Atlantic Council blogs

If the West sticks together, it can find a way forward with Russia

By Daniel Fried

The US and Europe need to resist the temptation to respond to threats with concessions, and maintain a willingness to discuss European security in a way that benefits all, not just Moscow.

Countering the growing Russian naval threat in the Black Sea region

By Skyler Blake

With Russian President Vladimir Putin currently threatening to escalate his eight-year war against Ukraine, it is now vital to implement an effective NATO security strategy for the Black Sea region.

Kyiv Diary: Ukrainians await Putin’s invasion and Poroshenko’s arrest

By Vladislav Davidzon

The threat of a full-scale Russian invasion and the prospect of a major political scandal sparked by the arrest of former president Petro Poroshenko have failed to induce panic among the hardy crisis veterans of Kyiv.

Calls grow within Germany for tougher stance towards Putin’s Russia

By Alexander Motyl

German foreign policy experts have published an appeal demanding Germany’s Russia policy be fundamentally changed from tacit encouragement to open resistance of Vladimir Putin’s expansionist designs.

Moscow’s Memory Wars: Putin seeks to whitewash Russia’s Stalinist past

By Gina Lentine

Russia’s recent move to shut down the Memorial International human rights organization is part of an ongoing Kremlin campaign to rehabilitate the Soviet era and whitewash the crimes of Russia’s Stalinist past.

Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan: An emerging right-wing threat to Pakistan’s democracy

By Roohan Ahmed

Videos circulating on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms showed a violent mob dragging a half-dead man on the streets of Sialkot, Pakistan on December 1, 2021. As the TLP’s influence grows and its ideology spreads, the de-radicalization of Pakistani society looks like an even more distant dream.

Germany has sentenced a Syrian colonel to life for crimes against humanity. Will others face the same fate?

Now that Anwar Raslan is behind bars, activists are hoping his conviction paves the way for other bad actors of the Syrian regime to be prosecuted.

Western weakness has emboldened Putin and invited Russian aggression

By Tinatin Khidasheli

The West’s weak response to repeated instances of Russian aggression in the ex-USSR has emboldened Vladimir Putin and created today’s European security crisis, says former Georgian defense minister Tinatin Khidasheli.

Top Ukrainian official: Get the presidents of Ukraine, Russia, and the US together

By Dan Peleschuk

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appeared at an Atlantic Council Front Page event Friday to discuss his country’s security at a perilous moment.

Transcript: Top Ukrainian official Andriy Yermak on Russia’s military moves against Ukraine and a possible Putin-Biden-Zelenskyy summit

By Atlantic Council

After this week’s talks with Russia, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak talked about what he sees happening next.