... the Soviet Union and the eastern enlargement of the EU. With US support, Germany was key to the stabilization of Europe in the 1990s; today it needs to build on this visionary and pragmatic tradition. But at least since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in 2014, it has become clear that Germany’s partnership for modernization [
1
] with Russia has failed, and the special relationship between Moscow and Berlin is now in doubt.
Yet it is Berlin — not Brussels, Warsaw or Paris — that will ...
The road to Moscow does not lead through Berlin alone, but also through Brussels
Relations between Germany and Russia are in a state of severe crisis. At latest since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict, but also even before, the relationship was under stress. The new federal government will have to face the challenge of finding ways to deal with the root causes of the crisis. The intuitive response in this situation would be to take ...
Four years is a long enough period to try and assess Ukraine’s achievements on the difficult path towards association with the EU
The Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement came into force in 2017. March 2018 marked four years since the signing of the political provisions of the agreement. This is a long enough period to try and assess, however briefly, Ukraine’s achievements on the ...
Prospects for Ukrainian Conflict Resolution
Alexander Tabachnik:
Ukraine between West and East
The appointment of Ambassador Kurt Volker as special envoy for Ukraine signals a renewed interest in Ukraine-related diplomacy in Washington. It is a good time to revisit the troubled Minsk diplomatic process, and to contemplate ...
... reduce political-military tensions in both the Baltic and the Black Sea regions?
11
What is the best means to advance the social, economic and political development of eastern Ukraine and Crimea?
What should be done about refugee crisis from eastern Ukraine to Russia and from Syria and other countries to the European Union countries? How should Russia and the European Union respond?
Impact of rise of China
China is the elephant in the room, or as Mao might say, the monkey watching two tigers fight. Is Beijing benefiting from U.S.-European-Russian rivalries?...
... commodities is projected to decline further to $10 billion.
The National Bank of Ukraine estimates
that the cumulative negative effect of the Russian food embargo (as a protectionist measure in response to the signing the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union) and the restrictions on transit introduced by Russia will amount to
$1.1 billion
.
Despite the fact that the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union has come into effect, so far it has not had any noticeable positive ...
... investigation led by the European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager, was based on the belief that Gazprom broke European Union Competition Law when supplying gas to eight countries of the integration unit - Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,... ... best to limit the room for Gazprom’s maneuver.
Taking into consideration
the opinion of Russian Ministry of Energy
that Ukraine lacks 1.5–2 bcm of gas (only 14.7 bcm was pumped instead of 17 bcm) for a regular winter heating season, the contract ...
On October 30–31, 2016 Vienna hosted the second international meeting of experts to consider scenarios of socio-economic and political future of Ukraine in a ten-year term (the first such meeting took place in April 2016 in Potsdam).
In the same way as before, the participants of the discussion included four think tanks from Germany (
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, FES
), the USA (Washington branch ...
... more than conjecture, and we can only guess how these events will affect Ukraine. Maybe the Ukrainian question will move into the background, and that could provoke delays in introducing a visa-free regime and hold up strategic rapprochement between Ukraine and the European Union.
The Domestic Political Situation in Ukraine
A number of events happened in Ukraine in July 2016. The creation of new political projects such as the
Democratic Alliance
and the Wave party, which intends to unite all Mikheil Saakashvili’s ...
... migration.
If the conflict remains stable and deescalated there will be more opportunities for diplomacy at various levels, which would permit a resumption of dialogue. De facto dialogue has had to be resumed, notwithstanding the initial refusal of the European Union to have any consultations with Russia on a free trade zone with Ukraine. These include three-way consultations on free trade zone issues and the Minsk agreements. Dialogue also continues at the non-public and unofficial levels.
It may take years to fully implement the scenario of a new balance of interests in Ukraine....
