Section: Atlantic Council (USA)
Revisiting the Narrative About Hungary’s Relationship with Russia
Editor’s Note: This article is a response to Stephen Blank’s essay, Putin’s Energy Strategy Is More Ambitious than You Think, which was published by the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert blog on January 4, 2019. Since arriving in Washington in the summer of 2017, I have grown somewhat baffled by the narrative about Hungary,...
International Support Urged For Ukraine in Face of Russian Aggression
“There is a war going on in the middle of Europe. A very hot war,” according to Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Ukraine’s vice prime minister for Euro-Atlantic integration, who urged policy makers to confront this “uncomfortable truth” about Russian aggression. Speaking in a panel discussion hosted by Ukraine House Davos in Davos, Switzerland,...
Opposition to Nord Stream 2 Gathers Steam on Both Sides of the Atlantic
Natural gas pipeline would connect Russia to Europe Opposition to Nord Stream 2—a pipeline that will transport natural gas from Russia to Germany while bypassing Ukraine—is building on both sides of the Atlantic. On December 11, the US House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution expressing opposition to Nord Stream 2. The nonbinding...
The Negative Consequences of Putin’s Strategy
It has become an accepted line of thought that Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing chess on the international stage while the majority of Western leaders play checkers. His high-profile appearances among other world leaders at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires and the centenary of the end of World War I in Paris were noted by some as more...
It’s Time to Stop Appeasing Putin – Here’s How to Deter the Emboldened Russian President
MUNICH – There are few better places in the world than here to reflect on the need to end Western appeasement of Vladimir Putin and his growing list of international crimes. The latest was last Sunday’s Russian attack on Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea — and its purpose of asserting Kremlin control over its still-sovereign...
Trump Cancels Meeting With Putin
‘Better no meeting than a bad one,’ says the Atlantic Council’s Daniel Fried Hours after the Kremlin confirmed a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald J. Trump on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires on December 1, the US president cancelled the appointment with his Russian counterpart citing the continued...
The West Has an Opportunity, Yet Again, to Push Back Against Russia
In August of 2008, Russia used separatist proxies in South Ossetia to attack Georgian villages near the city of Tskhinvali. The attack provoked a Georgian military response, which Moscow used as a pretext for a largescale invasion and occupation of Georgian territories. Russia did not embark on that military adventure simply to occupy Georgian...
Is Another Trump-Putin Meeting a Good Idea?
US President Donald J. Trump is expected to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Buenos Aires later this week. Is that a good idea in light of Russia’s latest aggression toward Ukraine and the somewhat stymied success of past meetings between the two leaders? In an interview with The...
An Opportunity for the EU to Give Ukraine a Helping Hand
Russia’s attack on Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait and the blockade of the Sea of Azov threaten a dangerous escalation of the war in Ukraine. As before, Russia’s goal in Ukraine is not so much to hold or conquer territory but to demonstrate that it has the capacity to put further pressure on the Ukrainian government with impunity,...
Another Ukraine Crisis Tests US Resolve
The seizure by Russian forces of three Ukrainian naval vessels near the Sea of Azov on November 25 highlights Moscow’s strategy of broadening its “creeping annexation” beyond Ukraine’s land borders and into the Black Sea. Russia’s refusal to abide by agreements providing Ukraine rightful passage and access to the Sea of Azov is...
