Transnistria: Russia Anxieties Played Out on the Smallest Stage of All
The year 2013 has not been kind to Russia’s regional ambitions. It effectively lost Ukraine to Brussels when Kyiv confirmed its choice of an Association Agreement with the EU instead of Moscow’s...
View ArticleBloomberg News: “Don’t Let Russia Bully Ukraine”
As Ukraine’s likely signing of the Association Agreement and opening free trade with the European Union draws closer, more and more news organizations have finally realized some hard truths about the...
View ArticleNew Markets and Bitter Memories at the Heart of Poland’s Drive for European...
Don’t let the lull in gloomy economic stories about the European Union fool you into believing all is well in the Kingdom of Brussels. Greece, the modern definition or economic mismanagement, remains...
View ArticleLatvia Tells the Eurozone’s Story in Slow-Motion
Latvia has been a poster-child for Germany’s demand for Southern (read: Greek or Former Vital German Market of the Week) austerity since the country leveraged painful government cuts and related...
View ArticleRussia to Moldova: Nice Little Country You Have There, Shame If It Froze to...
Continuing the pressure on the Eastern Partnership nations who will meet with the European Union in Vilnius this month to discuss trade and closer ties, Russia has unsubtly let Moldova know that any...
View ArticleTime for Europe to Go All-In on Ukraine
A pivotal moment in history is fast approaching, and for a change, the actors moving it seem keenly aware of its importance. The question now is whether they are prepared to create a new and exciting...
View ArticleRussia’s Last Imperial Bid Crumbling?
As the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius approaches, this site will be specially focused on those nations who are making significant steps in their turn toward Europe, and away from a...
View ArticleGeorgia’s Step Back
Georgia has for many years been viewed as the likeliest of the former Soviet Republics to join the European Union, with low(er) corruption rankings, a better than normal investment climate, an orderly...
View ArticleEurope Risks Losing Ukraine and Itself
Europe is in danger of throwing away years of progress, untold man hours and mustered political will, and even a part of the European project’s future. It is doing all of this by suddenly endangering...
View ArticleEurope Has Failed Ukraine
(Written with the concurrence of the undersigned.) Ukraine has announced that it has no choice but to suspend the planned signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union. This is a win for...
View ArticleWhither Georgia?
Over the last decade, Georgia has brought itself to a crossroads that its recent initialing of an Association Agreement with the European Union has not resolved. Indeed, it has heightened the nature of...
View ArticleObama’s Leadership Failures: How the West Fails Ukraine and Itself
Ukraine is a prize over which the West and Russia are locked in a (so far) nonviolent war. Russia is pouring financial, diplomatic, and geopolitical resources into the battle. The West is hoping it all...
View ArticleRussia’s Imperialism Costs It Economic Growth
The economic commentary on Russia portrays Russia as an economic juggernaut whose petrochemical wealth an trade position inside of its former Soviet empire. This economic colossus is able to alter the...
View ArticleThe Puzzle of the Baltics
It is a somewhat unorthodox theory, but many Russians of a certain bent blame the Baltics for the fall of the Soviet Union. They may have a point; reluctant at best captives of a hungry empire who...
View Article2013′s Year of Upheaval
2013 was the year so many assumptions about the former Soviet Union either died or went on life support. Almost all of the bad news revolved around the European Union. The Eastern Partnership crumbled...
View ArticleUkraine, the European Union, Russia, and 2014
Europe bungled 2013. Running a country, or a supernational bloc, is different in most ways from running a business, with a single exception: sometimes you can’t make up for your mistakes. In 2013, the...
View ArticleLatvia’s Euro Test
Latvia is a member of the Eurozone, a move strongly supported by its governing and financial classes and increasingly opposed by everyone else. The former believe that the move will ease Latvia’s...
View ArticleAzerbaijan’s Democratic Norms and the Future of European Energy
At long last, Europe will be able to move forward with cleaner energy, independent of Russia’s autarchy, to power its industrial base and its homes through the coming decades. The Southern Energy...
View ArticleEurope Needs a New Eastern Partnership Strategy
We have discussed before the dangers of Europe’s pre-November 2013 path, but they are worth recounting: Russia’s sphere of power grows as more and more former Soviet Republics, through their own...
View ArticleLithuania’s Drive for the Euro: Here We Go Again
Dealing with European microfinance is invariably influenced by its macrofinance, which might generously be called “convoluted.” Yet the convoluted European finance game is nothing compared to trying to...
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