Latest Articles about Europe's East
Russia’s Sympathizers in Moldova Oppose the European Choice
The European Union and Moldova have set a fairly tight calendar for wrapping up their Association Agreement: signing it by August and ratifying it in the Moldovan parliament until November, when this parliament’s term expires. Moldova’s pro-Europe coalition government holds a narrow majority of 54... MORE
Ethnic Factors Affecting Moldova’s Debate on Association With the European Union
The European Union has accelerated the signing and ratification of the EU-Moldova association agreements, which were initialed at the Vilnius summit in November (see EDM, February 19). The EU and the Moldovan government want to reduce the risk of disruption by Russia and its sympathizers... MORE
Can Russia Derail Moldova From the European Course?
Russia’s successes in derailing the European Union’s association agreements with Armenia and with Ukraine have raised concerns about a possible repeat success for Russia in Moldova. Toward that goal, the Kremlin seems set to exploit Moldova’s parliamentary election campaign, which started in the second week... MORE
Ukraine’s Crisis and Federalization Options
Federation as a possible way out of Ukraine’s political crisis is currently at the center of domestic political and expert discourse. But meanwhile, the new outburst of violence in the streets of Kyiv on February 18 may lead to an escalation of the crisis in... MORE
Setting the Right Tone on Belarus: A Sequel
Not a single book about Belarus omits the issue of Belarusians’ deficiency in the area of national consolidation/identity and of perilously close (in a sense of undermining a separate identity) ties with Russia. Yet, recently, two national identity boosters have come along. First and foremost,... MORE
Kazan Tatar Call for Maidan in Russia Touches Moscow’s Deepest Fears
An article in a Russian online military journal reports that some Kazan Tatar nationalists and Islamists are calling for the launch of a Euromaidan-style protest movement inside the Russian Federation. The article is a transparent effort to discredit the Ukrainian version by linking it to... MORE
Belarus: Pandemonium in Ukraine, Russia’s Aid, and Domestic Silver Linings
The events in neighboring Ukraine have spawned multiple publications in which Ukraine and Belarus are compared and contrasted and the potential effect of the Ukrainian events on Belarus is analyzed. “Yanukovych may not survive politically even until the 2015 elections,” writes Alexander Klaskovsky, one of... MORE
Moscow Plays the Chechen Card in Ukraine
For the past several days, those hostile to the Ukrainians protesting against President Viktor Yanukovich on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv spread rumors alleging the presence of Chechens in the ranks of the opposition (https://pravdatoday.info/content/zulihan-tut-nastoyashchaya-geopoliticheskaya-bitva-ishod-kotoroy-zatragivaet-i-nas).While this rumor might have been disregarded as a bad... MORE
Sale of Crimean Land by Yanukovych: ‘Made in/for China’
While most of the worldwide media outlets focused on Euromaidan protests in Kyiv since Ukraine’s withdrawal from signing the Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013, the signing of a five-year economic agreement between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and several Chinese companies went... MORE
The Gagauz Referendum in Moldova: A Russian Political Weapon?
Referendums are not always simply an instrument of democracy, but can be a manipulative tool of politics. Regardless of regime type, political leaders in the past have invoked the will of the people to legitimize and advance their own political agendas. In Gagauzia, an autonomous... MORE