
Latest Articles about Europe's East

Ukraine’s Ruling Party Faces Defections
The Ukrainian authorities and the mainstream opposition leaders signed a deal today (February 21) in Kyiv to settle the political crisis continuing since November. They agreed to undertake constitutional reform, form a coalition government, conduct early presidential elections by December and, most importantly, put an... MORE

Hot Issue – Ukrainian Protests and the Armed Forces: Will the Military Stay in Its Barracks?
Executive SummaryTo date, the besieged Ukrainian government has largely avoided deploying the Armed Forces against the Maidan protesters, even when the situation has devolved into serious street violence with the police. The Ukrainian military itself, on the other hand, has made it a point to... MORE

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