... can we explain Russia’s move to seize Ukrainian naval ships in the Kerch Strait?
Andrey Kortunov
I do not believe this move was a way for Russia to be provocative, given that the last thing the country needs today is an escalation of tensions with Ukraine. Although the initiative came from the Ukrainian side, Russia then responded very decisively, which definitely fuelled the crisis.
Michel Duclos
President Putin enjoys this kind of situation, and sees it as an opportunity to take action and make ...
... the goal being to create a globally economic successful Region including Helsinki – Saint Petersburg – Pskov – Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania – Kaliningrad – Stockholm. The participation of Danes, Poles, and Germans is welcome, but not required.
Ukraine
Minsk agreements are fine, but one of the reasons they have not worked in practice is, that there has been no solution in sight, how the situation could be permanently settled. Today, Russia has consolidated its position, and therefore Russia ...
... bulwark in the West’s confrontation with the East. Understanding its value for the West and relying on significant successes in implementing socioeconomic reforms, Ukraine will more insistently demand a speedy integration into the bodies of NATO and the European Union. Although Ukraine is unlikely to become a full member of either the European Union or NATO in the foreseeable future, cooperation with these organizations will become intense and multifaceted.
Andrey Kortunov:
Europe and Russia: Four Scenarios for the New Cycle
...
... Measures and Disarmament in Europe should be revisited and possibly reapplied to the region. This type of engagement could serve to improve existing relations including between Russia and the Baltic states and between Russia and NATO.
— Dialogue on Ukraine would be facilitated by engaging new actors skilled in conflict resolution. A peacekeeping arrangement under the auspices of the UN should be welcomed by all parties. Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the US need to remain engaged in agreeing on the ...
... unchanging over time. The more Western-oriented discourses in Russia would have some believe that Russia could simply return to the European world and order that existed 15, 20 or even 30 years ago. In that European order, there was no conflict over Ukraine, no sharp Eurozone crisis, no migration crisis on the present scale, no Brexit, and no rise of right-wing populism. That world order had no transatlantic fault or split, no comparable economic dominance by China, no return to international protectionism,...
... and contradictions, but they all come to naught because of a solid edifice of bilateral relations that has been consistently constructed in recent years and which possesses clearly defined strategic benchmarks.
As far as Russia’s relations with the European Union are concerned, attempts to force political manipulators to cease and desist have thus far been unsuccessful. In the early 2000s, Russia and Europe built their relations with the common goal of achieving strategic partnership. Over the course ...
The second episode of the Meeting Russia interview with Ivan Timofeev, program director of RIAC, about Ukraine, the EU’s sanctions against Russia and Russian think tanks.
The second episode of the Meeting Russia interview with Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director of Programs, about Ukraine, the EU’s sanctions against Russia and Russian think tanks.
... even in the form of a new president should not present any serious difficulties, so all the European Union has to do is wait a few years for the situation to correct itself.
Second
. The President of the United States did not utter a single word about Ukraine during the meeting (not during the bit we saw, at least). This was another serious blow for the European Union, and for Berlin in particular. This silence on an issue that the European Union sees as the key reason for the conflict between Russia and the collective West means, first of all, that the United States has lost interest in the Ukrainian ...
... At the local level, there have been some successful parties with a xenophobic or anti-migration and anti-refugee agenda.
In 2018, what factors do you think determine the current state of Russia – EU relations?
Kadri Liik
: Well, what influences? Ukraine, of course, does: the annexation of Crimea, invasion of Donbass. That is clearly a big thing in EU – Russia relations. Europe cannot agree to it, Russia sees their reasons for that differently. Europe has made progress on the Minsk agreement,...
... 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 ...
