Latest Articles about Europe's East

Moscow Using Budapest to Put Rusins in Play Against Kyiv

In its efforts to promote secessionist ideas among the half-million-strong Rusin community along Ukraine’s Western border, Moscow is simultaneously pursuing three goals. First, it is forcing Kyiv to divert its attention from Russian aggression in the east to another theater, thus limiting the ability of... MORE

Economic Warfare in the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict: Crimea

Russia’s “hybrid warfare” concept embraces economic warfare as one of its key elements. Yet, less attention has been paid to the details of the economic war between Russia and Ukraine in the conflict over Crimea and parts of Donbas (eastern Ukrainian region encompassing Luhansk and... MORE

Russian Policy Adjusting After Ukraine’s Parliamentary Elections

Russia has adopted a policy of parallel recognition of two sets of elections in Ukraine: the country’s parliamentary elections and the “elections” in the Russian-occupied parts of Donbas (eastern Ukrainian region encompassing the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk). This is, innovatively, a policy of pre-emptive... MORE

Moldovan Armed Forces Train for Hybrid Warfare the Wrong Way

In its latest display of mission readiness (in mid-October 2014), the special forces brigade “Fulger” (Thunderbolt) of the Moldovan Ministry of Interior provided a massive show of force by conducting a field exercise involving 350 of its 500-strong force (publika.md, October 22). The exercise featured... MORE

Language Is National Security in Belarus

On October 23, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka met with a group of Belarusian writers. In any country surrounding Belarus, a meeting like this would probably not be similarly newsworthy. The country has two writers’ unions and a PEN-Center. Only one of these entities, called the Union... MORE

Moscow Launches Second Effort to Marginalize Crimean Tatar Mejlis

Because the Crimean Tatars and their assembly, the Mejlis, have opposed the Russian Anschluss of their homeland since the beginning, Moscow and the Russian occupying authorities on the Ukrainian peninsula have attempted to break it by banning some of its leaders, harassing others, and raiding... MORE