Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
How Ukraine views Russia and the West
By Steven PiferFollowing the Soviet Union’s collapse, Ukraine and Russia maintained relations that at times were testy, but their differences largely appeared manageable. That changed in 2014, when the Kremlin used military force to seize Crimea and then supported armed separatism in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. As a result,...
Hazardous Legacies: An Open-Source Overview of the Destruction of Deir ez-Zor’s Oil Industry
Now that the so-called Islamic State (IS) is rapidly losing terrain in eastern Syria, a race is underway to capture the oil-rich Deir ez-Zor governorate. The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and militias loyal to the Syrian government, under cover of the Russian airstrikes, rush towards the fields east of the Euphrates River; but so does a contingent of...
U.S. Helsinki Commission Takes the Lead on Combatting Kleptocracy
The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the Helsinki Commission) has used a series of recent events to highlight the threat posed by global kleptocracy to the U.S. and its allies. On October 3, KI Executive Director Charles Davidson testified at a Helsinki Commission hearing on Combatting Kleptocracy with Incorporation...
The European Council: What makes it to the agenda and why?
Written by Izabela Bacian, The Leaders’ Agenda presented by European Council President Donald Tusk in October 2017 sets priorities for action at the European level for the coming two years. Interestingly, the Leaders’ Agenda is based on the Bratislava and Rome declarations informally adopted by the EU27 leaders, and not on the...
Kleptocracy Daily: October 18, 2017
China: Xi Jinping opened the 19th CCP Congress with a three-and-a-half hour speech setting out “a vision of total control — with the party guiding not only the economy and the Internet but culture, religion and morals,” writes Simon Denyer. Xi cited the “virus” of corruption as the greatest threat to the Party and promised to maintain the...
Georgia Still on the World Bank’s Mind
As the World Bank racks up 25 years in Georgia, Mercy Tembon, the bank’s regional director for the South Caucasus, Europe and Central Asia tells Andrew Wrobel that her organisation is as committed to the country’s future as ever. Let’s start with the anniversary. What has the World Bank been doing here for the last quarter of a...
The Baltic Way: Sedition, Propaganda and Discontent in Latvia
Stradling itself between Europe’s north and its east, Latvia occupies a unique cultural and geographic space in Europe, finding itself part of German, Swedish, Polish, and Russian empires at different times. This history colors contemporary understanding of the country and its identity, especially in regard to its eastern neighbor – Russia....
In US-Russia Relations, a Little Subtlety Goes a Long Way
By Allison Fedirka In geopolitics, the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts. Every day there are pieces of information floating around that, on their own, mean very little but put together mean very much. When it comes to U.S.-Russia relations, several unfolding events suggest that the two countries may be reaching some kind of...
Religious terror in modern Russia
Society Following the controversy over Matilda, a film directed by Alexei Uchitel, a radical pseudo-Orthodox movement close to the Church has emerged on the general public’s radar. It is a movement with many nicknames in the news media, most memorably the “Orthodox Taliban” and the “Orthodox ISIS”. State Duma deputy Natalia Poklonskaya, an...
Ukraine should not Help Authoritarian Countries in Cracking down on Freedom of Expression
The Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) is deeply concerned about the detention of Azerbaijani opposition journalist Fikrat Huseynli in Kiev and calls on the Ukrainian authorities to immediately release him and stop contributing to the repressive steps of authoritarian countries aimed at intimidating their critics living...
