
Latest Articles about Europe's East

US, Russia Reactivate Bilateral Negotiations on Ukraine (Part One)
US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland completed another round of shuttle diplomacy in Kyiv and Moscow (June 22–24), following up on her visits to the two capitals in April and May, on direct instructions from the White House. This effort will undoubtedly continue after... MORE

Belarusians Debate Their Development Path
The Fifth All-Belarusian People’s Assembly (ABPA) opened in Minsk, on June 22. The two-day gathering brought together 2,500 delegates representing managers from all levels of power along with publicly acclaimed “rank-and-file” workers, scientists, students, and so on (Belta.by, June 22). It is debatable why there... MORE

Ukraine Fears Political Consequences of Brexit Vote
While the global media is busy discussing mainly the economic consequences of the Brexit vote, Ukraine is wary of the political ones. On the one hand, the significance of the United Kingdom as an export market for Ukraine is quite small. And the ensuing turbulence... MORE

Minsk Fears Moscow May Organize Hybrid War and Color Revolution in Belarus
Many governments in the post-Soviet space fear they may be threatened by a color revolution; others are worried that they will become victims of a hybrid war. But Belarus is worried about both at the same time, something that makes it difficult for Minsk to... MORE

The Black Sea Region: NATO’s Exposed Sector on the Eastern Flank (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Newly entrenched on the Crimean peninsula, Russia has appropriated the title to large parts of Ukraine’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone (EEZ). According to the treaty on Crimea’s accession to Russia (a constitutional act in Russia), “the... MORE

Belarus’s Problems and the Heavy-Handed Conduct of Outside Powers
The Belarusian government responded in a rather conciliatory manner to the decision by President Barack Obama to extend by one more year the United States’ travel sanctions on a number of Belarusian officials (Naviny.by, June 15). Still, the press secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of... MORE

The Belarusian Opposition’s Imaginary World and Its Protracted Dispute With Reality
Leaders of the Belarusian opposition took part, on May 23, in the Brussels-based meeting of the European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Foreign Affairs. All of them but Tatyana Korotkevich, the 2015 presidential hopeful from the Speak the Truth campaign (STC), signed a joint statement about... MORE

Moscow Offering Crimean Tatars Ersatz Autonomy
Having illegally occupied Crimea and worked to destroy the Milli Mejlis (the de facto quasi-governing assembly of the Crimean Tatars) and all other independent Crimean Tatar organizations, Moscow is now offering that nation an ersatz form of autonomy. Russian propagandists will undoubtedly use this alternative... MORE

Moscow Plays Divide-and-Conquer Strategy Against Crimean Tatars
According to Refat Chubarov, the president of the Crimean Tatar World Congress and the elected chairperson of the Mejlis (the quasi-governing assembly of the Crimean Tatars), the Russian Federation is in the process of creating a Crimean Tatar military corps to neutralize protests and counter... MORE

Ukraine Insists on International Police Mission in Donetsk-Luhansk
The top leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine (the “Normandy Group”) conferred by telephone on the night of May 23–24, at Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s initiative. Poroshenko sought an endorsement of Kyiv’s proposal for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to... MORE