Georgia
May 27, 2010By Ronald D. Asmus A specter is starting to haunt wider Europe — those countries located between the EU and NATO on one hand and Russia on the other. That specter is “Finlandization.” The return of this Cold War phrase reveals much...
Moscow wants to replace not only Saakashvili but also Lukashenka
May 27, 2010By Paul Goble That Moscow would like to see Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili replaced isn’t news to anyone but that it would like to have someone else in the place of his Belarusian counterpart Alyaksandr Lukashenka may come as a surprise...
Are more border changes ahead in Eurasia?
May 21, 2010By Paul Goble Since 1991, the post-Soviet governments and the international community have been adamant against any change in the borders in Eurasia, and many expressed concerns that one of the results of Moscow’s decision to recognize...
Moscow, Washington, and the 'near abroad'
May 20, 2010By Brian Whitmore Last week, I blogged here about a new Foreign Ministry policy paper that was leaked to the media calling for Russia to improve its relations with the West in order to secure badly needed investments for its modernization program...
Moscow not ready to risk absorbing Georgia's South Ossetia
May 19, 2010By Paul Goble Despite calls by the president of North Ossetia for uniting his republic with South Ossetia within in the Russian Federation, Moscow is not yet ready to take that step lest it trigger a new round of instability in the North Caucasus and...
EU enlargement commissioner: Eastern Partnership 'absolutely a success'
May 14, 2010By Jan Maksymiuk There are concerns the European Union's market crisis will dramatically scale back its ambitions for outreach programs with its neighbors -- including its Eastern Partnership. The initiative was launched with fanfare just over a year...
Russia poised to leapfrog Ukraine, Moldova in EU visa drive
May 14, 2010Russia is putting pressure on the European Union to turn the next top-level meeting between the two -- the Rostov-na-Donu gathering on May 31 -- into a "visa summit." Officials in Brussels say the EU and Russia will jointly sign a document...
9 May: A parade with many messages
May 08, 2010By Alina Inayeh On May 9, the streets of Moscow will witness a rare and memorable spectacle. In a parade marking the 65th anniversary of Victory Day—the end of World War II, when Germany surrendered to Soviet commanders—10,500 servicemen...
Presiden Yanukovich's dubious deal
April 30, 2010By Michael Emerson The newly, democratically elected President Yanukovich of Ukraine has got off to a spectacularly fast but equally dubious start. First on his diplomacy. His first supposedly symbolic act of foreign policy was to fly to Brussels first...
Despite its rhetoric, Tehran playing ‘a pragmatic game’ in South Caucasus
April 30, 2010By Paul Goble Despite often heated and even extremist rhetoric and the expectations of others as a result that Tehran will follow its religious impulses, the Iranian government has “more than once shown its ability to conduct a pragmatic game&rdquo...