The government in Minsk has long claimed that Belarus’s socioeconomic stability is its major achievement. Indeed, from 1996 to 2014, it experienced positive GDP growth every year, and its living standards were on the rise. However, the conflict in Ukraine ultimately converted this idea of... MORE

The Second World Congress of Crimean Tatars (Butun Dunya Qirim Kongresi—BDQK) took place in Ankara, Turkey, from July 31 to August 2. Among the 600 participants, 410 were registered delegates representing 184 Crimean Tatar organizations from twelve different countries: Ukraine, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,... MORE

Germany is leading Western Europe’s return to business as usual with Russia in the natural gas sector, notwithstanding Russia’s war in Ukraine. On September 4, at the Vladivostok economic forum, with Russian President Vladimir Putin in attendance, two binding agreements were signed that will dramatically... MORE

Since September 6, protesters have set up a tent city—it has grown to at least 150 tents to date—in Chisinau’s main square, outside the Moldovan government’s building. Leading the protest movement is a small group of journalists and civic activists: The Platform for Dignity and... MORE

Russia’s Armed Forces conducted a military exercise indicating Moscow’s intent and planning to use military force to thwart future “color revolutions.” Elite Airborne Forces and special forces from Russia, Belarus and Serbia participated in Slavyanskoye Bratstvo (Slavic Brotherhood) 2015, signaling that color revolutions—as a potential... MORE

In mid-August 2015, two major events took center stage in media coverage of Belarus: the trip to Ukraine of Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei as well as the release of six people, labeled political prisoners in the West, by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who pardoned them... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected Ukraine’s offer of constitutional status for the Donetsk-Luhansk territory as unacceptable. Addressing an international economic forum in Vladivostok, on his way back from China today (September 4), Putin dismissed Kyiv’s offer as inadequate in content; unilateral, instead of being... MORE

By August 2015, at least 70 individuals from Finland had travelled to Syria and Iraq (Suomen Uutiset, July 30). [1] According to an Interior Ministry report from August 2014, the vast majority intended to join “radical opposition groups” operating in the conflict zone. [2] The... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. On August 24, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called together a unique meeting, in Berlin, of the “Normandy” format minus Russia (though essentially in consensus with Moscow). Merkel, along with French President François Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko,... MORE

An overall consensus, in broad outline, seems to have taken shape among the main European players, pre-eminently Moscow and Berlin, to accelerate a solution to the conflict “in” Ukraine by the end of this year, on Russia’s terms. German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted a meeting... MORE