Poll Confirms Growing Mistrust Between Donbas Residents and Kyiv
Ukrainians elected more than 10,000 mayors and 160,000 city councilmembers in local elections on October 25. It was the third nationwide election since the Euromaidan Revolution. A new International Republican Institute (IRI) poll of the Ukrainian-controlled territories of the Donbas region (i.e., Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) reveals that only 26...
Free the Kremlin’s 20 Ukrainian Hostages Now
Soviet dissident Vasyl Stus—an important Ukrainian poet of the 20th century—never lived to see the fall of the Soviet Union. He died in a prison camp near Perm in 1985.As I read one of Stus’s poems about Siberia, I realized that Gennadiy Afanasyev, a 25-year-old Crimean photographer exiled to the Sytkyvkar penal camp in Russia’s Komi...
The Real History of the Ukrainian Nation: A Review of “The Gates of Europe”
During a time of war, history becomes a weapon used to justify claims and raise soldiers’ spirits. In this case, successful histories are simple, unequivocal, and confirmed by the experiences of past centuries.The current Kremlin version of history of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine fully meets these criteria. According to...
Ukraine Should Do More to Combat Human Trafficking
Ukraine remains one of Europe’s most notorious sources of human trafficking. Since 1991, over 160,000 men, women, and children have been exploited for labor, sex, forced begging, and organ removal, according to a mid-2015 report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy, with...
2016 Will Be a Make It or Break It Year for Ukraine
Two years ago, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians braved the freezing temperatures on Kyiv’s Maidan to protest. Since then, Ukraine has gone through almost too many crises to count: upheaval with the ousting of former President Viktor Yanukovych; Russian occupation of Crimea; a war with Russian forces in the Donbas that continues to...
