Category: Eurasia

Ukrainians want reform, oligarchs block it

     

Ukrainians are growing increasingly frustrated with their government and the slow pace of reforms, especially when it comes to tackling corruption, according to a new nationwide poll released today by the International… Read more »

Europe’s troubled neighborhood: From ‘circle of friends’ to ‘ring of fire’?

     

Sustaining stable, democratic, and economically-successful states in its surrounding regions is a strategic priority and core interest for the European Union. However, Europe’s neighborhood is currently confronting a series of… Read more »

Soft Power the Russian Way: Proxy Groups in the Contested Neighbourhood

     

  Anxious about losing ground to Western influence in the post-Soviet space and the ousting of many pro-Russia elites by popular electoral uprisings, the Kremlin has developed a wide range… Read more »

Can Ukraine achieve a reform breakthrough?

     

  It is easy to characterize Ukraine’s latest attempt to reform as a repeat of the unrealized potential of the 2004 Orange Revolution, analysts John Lough and Iryna Solonenko write… Read more »

Nations in Transit: Europe & Eurasia – grim portrait of decline, small reasons for hope

     

While economic downturns are threatening the stability of the former Soviet Union’s “entrenched dictatorships,” the migration crisis is fueling populism in Eastern Europe, and reforms in the Balkans are in… Read more »

Video shows ‘Putin’s New Praetorians’ training to suppress a Moscow Maidan

     

On April 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would develop a national guard to fight terrorism and crime, but a recently released video (above) from Open Russia purports to show the guard training to… Read more »

After Yatsenyuk: Ukraine government ‘likely to be less reformist’

     

Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the prime minister of Ukraine, announced his resignation on Sunday in a surprise move that opened a new period of political uncertainty, The New York Times reports:… Read more »