Several developments suggest Belarus is entering a new phase of its evolution as a sovereign country. First, the state-owned Belarusian Oil Company has hired the American lobbyist David Gencarelli to help ease sanctions against Belarus and obtain permission to purchase crude oil from the United... MORE

The end of summer 2019 found Russian President Vladimir Putin busy with high international politics. He is no longer riding with aging bikers in Crimea or making pilgrimage to the Valaammonastery together with Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Instead, he traveled to France and Finland as... MORE

Volodymyr Zelenskyy inherited formidable challenges when he was elected Ukraine’s sixth president this spring, including a Kremlin-backed war with “separatists” in the east, deep-rooted corruption, and an ongoing natural gas dispute with Russia. Ukraine is now responding to the gas discord by trying to negotiate... MORE

Ukraine’s ambassador to Norway, Vyacheslav Yatsiuk, visited the Svalbard archipelago on June 12, where he stated that his country “may become an Arctic player” (Vestifinance.ru, July 5), even though Kyiv is not currently directly involved in the region’s affairs. In 2017, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. Establishing the rule of law in Moldova will have to start not even from scratch but from the rubble that must be cleared away first (see Part One, EDM, August 7). Restoring the integrity of the electoral system... MORE

A bewildering array of divergent opinions on Belarus emanates from its closest neighbors. But for a relatively small and landlocked country committed to retaining and developing its statehood, it is vital to pay close attention to all those various viewpoints. Three concurrent recent examples highlight... MORE

A coalition of mutually antagonistic parties, “leftist pro-Russia” and “rightist pro-Western”—an unprecedented case in post-Soviet countries or indeed in Europe writ large—took over power in Moldova two months ago (June 8), replacing Vladimir Plahotniuc’s personal rule that bequeathed a country in distress. In this situation,... MORE

When a government engages in mass murder or forcible deportations, most observers see that as a clear sign of ethnic engineering—even if there are unresolved debates as to whether such actions fall under the terms of the international convention against genocide. Yet, when the powers... MORE

A Russian commercial tanker named Nika Spirit entered the Ukrainian port of Izmail on July 24. However, using the EQUASIS international information system, Ukraine identified the cargo ship as the vessel (at that point named the Neyma) that had blocked the Kerch Strait on November... MORE

On July 17, Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the pro-Russia opposition in Ukraine’s newly elected parliament, visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where he launched a “Concept Plan to Resolve the Crisis in the South-East of Ukraine.” A long-time Kremlin ally, Medvedchuk is also the... MORE