Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
The Minsk Trap
Kirk Bennett The Ukrainian parliamentary debate on constitutional reform to promote decentralization has occurred under enormous pressure from the West for Kyiv to uphold its end of the Minsk Agreements, negotiated in September 2014 and February 2015 to secure a ceasefire in the Russo-Ukrainian War. The fatal clashes outside the Ukrainian Rada on...
EU member states fail to agree on binding refugee quotas as German Interior Minister suggests cutting EU funding to those countries not doing enough
EU member states fail to agree on binding refugee quotas as German Interior Minister suggests cutting EU funding to those countries not doing enoughDuring a bad-tempered six hour meeting yesterday, EU Interior Ministers failed to reach an agreement on the European Commission’s proposal for mandatory binding quotas to relocate 120,000...
BBC vs RT: Media wars, diplomacy and owning the message
Worried about the increased power and reach of state-owned broadcasters such as the Kremlin-backed Russia Today, it appears the BBC hopes to stem the trend of endless rounds of funding cuts by seeking government money to create a new channel to broadcast into Russia. It’s also proposing services aimed at reaching North Korea and to increase...
China, Belarus Deepen Ties
Two countries on opposite ends of Eurasia are drawing closer, courtesy of the skein of railways slowly snaking across this massive region in the form of an evolving “Iron Silk Road.” While attending Chinese commemorations of the end of World War II in the Pacific, Belarus’s President Alyaksandr Lukashenka held bilateral talks with his...
Russian Presidential Human Rights Council Member Proposes Accepting Several Thousand Circassian Refugees From Syria
On September 10, Maksim Shevchenko, a member of the Council for Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, unexpectedly announced that the Council would ask President Vladimir Putin to allow the repatriation of Circassian Syrians to the North Caucasus. In an interview with the newspaper Izvestia, Shevchenko said he had drafted a...
Nord Stream Expansion Agreed, Wintershall Swapped to Gazprom (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. The agreement to build the Nord Stream Two gas pipeline marks a return to business as usual with the Kremlin in a political sense—that is, accepting Russia’s war against Ukraine as a given and moving past it (see Part One in EDM, September 10). Nord Stream Two, however, goes far beyond business as...
Putin Losing in Ukraine, Looks to Syria
In Ukraine, the Kremlin’s overarching goal has been to bring that country back under Russian control. But as Ukraine has become a stronger state that is integrating itself with the West, the likelihood for the Kremlin’s success is getting smaller every day. In order to distract from this strategic defeat, Russian President Vladimir...
Weather Reports, Defense Budgets, and Military Power
Budget Weather Reports Since NATO allies committed to spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense, freshly released budget figures have been scrutinized and commented upon. Such daily budget weather reports are convenient to engage in “talking defense.” The 2 percent benchmark is snappy and plausible, and reminding governments to adhere it has the...
Europe to Planet America: Stay With Us, But Don’t Stampede Us
As the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign gears up, and conflicts on the other side of the Atlantic multiply, two opposing views of what the United States should do about European security are competing for airspace in the U.S. public debate: “Let’s Get Out of There”: The United States no longer has any business being engaged in...
Local Capacity is the First Line of Defense Against the Hybrid Threat
Introduction The March 18, 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation was not something that could happen in 21st century Europe — until it did. Through the strategy of hybrid war, alternately called “non-linear war” or “war in the gray zone,” Russian leaders have found an effective means of attack that also frustrates conventional...
