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

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

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

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

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

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

The hottest issues for Belarus these days are prospects for further economic growth under new conditions—in part informed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Belarus’s official position with regard to this groundbreaking event. Even before the crisis in Ukraine, Belarus faced dwindling economic growth, an... MORE

The Russian Federal Assembly will probably recognize the official annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in the coming days. Having essentially avoided armed resistance to the Russian operation to date, the interim Ukrainian government in Kyiv has instead embarked on intensive diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the... MORE

Addressing Russia’s bicameral parliament on March 18, President Vladimir Putin announced Crimea’s incorporation into the Russian Federation. The founding documents on Crimea’s “admission” into Russia were signed on the same day, with immediate “legal” effect as far as Russia is concerned (kremlin.ru, March 18, 19).For... MORE

A little over a week ago (March 7), Russian military helicopters and drones broke the terms of the August 12, 2008, agreement reached by Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev—then presidents of France and Russia, respectively—to end the five-day Russian-Georgian war. The Russian aircraft entered Georgian... MORE