Latest Articles about Europe's East

Portrait of Stalin Sparks Brawl at WWII Ceremony in Crimea

In Ukraine, June 22 marks a day of mourning dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Great Patriotic War (Second World War). On this day, Ukrainian war veterans, military service officials and government representatives in different regions of the country come together and... MORE

Turkey’s Crimean Tatars Reach Out to Their National Homeland

The leaders of the several-million-strong Crimean Tatar diaspora community in Turkey are increasingly focusing on Crimea. This trend encourages Crimean Tatars living in Crimea to conclude that they have an important political ally in their Turkish compatriots, who are slowing the assimilation trends inside Turkey.... MORE

How Effective Is the Belarusian Opposition?

According to the March 2013 national survey by IISEPS, a polling firm funded by the West, the opposition is trusted by 13.1 percent of Belarusians (https://iiseps.org/old/press7.html). Internecine fights within the opposition are one of the reasons for this low rating. Their past fights, however, pale... MORE

Moscow Pulls Back the Curtain on Zapad 2013

Four years ago, Russia conducted an exercise called Zapad (West) 2009 to test the efficacy of its, then, new military reforms as well as its doctrine and strategy. Today, that exercise is most remembered for its culmination, namely the simulation of a tactical nuclear strike... MORE

Opposition to Customs Union Grows Across Eurasia

While the Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan is seeking to expand its membership, paving the way for the gradual incorporation of the Kyrgyz Republic and Ukraine into its integration orbit, opposition in these countries to the Eurasian integration project has been steadily rising.Several... MORE

The ‘Return’ of Geopolitics and Historical Memory

In his essay, “A Map of the World: The Return of Geopolitics,” Sergei Karaganov, a Russian pundit, analyzes the newly acquired legitimacy of geopolitics that, until recently, used to be “provincial,” “politically incorrect,” and even perceived by some as a vestige of Nazi ideology. Karaganov... MORE

Will the West, East or the Far East Shape Belarus’s Future?

The existential reality of Belarus, squeezed between Russia and the European Union, is its crucial dependency on external geopolitical factors. If anything, the recent slump in Belarus’s exports exacerbates this dependency. In the first quarter of 2013, exports decreased by 20.5 percent compared with the... MORE