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Latest Articles about Europe's East
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Will the Opposition Gain Seats in the Belarusian Parliament, and Is That Still Relevant?
The European Union and the United States are intensifying their appeals on Minsk to ensure transparency and democratic standards during the parliamentary elections scheduled for September 11. Deputy Assistant Secretaries of State Bridget Brink and Robert Berschinski traveled to Minsk on May 17–18. During their... MORE
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Russia’s Kerch Bridge: Time to Act for Ukraine
The bout of great-power euphoria sparked by the 2014 annexation of Crimea did not last long in Russia. The Kremlin quickly realized the region’s total dependence on mainland Ukraine. Over the past 60 years, heavy capital and labor investments as well as regular water, power... MORE
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Normandy Meeting Aborts Ukraine’s Proposal on OSCE Police Mission
Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine held an expanded meeting of their foreign affairs ministers and senior staffs on May 11 in Berlin (the “Normandy” format). Two overlapping issues topped the meeting’s agenda: possible “elections” in the Russian-controlled Donetsk-Luhansk territory, and policing those proposed elections to... MORE
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Ukraine Develops Its Case Against Elections in the ‘People’s Republics’
The “Normandy” powers’ (Ukraine, Germany, France, Russia) latest meeting, in Berlin, on May 11, which failed to address Ukraine’s concerns, has stiffened Kyiv’s refusal to go along with local “elections” in the Donetsk and Luhansk “peoples’ republics” (DPR, LPR). That territory is Ukrainian de jure... MORE
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The Declining Fortunes of the Current Belarusian Opposition
Five and a half years after the 2010 presidential elections, which culminated in street protests, violence, police crackdowns and Western sanctions on Belarus, the intensity of both official and unofficial contacts between Minsk and the West are at an all-time high. One telling recent example... MORE
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Belarus Reforms Its Elections and Commemorates Chernobyl
Western organizations tend to use a single set of criteria to evaluate the electoral processes and the sundry aspects of the democracy and human rights situations in various non-Western countries. Many consumers of those ratings give no second thought to this practice, implicitly believing that... MORE
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Crimea’s Supreme Court Bans Crimean Tatar Mejlis Based on Fictitious Claims
On April 26, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea officially banned the Mejlis, the quasi-governing assembly of the of the Crimean Tatar people (Qha.com.ua, April 26). After this verdict, all Mejlis activities were suspended across the entire territory of the Russian Federation, including... MORE
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Russian Money for Belarus: Not for a Base but to Limit Minsk’s Turn Toward Europe
Many observers have concluded that Moscow’s new $2 billion aid package to Belarus is part of a deal to allow Russia to establish a military airbase on the territory of its western neighbor. But it is increasingly clear that Belarus has no intention of allowing... MORE
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Lukashenka’s Report to the Nation: Rhetoric Versus Reality
On April 21, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka delivered his annual “report to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly [parliament].” When speaking about the economy, Lukashenka did not use the words “crisis” or even “decline”; yet, he recognized the country’s inadequate labor productivity and competitiveness (Tut.by,... MORE
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Ukraine’s New Government Expected to Continue Reforms
On April 14, Ukraine’s parliament replaced the cabinet of unpopular Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk with one headed by Volodymyr Hroysman, who had served as parliament speaker since November 2014. A former mayor of President Petro Poroshenko’s electoral and business stronghold of Vinnytsya, Hroysman has always... MORE