Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
Going to the People-and Back Again: The Changing Shape of the Russian Regime
For most of Russian history, the country’s leaders have employed a top-down political system. When Crimea was annexed in 2014, the Kremlin temporarily allowed more decentralized patriotic activism to rally support, but they soon saw the potential risks and reverted to more centralized political control. | Русский …read more Source:...
Problems with Corruption in Ukraine
Under pressure from civil society and international institutions, the Ukrainian authorities have taken steps to reduce corruption. Although these measures have brought initial positive results, corruption remains one of the biggest problems facing the country as any changes meet with resistance from part of the Ukrainian political elite afraid of...
Obama leaves the world a more dangerous place
Barack Obama aimed to reset America’s place in the world. Instead he dislodged it. His soaring rhetoric—displayed in speeches in Cairo in 2009, or in Estonia in 2014—could not outweigh the bleak realities of power. America is relatively weaker than it was, its rivals and adversaries stronger. Countering that trend is entirely possible, but...
International NGOs should get the facts right re Ukraine’s ‘Ban’ on Russian TV Dozhd
Ukraine’s removal of the independent Russian Dozhd TV from cable networks elicited angry responses and accusations of ‘censorship’ from at least two international NGOs, neither of whom fully addressed the reason for the restrictions imposed, or what they did not entail.. …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection...
FSB detains Ukrainian Cultural Centre activist & his wife in Russian-occupied Crimea
Russia’s FSB is preparing ‘extremism’ charges against yet another pro-Ukrainian Crimean, a young mother of two small children, with the pretext this time being a post on the social network VKontakte. …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection...
Top anti-corruption post for persecutor of well-known Ukrainian human rights activist?
The likely appointment of Dmytro Rudenko to a top post in Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau has appalled many rights activists who remember his active role in the persecution of Vinnytsa human rights activist Dmytro Groysman. It raises questions also as to how he came to be appointed head of the Khmelnytsky National Police back in...
Moscow’s concept of a Greater Europe is still just a dream
Moscow’s concept of a Greater Europe is still just a dream Until Moscow and Brussels change their zero-sum approach, any talk about reviving the concept of a Greater Europe is just wishful thinkingUntil Moscow and Brussels change their zero-sum approach, any talk about reviving the concept of a Greater Europe is just wishful thinking.A...
Trump, sanctions, Congress: business or principles?
Russia / World On January 1, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, Lindsey Graham, and John McCain called for new sanctions on Russia – even in the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s expulsion of 35 ‘diplomats’ – only metres from the border with Georgia’s de facto Russian-occupied breakaway region of South Ossetia. On January 10, ten...
What Putin Wants from Trump
(Image: Shutterstock / ) I wrote this article about Russian efforts to cultivate Donald Trump as an asset last week for a Korean newspaper where it was published on Sunday. Little did I know that news would break this week of allegations that Russia has a file of damaging information it can use to blackmail President-elect Trump. In that file is...
The Difficult but Necessary Task of Promoting Democracy in Russia
Photo credit: Bogomolov.PL Events in Russia in 2016 suggested that there is no prospect of political change in the country for the foreseeable future, and especially not in the run-up to the next presidential election in 2018. The regime appears to be more secure than ever and President Vladimir Putin dominates political life. United Russia and...
