(RFE/RL – rferl.org –Brian Whitmore – December 5, 2013) The latest threat to Vladimir Putin’s autocratic rule may be coming not from the Russian opposition but from the Ukrainian street. As tens of thousands continue to protest in Kyiv against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to scuttle a pact with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow, […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – December 3, 2013) Ten years on from the Orange Revolution that rolled back a rigged election, Ukraine again appears in the throes of revolution, after mass protests in Kyiv against the government’s failure to sign a deal for closer ties with the EU and ensuing police violence led to […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Gevorg Mirzayan, special to RBTH – December 2, 2013) Yanukovych declines a deal with the EU as economic realities hit home. President Viktor Yanukovych’s last-minute rejection of a planned Association Agreement with the European Union was unexpected and shocking for most of Ukraine’s public, who are imbued with the idea of European integration. […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 28, 2013) The Moscow Patriarchate has called on Orthodox countries, including Russia, not to allow EU influence to change them as they conduct dialogue, but to suggest the EU itself change. “Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, as members of a strong and self-sufficient civilization, have a right, when they gain accession to the […]
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(Interfax – November 29, 2013) The signing of an association agreement with the EU remains Ukraine’s priority, President Viktor Yanukovych has said. The Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted him at 1122 gmt on 29 November as telling its correspondent following the EU’s Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius: “This document is a priority. However, there remain very many important conditions needed for […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – November 29, 2013) For Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, it was not pressure from Russia that provoked Ukraine’s flip-flop on the association deal with the European Union. Azarov has said he bowed to the strong sentiment within the country for making up with Moscow, as exports to that key market declined. “I […]
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(Interfax – November 27, 2013) Pro-Kremlin United Russia MP Leonid Slutskiy has accused the EU of conducting a policy of “amputation” of post-Soviet countries from Russia-led alliances. Privately-owned Interfax news agency quoted the chairman of the State Duma committee for CIS affairs and Eurasian integration saying in reference to the EU’s Eastern Partnership policy, specifically as regards Ukraine: “The European […]
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BRUSSELS,. Nov 26 (Interfax) – NATO does not see reasons to review the European missile shield plan in connection with the Iran nuclear program deal. NATO’s missile defense project is not intended to provide defense from a concrete country, a source in the NATO headquarters told Interfax in Brussels. What is meant here is defense from a real and growing […]
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ROME, November 25 (RIA Novosti) Implementation of a deal on Iran’s nuclear program reached in Geneva this weekend will make the US missile defense system in Europe unnecessary, Russia’s foreign minister said Monday. “If the agreement on Iran is implemented, the reason named as a necessity to establish a missile defense system in Europe will drop away,” Sergei Lavrov […]
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Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 From: Wilson Center <wwics@wilsoncenter.org> Subject: Ground Truth Briefing: Ukraine and Europe Ukraine and Europe: A Turning Point? Dear Media Professional, Despite months of intense wrangling between Kyiv and EU capitals, it is now highly unlikely that Ukraine will sign the EU association agreement during the November 28-29 European Union Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius. Moldova […]
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(Interfax – November 26, 2013) Ukraine might have had short-term losses from its association with the European Union but gained in the long-term, former Russian Finance Minister, head of the Committee for Civil Initiatives Alexei Kudrin said. “I think that the reasons mentioned by the Russian president and Ukrainian entrepreneurs are quite rational. Most probably, Ukraine will lose from entering […]
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KYIV. Nov 25 (Interfax) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said economic problems are the most difficult issues in Ukraine’s European integration. “We have passed a long way and we have yet to go a long distance. Economic problems have been the most difficult issues on this road,” he said in an appeal to the nation, posted on his website. “But […]
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KYIV. Nov 22 (Interfax) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said that the government’s decision to suspend preparations for the signing of an association agreement with the European Union is tactical and stems from the current economic situation in the country. “The decision to suspend the signing of the association agreement with the EU was difficult, but it is […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – November 22, 2013) Ukraine shocked European officials on November 21 when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych announced he was freezing negotiations with the EU and called for a three-way summit that includes Russia. Tensions have been rising ahead of an EU summit due to be held in Vilnius on November 28-19 at which Kyiv is […]
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[Ukraine drops plan to go West, turns East – Reuters – Richard Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk – November 21, 2013 – reuters.com/article/2013/11/21/us-ukraine-eu-idUSBRE9AK0S220131121] Reuters reports on Ukraine’s sudden shift from a pending deal with the European Union back towards Russia: Ukraine’s government announced it was suspending preparations for a landmark trade pact with the European Union … [saying] it would renew […]
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KIEV, November 21 (RIA Novosti) Ukraine’s government decided Thursday to call off the planned signing of landmark agreements with the EU that could have weakened the former Soviet nation’s bonds with Russia. The Cabinet said in a decree that the decision was motivated by the need to consolidate economic ties with Russia and members of the Kremlin-led Customs Union […]
