
Latest Articles about Europe's East

As Russian Support for Ukrainian War Ebbs, Kremlin Mulling New ‘Hybrid’ Tactics
Vladimir Putin’s Anschluss of Crimea gave him a big political boost, and Russians still overwhelmingly support the annexation of that Ukrainian peninsula. But support for Russian forces and their clients in Donbas is declining, with ever more Russians against backing these breakaway groups and expressing... MORE

Ochakiv: An Important Ukrainian Outpost in the Northwestern Black Sea
Few coastal Ukrainian cities have historically suffered as many instances of destruction only to be rebuilt time and time again as Ochakiv. And today, the Ochakiv Naval Base is set to host a $750,000 maritime operations center, which the United States Navy is building for... MORE

Ukraine Has Gas for Upcoming Winter, but Time for Reforms Is Running Out
Ukraine has entered a new heating season with almost 17 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas stored in its underground reservoirs, according to Ukrtransgaz, the gas transportation and storage subsidiary of the state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy (Utg.ua, accessed October 30). This... MORE

Mikho-Maidan: Waiting for a New Agenda
Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s political career in Ukraine has been defined by a dramatic series of ups and downs. He began, back in 2015, as an ally of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and was named head of Odesa’s regional administration. But since then, he... MORE

Autumn Brings Fresh Persecutions in Russian-Occupied Crimea
Despite Western diplomatic efforts and sanctions against Russia, Moscow continues to attack and put pressure on the last vestiges of organized political and social opposition in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in early 2014. Indeed, September and October brought renewed persecution on the... MORE

Belarus Demonstrates Resilience
Newsworthy material from and about Belarus tends to either concentrate on Belarus’s relations with Russia, relations with the European Union or on domestic issues, including the economy. When it comes to headlines, external drivers of Belarus’s development often eclipse its domestic scene. Last week, however,... MORE

The Tragic Case of Alexander Korzhych Highlights Problem of Hazing in Belarusian Military
On October 3, Alexander Korzhych, a 21-year-old conscript, was found dead in the basement of his military unit, located in Borisov, a city in the Minsk region of Belarus. Korzhych was stationed at a training base devoted to five-month courses that transform ordinary soldiers into... MORE

Moldovan President Igor Dodon Suspended by the Constitutional Court
The Moldovan Constitutional Court temporarily suspended the country’s president, on October 20, following a request by the government to interpret article 98, paragraph 6 of the Constitution, covering the president’s role in government reshuffles (Constcourt.md, October 20). The issue dates back to December 27, 2016,... MORE

Lukashenka Receives an Invitation to Brussels
In a dramatic reversal from years of earlier policy precedent, on October 6, Brussels extended an invitation to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus to participate in the November 25 summit of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) (Belta, October 11). Belarus is a member of... MORE

Solar Energy Development in Ukraine: A Matter of State Security
Foreign investments in renewable energy projects benefit Ukraine in the shift to clean energy, but they also are have wider geo-economic and national security importance for this struggling European democracy. Ukraine is currently pursuing a number of renewable energy ventures funded by foreign investments. The... MORE