Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Russia-Tajikistan_-_EDM_March_26__2014.jpg)
Developments in Ukraine Will Likely Force Tajikistan Closer to Moscow
During a March 8 meeting in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Tajikistani Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov drew comparisons between the EuroMaidan protests and Tajikistan’s bloody civil war (Ozodagon, March 8). The comments closely mirrored those given four days earlier by Igor Lyakin-Frolov, Russia’s... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Alyaksandr_Lukashenka_-_EDM_March_26__2014.jpg)
Belarus: The Chernobyl-Scale Fallout From the Crisis in Ukraine
Belarus’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs may have set a record for evasiveness while formulating its March 19 statement vis-à-vis the crisis in Ukraine. “Belarus cannot be indifferent to the events in Ukraine, including the referendum held on March 16, 2014, in the Crimea, and the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Transnistria.jpg)
Moscow Threatens Ukraine From the West
Following the Russian Anschluss of Crimea, most Ukrainian, Russian and Western commentary has focused on the possibility that Moscow will use a similar strategy to move into the predominantly ethnic-Russian areas of eastern Ukraine. That is still an all too real possibility— especially if, after... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Vladimir_Putin_March_18.jpg)
Putin’s Crimea Speech: A Manifesto of Greater-Russia Irredentism
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech on the incorporation of Crimea into Russia (kremlin.ru, March 18; see EDM, March 19) aimed far beyond Crimea in scope and ambition. Explicitly, Putin called into question the legitimacy of the Ukrainian state. Implicitly, he laid a basis for challenging... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Nursultan_Nazarbayev_-_EDM_March_24__2014.jpg)
Kazakhstan Responds to Ukraine Crisis
The crisis in Ukraine has presented many challenges for Kazakhstan’s foreign policy—unwelcome comparisons between the domestic situations in both countries, growing tensions between Russia and the West, and disruptions to Kazakhstani-backed Eurasian integration schemes. In the past two weeks, moreover, the Kazakhstani government has struggled... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ukraine_Military_-_EDM_March_24__2014.jpg)
With Crimea Secure, Russia’s Focus Shifts to Ukrainian Mainland
The last remnants of the Ukrainian military have been unceremoniously pushed out of Crimea by Russian forces, who are no longer posing as unidentified local self-defense militias. Some Ukrainian servicemen have been detained while a marines’ base in Feodosia was captured on March 24; shots... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ukrainian_and_Crimean_Tatar_Letters_-_EDM_March_21__2014.jpg)
Crimean Tatars Fear for Their Safety After Crimea’s Annexation to Russia
On March 21, 2014, three days after he signed the treaty that “legalized” the annexation of Crimea as a new subject of the Russian Federation, President Vladimir Putin officially annexed Crimea. The March 18 treaty was co-signed by the speaker of the Crimean Parliament, Vladimir... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Russian_Black_Sea_Fleet_-_EDM_March_21__2014.jpg)
Naval Basing and Maritime Borders in the Black Sea After Russia’s Annexation of Crimea
Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine, officially effective from March 18 (see EDM, March 19), brings two distinct territorial units into the Russian Federation, namely: the Crimean republic and the Sevastopol municipality, henceforth subordinated directly to Russia’s central government.Sevastopol’s special status derives from Russia’s Black... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Crimean_Parliament_Russian_Flags_-_EDM_March_21__2014.jpg)
Russia Retakes Crimea: Political Implications
Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine is now an accomplished goal in its own right. But it is also an intermediate goal, part of a broader agenda to threaten Ukraine with fragmentation or decomposition, unless Ukraine reorients toward Russia. In turn, Ukraine’s reorientation or its... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Celso_Amorim__L__and_Sergei_Shoigu_-_EDM_March_20__2014.jpg)
Moscow Expands Its Presence in Latin America
Nobody should think that Moscow’s aggressive campaign to restore its former status as a global great power or its fundamentally anti-American policy is currently confined to Ukraine. Indeed, while the invasion, occupation and annexation of Crimea—not to mention the threats to eastern Ukraine—continue, Moscow is... MORE