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(RIA Novosti – Fyodor Lukyanov – November 18, 2013) Fyodor Lukyanov is Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal the most authoritative source of expertise on Russian foreign policy and global developments. Some crucial changes can pass almost unnoticed, as happened earlier this month, when it was decided to put off the EU-Russia summit from December to the […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – November 14, 2013) Did Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych just outfox Russian President Vladimir Putin and make a complete fool out of the entire EU? A string of events over the last week suggest that Yanukovych never had any intention of signing off on the free trade and association agreement at an EU summit in […]
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BRUSSELS. Nov 13 (Interfax) – Russia is eager to have the closest relationship with the European Union, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels on Tuesday. “This is our closest partner. More than 50% of our trade is with the European Union,” Rogozin said. “There is no alternative to political and […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) – An attack Monday on the Russian Embassy in Warsaw by Polish nationalists was unprecedented in its scale, Russian Embassy spokesperson Valeria Perzhinskaya said on the Voice of Russia radio on Tuesday. “Nationalists take some actions against our diplomatic mission from time to time. However, this is the first time we see it on such a […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 11, 2013) More than two-thirds of university students in northwestern Russia identify as Europeans, nearly half would like to live in a Unified Europe, and only about one in six want to become part of the Eurasian Union, a pattern that suggests Vladimir Putin’s efforts to archaize the country will fail […]
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MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) The Russian government said Thursday it had not appealed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that could prompt a rollback of the Yukos case. The Strasbourg-based court ruled in July that the rights of former Yukos oil company head Mikhail Khodorkovsky were violated during his trial and continuing imprisonment in Russia […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 7 (Interfax) – State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov believes that the scandal sparked by revelations that U.S. special services monitored European leaders’ phone conversations will soon fizzle out because the European leadership is dependent on Washington. “The administration of [U.S. President Barack] Obama does not seem to be particularly troubled by Europe’s anger over this […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Mike Collier in Riga, Ben Aris in Moscow – October 30, 2013) The EU’s summit in Vilnius on November 28-29 has been billed as a “game changer” for relations between the EU and the countries to its east, including Russia. The surprising thing is that for once it is not the Lithuanians themselves who […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Litovkin, special to RBTH – October 29, 2013) At a NATO-Russia Council meeting in Brussels, the Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu offered the international community assistance in destroying Syrian chemical weapons and expressed his hope to resume Russia-NATO dialogue on ABMs in Europe. Last week, Brussels hosted a meeting of the […]
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YEREVAN. Oct 23 (Interfax) – Russia is calling on the world community to work together on resolving issues in the sphere of human rights protection, Russian Foreign Ministry envoy on human rights, democracy, and supremacy of law Konstantin Dolgov said. “At the conference on the prevention of discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance in Europe held in Yerevan, we called on our […]
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(Interfax – October 21, 2013) Russia’s representative at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has welcomed the court’s ruling on Russia’s handling of its investigation into the 1940 Katyn massacre of more than 20,000 Polish prisoners-of-war by the Soviet secret police, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 21 October. Earlier in the day the ECHR ruled […]
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(Interfax – KYIV, October 17, 2013) Some 53% of Ukrainians support entry into the European Union, 35% do not and 12% cannot make up their mind, according to the Rating sociological group, which held its poll on September 26 – October 6, 2013. In the opinion of 47% of the respondents, Ukraine will gain more from a free trade zone […]
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(Interfax – VERONA, Italy, October 18, 2013) Many European politicians do not realize that their countries would not benefit from producing shale gas, the head of contract structuring and pricing at LLC Gazprom Export, Sergei Komlev believes. “I think that there is no full understanding of this problem in Europe, particularly an understanding of the production costs of this issue. […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, October 17, 2013) Russia wants to begin drafting a deal on visa-free travel with the EU early next year, a senior Russian diplomat said in an interview published Thursday. That deal, however, requires the EU to make a “political decision to begin negotiations on drafting the agreement,” Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov told RIA Novosti. The […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ekaterina Shatalova and Nicholas Brautlecht – October 15, 2013) Vladimir Putin is inching closer to his goal of turning Russia into a major transit route for trade between eastern Asia and Europe by prying open North Korea, a nuclear-capable dictatorship isolated for half a century. Russia last month completed the first land link that North Korea’s […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – September 27, 2013) A former Soviet republic has its sights set on moving closer to Europe, a move staunchly opposed by Moscow. With the Kremlin’s tacit support, one of its majority ethnic-Russian cities votes to secede, sparking fears of violent conflict. Officials in Moscow vow to defend the rights of its smaller neighbor’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Des Brown – September 25, 2013) “Meet the Russians,” a reality entertainment show produced by Fox TV, will start broadcasting in Britain on Sept. 25. It estimates there are 300,000 Russians now resident in London, and it intends to look at a cross section of the most flamboyant ones. “Prepare to enter a jaw-dropping world […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – September 24, 2013) The victory of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party in the country’s general elections Sunday is expected to secure the stability of Russian-German