Latest Articles about Europe's East

Getting the Balance Right: Italy and the Ukrainian Crisis

On March 4–5, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited Kyiv and Moscow during a diplomatic trip aimed at enhancing Italy’s role as meditator in the Ukraine conflict. Renzi paid a visit to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, before travelling to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin and... MORE

Ukraine in a Leaderless Europe: A Net Assessment (Part Two)

*To read Part One, please click here. Most of the “old” Europe—pre-1999 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union—does not acknowledge the wider implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine (let alone the fact that it is a war). That group... MORE

Ukraine in a Leaderless Europe: A Net Assessment (Part One)

Russia’s war against Ukraine has exposed the deepening cracks in Europe’s understanding of itself as the West’s core, and in its positioning vis-à-vis an openly adverse Russia. Fragmentation processes were ongoing in Europe prior to this war, both above and (with longer-term effects) below the... MORE

Renewed Expressions of Belarus’s Stability

During a meeting with the Belarusian police directorate, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka once again declared that no disturbance of public order will be tolerated in the country. He also suggested that Belarus must be able to push back against a potential export of radical nationalism. Moreover,... MORE

Is Kharkiv Province Another Enclave of Separatists?

On March 6, the car of the commander of the Ukrainian special police battalion “Slobozhanshchyna,” Andriy Yanholenko, exploded in the government-controlled eastern city of Kharkiv. The commander and his spouse were inside the car at the time of the explosion and both were hospitalized. Yanholenko... MORE

Belarusian Collaborators in World War II

When, in December 1918, the Red Army captured Minsk and the short-lived (established on March 25, 1918) Belarusian People’s Republic (BPR) ceased to exist, multiple nationalist activists fled Belarus and found refuge in several European countries, including Germany. After Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist (Nazi) Party... MORE

Moldova’s New Government: Daunting Challenges Ahead

Moldova has a new government, the Alliance for a European Moldova (AEM), since February 28, after elections and an agitated interregnum. It is a minority coalition and, moreover, an internally divided one, requiring cooperation with the Communist Party’s “constructive opposition” (see EDM, March 5). The... MORE

Moldova’s Party System Blocks Reforms, Defeats the Reformers

Moldova’s new government, the Alliance for a European Moldova (AEM), is a reformatted version of the Alliance for European Integration (AEI) that came to power in Moldova in 2009. Its revised title conveys an emphasis on internal transformation, instead of premature ambitions for membership in... MORE

Moldova: European Choice With Communist Support?

Following yet another protracted political crisis, the Moldovan parliament has voted to approve a minority government, the Alliance for a European Moldova (AEM), on February 18, thanks to the Communist Party’s support. The AEM government needed 51 votes for approval. It could only muster 39... MORE