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UkraineAlert

Nov 22, 2016

Eastern Europe Must Prepare for the Worst about Trump

By Alexander J. Motyl

President Barack Obama’s advice to the world that it shouldn’t “assume the worst” about Donald Trump may apply to countries whose existential interests cannot be threatened by the president-elect’s policies, but those that face a possible Russian invasion must assume and prepare for the worst. They cannot, as Obama recommended, “wait until the administration is […]

Belarus Northern Europe

UkraineAlert

Nov 22, 2016

In Time of Trump, Advice to Friends of Ukraine (And Democracy)

By Jeffrey Gedmin

Friends of Ukraine, brace yourself. There’s no way to sugar-coat this for the democracy crowd either. Donald Trump has suggested that Ukraine is not our business (it “affects Europe a lot more than it affects us”). Our president-elect admires Russia’s authoritarian leader (he’s “brilliant,” a “strong leader”), and wants Vladimir Putin as an ally (“Russia […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Nov 22, 2016

Article 5 Must Be ‘Red Line’ of US-Russia Reset, says Former NATO Secretary General

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Newsmaker Interview: George Robertson served as secretary general of NATO from 1999 to 2003 Russia would be “ill-advised” to take great comfort from Donald Trump’s election, said George Robertson, a former secretary general of NATO, adding that NATO’s commitment to the defense of its member states must be at the core of any future reset […]

NATO Russia
Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom and Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, March 16, 2015

NATOSource

Nov 21, 2016

Swedes Ponder Joining NATO as Trump Presidency Focuses Minds

By Richard Milne, Financial Times

The arguments in favour of Sweden’s joining Nato have grown stronger since Donald Trump won the US presidential election, according to the frontrunners to head the Scandinavian country’s next government.

NATO Northern Europe
President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Oct. 16, 2014

NATOSource

Nov 21, 2016

Serbia Deports Russians Suspected of Plotting to Assassinate Prime Minister of Montenegro

By Julian Borger, Andrew MacDowall, and Shaun Walker, Guardian

Serbia has deported a group of Russians suspected of involvement in a coup plot in neighbouring Montenegro, the Guardian has learned, in the latest twist in a murky sequence of events that apparently threatened the lives of two European prime ministers.

Intelligence NATO

New Atlanticist

Nov 21, 2016

Moldova Elects a Pro-Russia President

By Michael Getto

While not as globally consequential or shocking as the US presidential race, won by Donald Trump on November 8, the result of Moldova’s presidential runoff election does have significant ramifications for the future of democracy and economic reform in Eurasia. On November 13, Moldovans elected Socialist parliamentarian and former Economy Minister Igor Dodon as president […]

Moldova

UkraineAlert

Nov 21, 2016

Holodomor Remembrance Day: Why the Past Matters for the Future

By Victor Rud

As Americans sit down to their Thanksgiving meals on the last Thursday in November, Ukrainians will be commemorating the memory of millions who were murdered in 1932-33. The last Saturday in November is Holodomor Remembrance Day in Ukraine, a time to mark the anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s engineered starvation of the nation. In the West, […]

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Nov 21, 2016

Lebanese Hezbollah Offers a Glimpse of its Firepower

By Nicholas Blanford

Lebanon’s militant Shi’ite Hezbollah displayed its new armored capabilities for the first time during a military parade in the Syrian town of Qusayr in Homs province, offering the most compelling example yet of the Iran-backed group’s adoption of conventional military tactics and equipment alongside its traditional low-signature asymmetric doctrine. The parade was held on November […]

Middle East Syria

SyriaSource

Nov 21, 2016

Moscow, Washington, and the Wreckage of Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

At a recent international conference, Russian scholars triumphantly upheld their country’s role in Syria and called on the West to organize a “Marshall Plan” to rebuild Syria under Bashar al-Assad. In Peru, meanwhile, President Obama—he who has put American boots on the ground in Syria to help fight ISIS—lamented (without apparent irony) that he could […]

Iran Russia

UkraineAlert

Nov 21, 2016

How Ukraine Can Use E-Declarations to Target the Most Corrupt

By Basil A. Kalymon and Oleh Havrylyshyn

This year, thousands of Ukrainian members of parliament, government officials, and civil servants were required by law to declare their incomes and assets in a publicly available database by October 30. Although the introduction of the e-declaration system was initially blocked numerous times, today the public can view the vast amount of wealth owned by […]

Ukraine