Category: Central/Eastern Europe

Beyond the Euromaidan: Will the West ever stand up to Putin?

     

Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to expand the invasion of Ukraine in January, according to independent Russian military analyst Pavel Felgengauer. Such a development would retard Ukraine’s fitful reform… Read more »

Russia’s ‘Kremlin Playbook’ boosts covert influence in Eastern Europe

     

Russia has mounted a campaign of covert economic and political measures to manipulate five countries in central and eastern Europe, discredit the West’s liberal democratic model, and undermine trans-Atlantic ties,… Read more »

Central Europe slipping away from democracy?

     

Civil society activists are expressing concern that Slovakia, which currently holds the Presidency of the European Union, is considering a draft amendment which calls for the mandatory registration of foreign… Read more »

Georgia’s free and fair elections confirm political polarization

     

Georgia’s parliamentary elections were free, fair, competitive and overall confirmed existing trends, most observers attest. The results nevertheless confirmed continued polarization of the political space between the two dominant political… Read more »

Illiberalism and authoritarianism can be successfully challenged

     

Illiberalism and authoritarianism in central and eastern Europe can be successfully challenged, according to Tom Junes, a member of the Human and Social Studies Foundation and a visiting fellow at… Read more »

Ukraine about to enter a ‘more difficult and dangerous phase’

     

What is happening in Ukraine shows that if there is sufficient courage and strength in numbers, people power can make a difference, says Carnegie analyst Judy Dempsey. The sheer pressure… Read more »

Are Eastern Europe’s new illiberal democracies sustainable?

     

Hungary’s largest daily newspaper was unexpectedly shut down on Saturday (8 October), fueling concerns over a government crackdown on critical media. Nepszabadsag’s print and online editions were abruptly shut on… Read more »

Georgia elections: polarized but ‘pluralistic, competitive and well-run’

     

The ruling Georgian Dream party won a decisive victory in weekend elections, Transitions Online reports: Georgian Dream captured about 48.6 percent of the vote, and the opposition UNM a distant second… Read more »

Aleppo the new Sarajevo? ’48 Hours of Awakeness’

     

Is Aleppo the new Sarajevo, as French activist intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy claims? Now that a revolution really is needed, those who were fervent are quite cool, the Polish poet Czeslaw… Read more »

Putting the populist revolt in its place: economic have-nots & cultural backlash

     

In many Western democracies, this is a year of revolt against elites, notes Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Professor at Harvard University. As Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens put it,… Read more »