Moscow has found itself in a weaker position in its negotiations with Kyiv on continuing natural gas transit through Ukraine to Europe after December 31. The current ten-year gas transmission agreement between Russia’s Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine will expire at the end of the... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. On September 18, in the Minsk Contact Group, the Ukrainian delegation, headed by former president Leonid Kuchma, declined to negotiate with Russia and Donetsk-Luhansk toward codifying the Steinmeier Formula into an... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. The Minsk One and Minsk Two “agreements” (September 2014 and February 2015) dictated to Ukraine to accept a constitutional special status for the Russian-controlled Donetsk-Luhansk territory; to amnesty those criminally involved in seizing local administrations there; and to... MORE

Moscow exploits the new Ukrainian leadership’s inexperience as a chance to cement Russian control over Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk territories in a political settlement. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks eager for a quick-fix “peace” as a goal in itself, and he hopes for a meeting and... MORE

On September 4, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) launched a pre-trial investigation against representatives of Motor Sich, one of the largest manufacturers of engines for airplanes and helicopters in the post-Soviet space, over the firm’s alleged “subversive activities” against Ukraine. The SSU asserts that... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. The endgame that derailed the summit of “Normandy” group leaders (Russia, Germany, France, Ukraine), planned for September 16, revealed the degree of the novice Ukrainian presidency’s readiness for concessions to Russia, as well as Russia’s all-or-nothing approach. This... MORE

The Kremlin has derailed the summit of the “Normandy” group’s leaders (Russia, Germany, France, Ukraine), which was supposed to be held on September 16, in Paris. Apparently, Russian President Vladimir Putin determined at the last moment that his far-reaching objectives for this summit could not... MORE

A constituent court of the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom may not use 100 percent of the capacity of OPAL, an onshore, German extension to the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline. Gazprom is expected... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. Vladimir Tsemakh, who topped Russia’s priority list in a recent prisoner release agreement between Moscow and Kyiv, was flown from Ukraine to the Russian capital; he may now be back home in the Russian-occupied Donbas territory (see below).... MORE

Both Iran and Russia suffer from the United States’ sanctions: the former since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the latter since its 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea. But in a recent bout of creative synergy, Crimean “deputy prime minister” and the permanent representative of Crimea to... MORE