On May 6, Poland awarded its first “Solidarity Prize” to Mustafa Cemilev for his ongoing contributions to peace, democracy and human rights. According to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the actual award ceremony will be held on June 3, in Warsaw, and it will... MORE

For all their lack of capacity (let alone legitimacy) to organize any kind of voting, pro-Russia forces in Ukraine’s Donbas are proceeding with secession referendums in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces on May 11 as scheduled.Russian President Vladimir Putin had, on May 7, offered to... MORE

Vladimir Putin has suggested that a referendum by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, hitherto scheduled for May 11, should be postponed (Kyiv Post, May 7). This suggestion is already winning the Russian president praise in Moscow and the West; but it is, in fact, the... MORE

As anticipated (see EDM, May 1), pro-Russia groups have failed to organize the secession referendums, planned for May 11 in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (Donbas). Those marginal groups lack a social, electoral, or organizational base for holding anything resembling referendums. Their paramilitary units have... MORE

A glimmer of hope of a de-escalation of the Ukrainian crisis appeared on May 7, when President Vladimir Putin announced he will “ask the representatives of Southeast Ukraine [who] support federalization to delay the referendum planned for May 11, to create conditions for a dialogue.”... MORE

On April 30, while speaking at an event hosted by the Washington-based think tank the Atlantic Council, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should deploy defensive alliance assets—specifically, anti-aircraft and anti-armor capabilities—in Georgia. He said such a step... MORE

The April 17 Geneva Statement “on the situation in Ukraine” (by Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine) has proven to be stillborn. This was preordained, since the US side accepted Russia’s definition of the conflict as one “in Ukraine” between local parties,... MORE

In sharp contrast to his handling of Western leaders in the course of the Ukrainian crisis, Vladimir Putin and the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea have consistently underestimated the Crimean Tatars and their irreplaceable leader, Mustafa Cemilev.  Putin thought he could buy off the Crimean... MORE

On May 3, Russia’s proxy forces in Ukraine’s city of Slovyansk released from captivity the military observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The German-led group of eight unarmed officers (four Germans and one each from Sweden, Denmark, Poland and the... MORE

While Washington and Brussels are imposing more sanctions against Russia for destabilizing eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin is retaliating by deepening divisions within the European Union through the prospective South Stream natural gas pipeline. On April 17, the European parliament adopted a resolution stating that the... MORE