Moscow seems to be preparing the atmosphere for a possible military intervention in Ukraine’s eastern regions. Russia could, if it deemed expedient, intervene there with troops in some form or other, as it has just done in Crimea. But, more likely, Moscow would leverage the... MORE

A well-coordinated attack on local administrative buildings by pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukrainian cities Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lugansk began on April 6. Local police forces did little to stop the rioting, while local government buildings and the local Ukrainian security service (SBU) headquarters were ransacked... MORE

During an 11-day tour of Europe, Chinese President Xi Jinping stuck to familiar themes. In a series of speeches and op-eds published in European newspapers, he delivered a message of peace, cooperation and friendship­—and of minding your own business. The visit was accompanied by the... MORE

After the swift annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula by the Russian Federation, multiple anxious voices warned that a similar fate is being prepared for Transnistria, the Russia-backed secessionist region of Moldova. As a significant signal, the topic of Transnistria made it into the recent discussion... MORE

Apparently the overall fallout from the crisis in Ukraine has brought about some positive benefits for Belarus, not just negatives. Thus, according to Alyaksandr Milinkevich, a 2006 presidential hopeful, who made a speech at the Brussels-based meeting of the Eastern Partnership’s inter-parliamentary assembly, new opportunities... MORE

The crisis over Crimea has confirmed and further developed a paradigm of Russian re-expansion and Western self-denial in Europe’s East. This paradigm operates as follows (continued from Part One, EDM, April 4):5. Europe’s East consigned to Grey Zone. The United States, the European Union and... MORE

Most Western analysts accept as fundamental the ethnic divisions that were reified by Soviet leaders and consider Moscow’s divide and rule strategy only in terms of them, focusing for example on Russians and Ukrainians or Armenians and Azerbaijanis. But the Kremlin has never accepted as... MORE

On April 1–2 in Brussels, the Ukraine-NATO Commission held a ministerial-level meeting to discuss the conflict with pronounced military dimensions between Russia and Ukraine (UNIAN, April 2).Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, however, would not use the term Russia-Ukraine conflict. Similarly, they have long... MORE

On April 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow with Tatarstani President Rustam Minnikhanov, who informed Putin about his three recent visits to Crimea. Apparently acting as liaison between the Kremlin and the Crimean Tatars, Tatarstan’s president told Putin that the Crimean Tatar leaders... MORE

As the charged pause in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict drags on, policymakers in Moscow discover that their bold breakthrough into the territory beyond the boundaries of international law has brought rather unexciting consequences. Last Monday (March 31), President Vladimir Putin called German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seeking... MORE