![](/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/region-europe.jpg)
Latest Articles about Europe's East
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Finnish-President-and-Putin.jpg)
Could Annexation Be Putin’s Response to NATO Enlargement?
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has energized the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in every possible way, reviving the alliance’s purpose and unity, and granting it new attractiveness in Europe as well as greater prominence in the Indo-Pacific. The prospect of Finland and Sweden joining the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Irakli-Garibashvili-flags-640x480.webp)
Mounting Georgian-Ukrainian Tensions Harm Both Sides
The Russian war of subjugation against Ukraine has complicated Georgian-Ukrainian relations, officially described as a “strategic partnership,” in unexpected ways. While the two threatened Russian neighbors seemingly share the same regional security outlook, ongoing tensions between them have been exacerbated by Kyiv’s discontent over the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Lavrov-welcomes-Eritreas-Foreign-Minister-Osman-Saleh-Mohammed-640x360.webp)
Russia Denies Recruiting Ethiopian Volunteers for Its ‘Special Military Operation’ in Ukraine
Ten weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin began his unprovoked full-scale assault on Ukraine (launched on February 24), both combatants are beginning to experience logistical shortages, from personnel to military equipment. Accurate information is difficult to ascertain, but the Russian media is reporting that Ethiopians,... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/tokayev-really-640x412.jpg)
Russian Suggestions That Kazakhstan Is Russia’s Enemy Frighten and Outrage Kazakhs
A rising tide of suggestions by Russian commentators and officials that Kazakhstan is becoming Russia’s enemy has simultaneously frightened Kazakhstanis that their country may be Moscow’s next target for aggression and sparked outrage. For many in Kazakhstan, it is not their own country that has... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Anatolie-Nosatii-Moldova-Defense-Minister.jpg)
Moldova’s Fragile Defenses: Impaired Neutrality and Deceptive Hopes
It is unusual for the Moldovan Ministry of Defense to publicly disavow statements of top officials from the United States. Yet this is exactly what the ministry did on its social media account, implicitly contradicting the words of Avril Haines, the US Director of National... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/war-photo-640x426.webp)
Russian Ground Forces Advance Cautiously in Donbas Attrition
Russia’s widely anticipated campaign to push Ukrainian military forces out of the administrative borders of the Donbas region (Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) has not resulted in any effort to mount a major ground offensive. Despite several weeks of apparent preparations, including artillery fires across the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Lukashenka-chair-forward.jpg)
Belarusian President Speaks to the West
While the Belarusian opposition insists that President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is unworthy of attention because he no longer has anything to offer to the collective West (YouTube, May 2), opposition leader and 2020 presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is seen navigating the corridors of power in Europe... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Nikolai-Doluda-640x434.jpg)
Russia’s Cossacks: ‘Fighters’ Versus ‘Cheerleaders’
Moscow may be drawing most of its conscripts for the war in Ukraine from ethnic minority regions such as Buryatia and Dagestan (see EDM, May 4), but there appears to be a wartime division of labor amongst the voluntarist Cossack movement as well. In particular,... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Volga-Don-Canal-640x621.jpg)
Russia Seeks to Keep Water Transit Between Caspian and Azov Seas Open Year Round
At present, Moscow can move ships, including the naval vessels of the Caspian Flotilla, between the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov for only about eight months out of the year because of low water levels in the Volga–Don Canal. However, because of the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Russian-Missile-road-convoy-640x250.jpg)
Russian Airborne Troops Again Required to Be Ready for WMD
The Russian Armed Forces are apparently readying for the potential use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In April, a large number of vacancies for contract military service members appeared on Russian job search websites, but one posting stood out—a call for a commander of... MORE