Moscow has always been extremely sensitive to any indication that the Polish government or Polish organizations are expanding their influence in the post-Soviet space through the support of ethnic minorities in what Russian commentators invariably see as a reprise of the Promethean League program of... MORE

Moldova’s governing Pro-Europe Coalition is handing Chisinau International Airport over to the Komaks company from Khabarovsk, eastern Siberia, in association with a company belonging to Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska. The Khabarovsk company is headed by a “former” officer of the KGB and the Federal Security... MORE

Last month, the Kremlin snapped its fingers and Armenia turned its back on Europe literally overnight, choosing to join the Russia-led Customs Union instead of concluding association and free-trade agreements with the European Union (see EDM, September 6, 11, 18). The Russian government is almost... MORE

Summer through early fall is traditionally the main exercise season for Russia’s armed forces, and 2013 was no different from preceding years. Russian exercises are important because they reveal where, against whom and in what form Russia is preparing to wage war. This year’s seasonal... MORE

During the summer months, Moldova’s still-strong Communist Party threatened to stage what it terms a “velvet revolution” by October, so as to derail the conclusion of Moldova’s association agreements with the European Union. The “Red October’s” minimal goal is to pre-empt the association agreements’ conclusion,... MORE

A seemingly perpetual tension between Western universalism on human rights and down-to-earth geopolitics has no single resolution. With regard to Belarus, human rights remain preeminent albeit with the exception of the 2007–2010 period, during which a rapprochement between Brussels and Minsk was underway. But in... MORE

On September 19, a roundtable on inter-ethnic relations took place in Simferopol, Crimea. At this gathering, the European Union’s Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara and other members of Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers, deputies of... MORE

The Bulgarian government intends to intensify its economic relations with Russia, according to Socialist party leader Sergey Stanishev. “This is a way for our country to develop as a modern and technologically advanced economy,” Stanishev told the annual gathering of Bulgarian Russophiles in early September.... MORE

This week (September 23), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), held a summit in President Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea residence in Sochi. The Russian-led military alliance is made up of several post-Soviet republics—Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. Russia’s allies supported Moscow’s stand on... MORE

At the September 19 government “skull session” on current economic and foreign policy issues, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka made several statements devoted to the Belarusian-Russian potash war. “No rogues and scoundrels will be able to drive a wedge between the two presidents and the two peoples... MORE