Eurasian Chronicle
Vladimir Putin signed Executive Order approving the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation. This wasn’t unexpected—the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov spoke about the preparation of the document in the spring. As the minister promised, the new concept, as prepared within his office, has turned out to be more global than its predecessor.
ShortSome days ago Russian and Baltic media outlets published articles where Russia is said not to no visa entry across its border to non-citizens of Latvia and Estonia. Similarly, some weeks ago the media disseminated the news that Moscow reportedly denied visa-free entry to non-citizens from the Baltic region. This was breaking news, but the reasoning was insufficient—the journalists were…
ShortThe end of October was marked by the second round of parliamentary elections in Georgia. The governing party Georgian Dream is celebrating the victory. And there is a reason to celebrate: the party not only won the legislative polls, but also preserved the country control levers. The current situation in Georgia implies that the second is the automatic result of the first.
ShortOn October 23, 2016, Lithuania held the second round of parliamentary elections. Now the political line-up is finally clear, and it will not work in favor of regional security promotion in the Eastern Europe. On the one hand, two backbone parties did not get much support. On the other hand, considering the opposition of 2 Lithuanian core political forces, a more moderate Social Democratic Party…
ShortA meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council was held in Yerevan in mid-October with the heads of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia adopting a Collective Security Strategy for the period until 2025. The document does not directly cite a single country or organization which the CSTO regards as a potential enemy. However, the current threats and challenges to…
ShortAny kind of discussion that Russia has these days with regard to the Baltic States one way or another gets bogged down in mistrust and fear. Economic investments from Russia? — “economic occupation.” A gas pipeline? — “energy dependency.” Political dialogue? — “propaganda and recruiting by Kremlin agents.” And flying with fitted…
ShortOn September 26, 2016, Azerbaijan held a referendum to address amendments to the Constitution. The results were not at all surprising, with the overwhelming majority of the population backing the amendments to extend the presidential term to seven years from the current five, introduce the positions of vice-presidents, and reduce the age limit for presidential and parliamentary candidates.
ShortOn the face of it, the election to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, held on September 11, 2016 in Belarus, seemed to be a purely domestic political issue. Only Belarusian political scientists, except for three members of the Russian-Belarusian expert club, including the author of this column, were enlisted to analyze the voting results. However, the election intrigue had a…
ShortFollowing the death of President Islam Karimov, alarmist scenarios for Uzbekistan are unrealistic. Early unofficial reports emerged on August 29, after which the situation was frozen for a week. An assortment of experts flooded the space with cautionary forecasts on the imminent clash of Uzbek clans, maidan and regional destabilization. In fact, the media report of Mr. Karimov's demise was…
ShortLast week a whole series of significant meetings have taken place with the aim of strengthening security in the South Caucasus region, which has recently been shaken. A tripartite summit of the heads of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran took place in Baku on August 8, on August 9 Vladimir Putin had a meeting with Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St Petersburg for the first time since the crisis in…
ShortEurasian integration is continuing its advance toward Southeast Asia. At the meeting of the Ministers of Economy and Trade of Russia and the ASEAN member countries, it was decided to set up a research group to assess the prospects for creating a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and the economic and political community, which includes 10 countries: Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia…
ShortAlarming news spread this week on social networks and in the media: back in early July, 2106 “a piece of equipment weighing 330 tonnes” crashed at the nuclear power plant (NPP) being built in the city of Ostrovets in Belarus. Several publications later, “a piece of equipment” was already transformed into a “nuclear reactor.” The main heralds of the environmental disaster were not so…
ShortSince the start of the Ukrainian crisis, many Russian experts believed that the events in Donbass were the first stage of the crisis and that destabilization, backed by our “western partners,” would spill across the border into Russia. The events of the past weeks indeed show that the chaos is moving closer to the Russian border, but the main risks stemming from socioeconomic, political and…
ShortThe Minsk agreements were slammed by many, and few believed they would be effective. There seemed to be a good reason to be skeptical – the post-Maidan authorities that were backed by the powerful western conglomerate did not see any benefits whatsoever in adhering to all of the provisions of the document. Indeed, Minsk II was never implemented by the end of 2015, which was the agreed deadline…
ShortWhile at one end of Eurasia, the British public was deciding whether or not they wanted to remain part of the European Union, at the other end of the continent, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tashkent was taking a step closer to forming a new pole of international relations.
ShortThe 2016 Warsaw Summit of NATO on July 8–9 will address a range of issues that have direct security implications for the post-Soviet space. Chief of them is whether the security architecture built in Europe after 1991 will be preserved. There is no consensus on the issue among NATO experts and politicians. Opinions range from the desire to limit Russia’s influence in its neighbouring states…
ShortThe European Union intends to resuscitate its Eastern Partnership. At the seventh meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and states members of the program the diplomats discussed the principal directions of Brussels’ relations with the six post-Soviet states.
ShortPoll conducted
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In your opinion, what are the US long-term goals for Russia?
U.S. wants to establish partnership relations with Russia on condition that it meets the U.S. requirements 33 (31%) U.S. wants to deter Russia’s military and political activity 30 (28%) U.S. wants to dissolve Russia 24 (22%) U.S. wants to establish alliance relations with Russia under the US conditions to rival China 21 (19%)