Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
Russian Land Rush Off to Slow Start
Critics say the plots of land available free to citizens are too small to sustain a farm or other venture. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Why the EU Should Decouple Sanctions Against Russia from the Minsk Agreements
The leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine in Minsk for February 2015 talks. By Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Almost two years have passed since the European Union and a number of other countries introduced, on July 31, 2014, the third and most consequential round of economic and other sanctions against Russia....
Ukraine: the beginning of Naftogaz’s restructuring
The plan for Naftogaz’s restructuring is an important step on the way towards Kyiv’s compliance with the obligations it has made to the EU and the IMF. …read more Source: Centre for Eastern Studies...
UN report finds killings on both sides in Donbas, yet misses Russian soldiers
While warning that there must be accountability for all killings, and pointing out that some may constitute war crimes, the UN monitors prefer to ignore substantial evidence of direct engagement by Russian military personnel in the fighting in Donbas and in shelling from military positions in Russia …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights...
Controversial Ukrainian blogger / journalist Kotsaba freed after 18 months in prison
Ruslan Kotsaba, a controversial blogger and Ukraine’s first Amnesty International prisoner of conscience in 5 years, has had his conviction and 3.5-year sentence for supposed obstruction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces quashed. He was released in the courtroom after over 18 months held in detention …read more Source: Kharkiv Human...
Beset by Cash Flow Problems, Russia and Kazakhstan Consider Leasing Baikonur Cosmodrome to Other Countries
Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome is the oldest and largest space launch facility in the world, built in 1955 as a test range for the Soviet Union’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the R-7. It covers 2,600 square miles, measuring 47 miles from north to south and 56 miles from east to west, and contains 15 launch pads...
Russia and the West Engage in Mutual Deterrence
After the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) summit in Warsaw last week (July 8–9), the NATO-Russian Council met in Brussels, on July 13, at the ambassadorial level. The meeting did not lead to much progress: Both the Alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the Russian ambassador at NATO headquarters, Alexander...
Insight-In Economic Crisis, Putin Helps a Mogul He Once Attacked
Three major banks rescued industrialist Igor Zyuzin’s coal and steel firm Mechel from what would have been Russia’s biggest ever corporate collapse. The commodity price slump and sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine have hurt the economy and unsettled Putin’s grip on power. If Mechel went bankrupt it could lead to layoffs...
Putin to Merkel, Hollande: Help avoid Ukraine escalation
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande to use their influence to help prevent any escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Putin expressed his concerns about the state of a shaky truce between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in...
How Russia has prepared for aggression against Ukraine for 10 years
The key objective is to recapture Ukraine, which should dramatically increase Russia’s demographic, political, economic, military and other resources. In the irrational worldview of the “Kremlin dreamers”, restoring control over Kyiv – “the mother of all cities”, capital and ancestral home of Eastern Slavic Orthodoxy – is a vital interest...
