Latest Articles about Central Europe
The OSCE in Agony (Part One)
Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine this year is not, for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a dramatic watershed or existential crossroads as it has been made out to be. The OSCE has all along been mired in a deep crisis inherent... MORE
Azerbaijan and Georgia Initiate New ‘Great Game’ With Europe
On October 24, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Georgia for a one-day working visit. The abrupt nature of Aliyev’s visit was characterized as “strange” and “mysterious” by many experts in Tbilisi (Civil.ge; Netgazeti.ge, October 24). Indeed, the brevity of the visit and its format... MORE
NATO Demonstrates Renewed Cohesion in Resolute Response to Missile Strike on Polish Soil
On November 15, at approximately 3:40 p.m. local time, an explosion killed two people in the Polish village of Przewodów, located in Lublin Province, around six kilometers from Poland’s border with war-torn Ukraine. Due to massive Russian missile strikes that had been targeting Ukraine at... MORE
Russia in Search of New Gas Markets
Since the start of the Russian all-out assault on Ukraine on February 24, Gazprom’s natural gas supplies to Europe have been cut by approximately 80 percent (Bruegel.org, November 22). Such a drastic reduction is primarily due to Moscow’s own decisions aimed at stoking political and... MORE
Challenges Are Mounting for Fragile Belarusian Statehood
Dmitry Gurnevich of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) analyzed the biographies of Belarus’s top-ranking military officers and concluded that many of them were either born in Russia, graduated from Russian military academies, or both (Svaboda, November 3). Specifically, out of the nine top military leaders,... MORE
Grouping of Russian Units in Belarus Continues to Swell
From the outset of the “partial mobilization” campaign in Russia, processes began taking place in Belarus that created a greater potential for armed escalation in this direction, in particular in northern Ukraine. As such, on October 14, according to Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, Belarus... MORE
The Russia-Ukraine War: Has Beijing Abandoned Pragmatic Diplomacy?
Introduction Chinese diplomats contend that Beijing’s position on the “Russia-Ukraine conflict” (俄乌冲突 E wu chongtu) or the “Ukraine issue” (乌克兰问题, Wukelan wenti ) is “consistent and clear” (一贯的、明确的, yiguan de, mingque de) (People’s Republic of China Ministry of Foreign Affairs [FMPRC], May 5). However, China’s... MORE
Viktor Orbán’s Anti-Sanctions Campaign Sparks Fears of EU Disunity on Russia
On October 14, the Hungarian government and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán launched a nationwide survey regarding the European Union’s sanctions policy against Russia. The survey asked Hungarian citizens to share their opinions on the energy sanctions introduced by the European bloc in response to Russia’s... MORE
As War Rages in Ukraine, the German-Polish Schism Deepens
While German politics remained relatively stable under former Chancellor Angela Merkel and we may observe a certain level of continuity under her successor, Olaf Scholz, Polish politics have undergone a profound change since 2015, when the United Right (Law and Justice) took charge. This shift... MORE
Soul-Searching in the Opposition Amid Growing Threats to Belarusian Sovereignty
The Belarusian opposition media continues to be frustrated with Ukrainians' worsening attitude toward Belarusians in their country. The September 2022 telephone and online survey of 2,000 Ukrainians by the Kyiv-based International Institute of Sociology revealed that, regarding Belarusians, Ukrainians view the group with the third-most... MORE