
Latest Articles about Europe

Belarus: Standing out From the Post-Soviet Crowd
Fyodor Lukyanov, Russia’s premier political commentator and the chair of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, recently wrote an article titled, “Former [Soviet] Union Republics Enter New Development Phase. And Russia Is Touched by This Process, Too” (Global Affairs, June 13). In the piece,... MORE

Culture, Money, Propaganda: Russia’s Approach Toward Greenland and the Faroe Islands
To carry out its grand strategy in the Arctic, Russia relies on eroding the positions of other regional players. Denmark, a fellow member of the Arctic Council, is seen by Moscow as a relatively easy target, since Copenhagen can only remain an official stakeholder as... MORE

Moscow Faces Trial in The Hague Next Year Over Downed MH17 Airliner
Repercussions of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 Flight MH17, which was shot down over occupied Donbas (eastern Ukraine) on July 17, 2014, continue to haunt the Russian authorities. Everyone on board—283 passengers, including 80 children, and 15 crew members—was killed. The 298 victims... MORE

Presidential Change in Lithuania: Implications for the Country’s Foreign Policy
Gitanas Nausėda was elected the next president of the Republic of Lithuania on May 26. The race was intense in both the first and second rounds. But in the end, Nausėda triumphed, crushing his opponent, Ingrida Šimonytė, 66 to 33 percent (Vrk.lt, June 3). Such... MORE

What the Return of Oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky Might Mean for Ukraine
Billionaire Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky returned to Ukraine on May 16—his first time back in the country since June 2017, when he had to leave due to an unfolding conflict with then- president Petro Poroshenko over Privatbank (Gordonua.com, May 16). The businessman has well-known ties... MORE

Moscow Says Ready for Gas Talks With Kyiv
Two long-term natural gas contracts between Russia and Ukraine are set to expire in December. And as this deadline approaches, the two sides are preparing for necessary renegotiations. Kyiv needs to avoid a repetition of January 2009, when parts of Europe were left without gas... MORE

Two Responses to Fears of Belarus’s Integration Into Russia
Belarus’s location between Russia and the collective West is not a consequence of political considerations—it is a fact of geography. Likewise, the cultural proximity between Belarusians and Russians represents another objective reality, encouraging at least some Russian elites to entertain ideas of ever “tighter integration”... MORE

Moldovan Political Crisis Brings Great Opportunities but Also Serious Risks
Note to readers: Moldova is presently facing perhaps its worst political crisis in almost three decades. As a result of the complex and fast-moving developments surrounding this volatile situation, The Jamestown Foundation is releasing a special, extended-length article in Eurasia Daily Monitor, analyzing the details... MORE

A China-Europe Rail Link Circumventing Russia Could Have Major Geopolitical Consequences
To buttress the country’s flagging economy, Moscow has counted on the Russian Federation being the primary transit route for Chinese goods being shipped to Europe. However, Beijing’s commitment to becoming the dominant player on the Northern Sea Route (The Barents Observer, June 7) as well... MORE

Crimean Drilling Rigs Key to Russia’s Energy Policy in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean
On December 29, 2018, the head of the occupying government in Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, proposed to transport Ukrainian offshore oil and natural gas drilling rigs (“nationalized” by Russia after the Crimean annexation) from the Black Sea to the Syrian coastal shelf (UAWire, December 30, 2018).... MORE