Latest Articles about Europe

Recent Kremlin Policies Bog Down Russian War Effort (Part Two)

When it comes to industrial mobilization in Russia, it is necessary to underline a critical component: the degree of integration between military and civilian production. During World War I, 80 percent of military products were produced by civilian enterprises in Russia; by 1941, the share... MORE

Abkhazia Rejects Putin’s Mobilization

On September 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree on the “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens (TASS, September 21). This decree caused mixed reactions across Russian society, despite the almost total public support for Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine. Indeed, rampant dissatisfaction has been widely... MORE

Two Differing Approaches to the Mobilization in Crimea

Since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the peninsula has developed two completely different worlds. The first is the occupation administration itself, which was established by Russia right after annexation. Primarily, efforts were directed at “reawakening” the Russian identity within the Eastern Slavs of... MORE

Belarus at SCO: Searching for Wiggle Room

The latest summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, held on September 15 and 16, made numerous headlines in the international media (see EDM, September 19). Analysts watched two main summit developments most closely: how far its participants would go in asserting... MORE

Moldova’s Russophile Left: A Complicated Picture

Spearheading regime-change attempts in Moldova is the Shor Party of businessman Ilan Shor, a presumed billionaire currently operating from Israel. The party has developed its social base through Shor‘s lavish spending on philanthropic projects (see EDM, October 20). His philanthropies notwithstanding, Shor’s image in Moldova... MORE

Russian Air Power: Vanished or Overstated to Begin With?

Since the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on February 24, the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) have not been able to demonstrate success, despite the huge modernization and rearmament efforts of the previous 12 years. The main causes here are not the mistakes of a... MORE

Will the CSTO Go the Way of the Warsaw Pact

The Collective Security Treaty Organization, better known by its initials, CSTO—or by Moscow’s aspiration that it should be an equal counterpart to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—is now on the brink of collapse, yet another case of the collateral damage Russia has suffered in... MORE