relations for the next four years, despite German’s recent criticism of human rights in Russia. Taking 41.5 percent of the vote, Merkel’s conservative bloc consisting of […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 19, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has reiterated that Ukraine cannot combine its associated membership in the European Union with integration in the Customs Union. During a meeting with the participants in the 15th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia- Pacific News Agencies (OANA), he said such statements by the Ukrainian administration on its […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Dmitri Trenin, Director, Carnegie Moscow Center – September 13, 2013) U.S. reactions to President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed article in the New York Times this week, from outrage to ridicule, show just how badly much of the Western policy elite are misinterpreting Russia. This is largely the product of dashed and unrealistic expectations that many in the […]
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From: Dominique Arel <darel@uottawa.ca> Subject: ASN 2014 Convention Call for Papers Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 Call for Papers 19th Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) International Affairs Building, Columbia University, NY Sponsored by the Harriman Institute 24-26 April 2014 www.nationalities.org ***Proposal deadline: 24 October 2013*** [Please note that the deadline is earlier than […]
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Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 Subject: New book: Why Communism Did Not Collapse From: Martin Dimitrov <martin.k.dimitrov@gmail.com> Martin Dimitrov Associate Professor of Political Science Tulane University New Orleans, LA TITLE: Why Communism Did Not Collapse: Understanding Authoritarian Regime Resilience in Asia and Europe EDITOR: Martin K Dimitrov PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press (2013) ABSTRACT: This volume brings together a distinguished group […]
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(RFE/RL – August 27, 2013) More than two decades ago, at a time when the world was witnessing the collapse of the Soviet Union and its socialist economy, as well as the triumph of the free market and democracy, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama predicted that liberalism would sweep away competing ideologies. But in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Belarus […]
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(Interfax – August 2, 2013) The Russians’ attitude toward the USA is gradually getting worse, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 2 August, quoting a poll carried out by Levada Centre sociologists in July. Compared with 2010, positive views of the USA have dropped from 60 per cent to 53 per cent, and negative views grown from 27 per cent […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 30, 2013) The latest judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the first Yukos case should lead to its review, head of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov said. “There is no place else to go to after the Strasbourg Court – you can agree with it, you can disagree with […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.ru – Ben Aris in Moscow – July 30, 2013) [Charts here http://www.bne.eu/storyf5224/Europes_west_is_doomed_and_its_east_might_not_make_it] It’s not going well. Governments around the world have had six years to make a dent in the huge debts they built up during the 2008 crisis, but in the first half of this year those debt levels have increased and the pace […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 29, 2013) Moscow hopes to sign a visa relaxation agreement with the European Union before the end of 2013, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador at Large Anvar Azimov said. “We expect the signing of the updated agreement before the end of this year. This will require political will to be demonstrated by EU member states. Russia has […]
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(Interfax – KYIV, July 29, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed that Russia will respect any choice Ukraine will make regarding its economic integration but presumed that Ukraine may have competitive advantages only if it integrates closer with the Russian economy. “A very fierce competition is under way on world markets today for these markets. I am sure that […]
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(Interfax – July 25, 2013) The Thursday resolution by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding a complaint lodged by Yukos ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev should prompt the Russian authorities to annul their first conviction. “The court recognized a violation of [the right to] a fair trial. The conviction should be annulled,” Khodorkovsky’s […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Katerina Ryzhakova, Toma Genole, special to RBTH – July 18, 2013 – Toma Genole is a political scientist and professor at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences. Katerina Ryzhakova is a communications consultant.) Outdated stereotypes served by the mass media leave Europe with an often inaccurate and incomplete image of Russia, which in […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Tatyana Lisina, RBTH – July 17, 2013) According to data from the World Bank, Russia’s economy has jumped ahead of all the European nations, becoming the fifth largest worldwide in terms of GDP. Experts are confident that, in the future, the gap between the Russian Federation and the Old World will widen further. […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, July 16, 2013) A close analysis by a group of Kremlin advisors of a message to the Verkhovna Rada by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich in whom Moscow has placed so much hope shows that Kyiv no longer views itself as part of the Russian cultural world, defines itself in European terms, and […]
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(RIA Novosti – Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, authoritative source of expertise on Russian foreign policy and global developments – July 11, 2013) The events in Egypt have come to represent a colorful culmination of yet another fall-summer season in world politics, the keynotes of which are: on the one hand, the general inability to […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Cornelius Rahn & Leon Mangasarian – July 10, 2013) Willi Kuhlmann remembers the day the Berlin Wall was erected on Aug. 13, 1961, and how the system of spying on East German citizens by secret police known as the Stasi intensified. His experience as a border guard along the Wall that divided Germany’s capital city for […]
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