Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
With Olympics Behind Them, Russian Officials Continue Their Destruction of Sochi
In the 18 months since the Sochi Winter Olympics, Russian entrepreneurs and Russian officials have taken advantage of the lack of international attention to increase their destruction of the natural environment in and around Sochi, to further weaken the housing and infrastructure of residents there, and to repress anyone who objects to what they...
Russia’s ‘Carrot and Stick’ Policy on the Ukraine Crisis
Official statements, interviews and comments from some members of the Russian government and military top brass on the Ukraine crisis denote the use of the “carrot and stick” in the Kremlin’s policy. Moscow claims, for example, that the Minsk II agreement represents the best way forward, while the continual breaches of the February...
Governor Saakashvili Unveils Reform Agenda in Ukraine’s Odesa Province
Following his appointment as governor of Odesa province by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (see EDM, June 2, 4, 5), Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili has outlined his policy priorities in the post newly entrusted to him. Saakashvili holds a strong political mandate from the Ukrainian president to jump-start reforms in this...
Kyiv Accuses Volunteer Fighters of Rape and Torture, Hundreds Arrested at Yerevan Price Protest
Plus, Yanukovych makes half-hearted apology for Maidan killings; activists plan to deliver banned abortion drugs to Poland via UAV. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
The Economic Great Game for Peace in Eastern Europe
Whatever new geopolitical order emerges between the EU, Ukraine, and Russia, will rest on a joint understanding about the economic relationship between the three. …read more Source: Carnegie Endowment for International...
New Centre-Right Government in Finland
Finland is directly affected by two of the biggest crises in the history of European integration: the troubles of the euro and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The new Finnish government, formed by the liberal Centre Party, the populist Finns Party and the conservative National Coalition Party, faces major economic, foreign policy and security...
Scandal in the Ukrainian Security Service: Last Breath of the Old Political System?
On June 18, 248 Ukrainian lawmakers—out of the 422 present in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament)—approved President Petro Poroshenko’s request to fire Valentyn Nalyvaychenko as head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) amid rising public criticism and top officials’ growing recriminations over the government’s inability to...
Saakashvili Grapples With Daunting Odds in Ukraine’s Odesa
Three weeks ago, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed Georgia’s former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, as governor of Ukraine’s Odesa province, with a dual mission: to jump-start reforms based on his experience in reforming Georgia, and to consolidate Ukrainian control in a territory potentially targeted by Russia....
Financial Defaults May Loom for North Caucasian Republics
Russian news agencies reported in early June that Novgorod Oblast in central Russia had become the country’s first region to default on its financial obligations. An official from the Novgorod financial department told RBK news agency that the region failed to make a payment of $33 million to the Russian state bank VTB (Rbc.ru, June 9). VTB...
Putin’s Economic Forum: Delays, Obfuscations and Irrelevance
The annual St. Petersburg economic forum used to be a major gathering of investors and stakeholders, who would anticipate President Vladimir Putin’s keynote speech every year for hints about where to find the richest dividends in the Russian economy. This year, however, the traditional pomp was reduced and the potential margins of profit...
