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Latest Articles about Europe's East
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Russia on an ‘Unfriendly’ Planet: The Psychological Origins of the Kremlin’s Diplomatic War
Over the past couple months, Russia and the West (the European Union and the United States) have mutually expelled more than 150 diplomats—high numbers in quick succession that, some observers argue, “did not even happen during the Cold War” (Newsru.com, April 24). And those numbers... MORE
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Ukraine’s New Naval Doctrine: A Revision of the Mosquito Fleet Strategy or Bureaucratic Inconsistency?
For Ukraine, which lost more than 70 percent of its naval assets after Russia’s forcible annexation of Crimea, the ability to effectively deter and adequately respond to further aggressive Russian actions at sea is extremely important. The crucial nature of properly addressing this threat was... MORE
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Leader-Oriented Relations Between Russia and Turkey in Times of Pandemic
At the end of April, Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that the Ministry of Health had granted emergency use authorization in Turkey to Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine (Anadolu Agency, April 30). Sputnik V became the third vaccine to receive such approval, after China’s Sinovac and the Pfizer-BioNTech... MORE
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Belarusian Hijacking Creates Both Opportunities and Problems for Moscow
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s decision to force down an airliner so as to be able to arrest journalist Roman Protasevich—the editor-in-chief of the influential anti-regime Telegram channel NEXTA (see EDM, September 23, 2020 and May 24, 2021)—sparked mixed reactions in Moscow. Those diverging opinions owe... MORE
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Belarus Stages What It Sees as Major Security Operations
On Sunday, May 23, Belarus made headlines around the world for diverting a commercial flight. Ryanair’s Boeing 737-8AS, in transit over Belarus from Athens to Vilnius, had to make an emergency landing in Minsk under the pretext of a bomb planted on board, the alarm... MORE
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Zelenskyy Ready to Frame Poroshenko on Criminal Charges
On May 20, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a highly personalized form, threatened to send his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, to prison. “I am his sentence [prigovor], he just does not want to comprehend this… I have been his sentence ever since I became president. He... MORE
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DPR and LPR Increasingly at Odds, Complicating Moscow’s Approach to Ukraine
Most commentators in Russia, Ukraine and the West tend to treat the Moscow-backed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic (DPR, LPR), which together control about 3.3 million people in eastern Ukraine, as a single whole. But in reality, Russian analyst Yury Kovalchuk argues,... MORE
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Moldova’s Enduring Political Crisis: A Showcase for Russia’s New Model of Foreign Aggression
A precarious political standoff continues unabated in the Republic of Moldova, where the Russia-funded Party of Socialists (PSRM) desperately clings to power while trying to obstruct the conduct of snap parliamentary elections. The most recent development in this saga was the apparent stalling by the... MORE
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Belarusian Political Standoff: Entrenchment on All Sides
On May 12, Ukrainian Defense Minister Andrii Taran stated that, for now, his country did not face any immediate danger of a Russian invasion through neighboring Belarus. Nonetheless, he assured that Kyiv was “meticulously monitoring the situation” and evaluating available plans for responding to such... MORE
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Belarusian Oil Industry Suffers From US Sanctions
On May 19, one month will pass since the United States revoked its suspension of sanctions against several Belarusian public companies, mostly from the petrochemical industry (BelTA, April 20; State.gov, April 19). Despite the 45-day wind-down period established, it seems that the resuming restrictions have... MORE