Tag Archives: Europe

Russia and Serbia (and Europe)

By Citizen M | Published: September 19, 2012

A post today on the Economist’s Eastern approaches blog looks at the conflicts of interests in Russia’s relationship with Syria, presenting it as a fair-weather friendship.  The latter stands to receive $1 billion worth of loans from its friend over the next two years, and they are tied up together over the South Stream gas pipeline and [...]

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Is Carl Bildt Attempting to Block an Auction of Russian Assets?

By James Kimer | Published: July 31, 2012

Carl Bildt, the Foreign Minister of Sweden, is quite well admired for his strong positions on Russia issues, his outspoken defense of freedom of expression, and his unambiguous declarations on human rights. That’s why it is so surprising to see the allegation that Foreign Minister Bildt has stepped into the middle of a legal case [...]

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Does Russia Really Want to Own Europe?

By James Kimer | Published: November 9, 2011

Russian foreign policy has been a runaway success in disaggregating European states through energy, business, and lobbying. But with the possible bailout of a disastrous debt crisis, has Moscow bitten off more than it can chew?

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Ukrainian Legal Nihilism

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: October 19, 2011

The conviction of Yulia Tymoshenko bears all the hallmarks of a Russian-style show trial: transparent nonsense, the presumption of regularity, and the destruction of judicial independence. So why is Viktor Yanukovych risking Ukraine’s future just to eliminate a political competitor?

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Competitive Authoritarianism in Ukraine

By James Kimer | Published: August 26, 2011

Andrew Wilson of the European Council on Foreign Relations has an interesting piece on RCW about Ukraine’s potential to develop prosperous trade links with Europe … if only they would put an end to the absurd show trial of Yulia Tymoshenko. Ukraine under Yanukovych is in danger of becoming what academics call a ‘competitive authoritarian’ [...]

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France Looks to Cash In on “Ski Chechnya”

By James Kimer | Published: July 21, 2011

Remember all those good laughs we had back when playboy/warlord Ramzan Kadyrov said he wanted to turn Chechnya into a destination ski resort?  Certainly the live fire conditions seemed like the ideal place to train Russia’s Olympic biathlon team… Well now it appears that the Russian government is already throwing tens of millions of taxpayer [...]

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Stern: Germany as a Role Model for Russia, not vice versa

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: July 18, 2011

Germany must not make the mistake of accepting the Kremlin’s narrative for the world to remain endlessly patient for its “reform from within,” “modernisation,” and the embryonic growth of democratic society through the creation of hollow state-approved opposition parties.

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A Long, Hot Summer for Belarus

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: June 14, 2011

For the political schadenfreude in all of us, the rapid downward spiral of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has been fascinating to watch, a macabre example of the precariousness and risk of despot economics.

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Lukashenko: Who, Me Dictator?

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: April 23, 2011

Sometimes a quote of the week just walks up on a Saturday morning and slaps you in the face before you’ve even had the chance to grab a coffee.  Alexander Lukashenko, ever the master of the dark autocratic arts, is quoted by Michael Schwirtz in the New York Times: “Above all, the government is to [...]

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Hague’s Revolution

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: March 23, 2011

It is no secret that the current wave of pro-democracy demonstrations across the Arab world have shaken the foundations of not only every tyrant’s fortress, but also the foundations of leading foreign policy doctrines. This tug-of-war, which has always existed between values such as human rights and democratic freedoms vs. the calculated interests of realist [...]

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