Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
2015, the year that was: Politics + Society
Tony Abbott leaves the partyroom on September 14, having lost the Liberal leadership and prime ministership to Malcolm Turnbull. AAP/Sam MooyThe year started as it finished, with terrorist atrocities, intractable conflicts and political upheavals that toppled several leaders. Among them was Australia’s prime minister, Tony Abbott. In...
The Transnistrian Conflict in the Context of the Ukrainian Crisis
This paper analyzes the status of Transnistria through the lenses of Ukraine’s faceoff with pro-Russian separatists in Donbass. The text’s author specifically explains 1) how Russia helped Transnistria break away from Moldova to become a de facto and little recognized ‘statelet’; 2) how Moscow uses the ersatz state to exert...
The EU-Russia Gas Relationship
This brief contemplates the major challenges surrounding the gas trade between the European Union and Russia. The challenges include 1) the questionable reliability of Russian gas deliveries through Ukraine in the winter 2015/2016; 2) Russia’s plans to build new infrastructure for its gas exports to the EU, which will bypass Ukraine; and 3)...
Importing stability: Ukrainian and Polish central banks signed €1billion currency swap deal
Narodowy Bank Polski (NBP) and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) agreed to establish a zloty/hryvnia currency swap line on Dec. 22. The deal, worth 1 billion euros, has been signed for six months, with the possibility of an extension. The move (of opening the swap line) looks logical for Poland, as supporting the payment […] …read more...
Ukraine MPs Approve Tit-For-Tat Russian Trade Embargo
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Thursday to give the government the right to impose a trade embargo against Russia, which said last week that it would suspend a free trade zone with Ukraine from Jan. 1. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered free trade with Ukraine to be suspended in a decree last week which cited “extraordinary […]...
Abolition of the free trade zone will not significantly affect the trade volumes between Ukraine and Russia
In the comment to the website Hlavred, Director of Economic Programmes of the Razumkov Centre Vasyl Yurchyshyn spoke about the consequences which the abolition of the free trade zone with Russia would have for Ukraine’s economy. Everything that could happen already had. In fact, the free trade zone was not working for us – since 2006, we...
Russia, IS and the Future of NATO
The years 2014-15 were a watershed for European security. The hope that NATO could enjoy a strategic pause and peace dividend after the end of its operation in Afghanistan has been dashed, as direct threats to the alliance have emerged at the Eastern and Southern flanks. Whether NATO manages to find an effective response to this situation will...
NATO considers whether potential members can bring more security to the alliance
Co-director of Foreign relations and international security programmes at the Razumkov Centre Oleksiy Melnyk appeared on Ukraine Today’s Viewpoint discussing perspectives and obstacles of Ukraine’s membership in NATO. – I would ask you how far is Ukraine on the way to its membership in NATO? Up to now, I think Ukraine is still on the...
Russian Energy Policies Revisited
This paper focuses on 1) Russia’s energy policies since the political crises in and around Ukraine, and 2) the significant structural changes that are occurring in the country’s gas, oil and electricity sectors. More specifically, the text’s authors contemplate the future of EU-Russia energy relations and how Russia’s...
A Dilemma in the Crackdown on Corruption in Ukraine
It is primarily the responsibility of Mr. Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to accelerate their attempts to crack down on corruption. But civil society must also be more pragmatic. It does no good to demand that all corrupt practices be punished at once. Activists from civil society, many of them Western-funded are often part […]...
