Content

MENASource

Apr 10, 2015

Top News: Egypt’s Prime Minister Denies Government Interference in Upcoming Elections

By EgyptSource

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab has rejected claims the state is promoting candidates or groups ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election. “The government swore an oath not to talk about the election and has not asked anyone to nominate themselves nor backed anyone, this is a definitive decision,” he said in comments to state news agency MENA. 

Russia's Ambassador to NATO, Alexander Grushko

NATOSource

Apr 10, 2015

NATO Reduces Size of Russian Delegation After Internal Reports of Espionage

By Michael R. Gordon, New York Times

For a year after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization cut back its cooperation with Russia as punishment for the country’s incursions into Ukraine, Russia’s NATO mission has seemed curiously impervious to the deteriorating ties.

Intelligence NATO
ZAPAD 2013

NATOSource

Apr 9, 2015

Benitez: Russia’s Military Exercises are Very Dangerous

By Jela de Franceschi and Isabela Cocoli, Voice of America

NATOSource Director and Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Jorge Benitez said that Russian military activities along the Finnish border, the deployment of strategic weapons systems to Kaliningrad and Crimea, and positions across the Baltic Fleet, Black Sea Fleet, and in the western and southern military districts, mimicked a full-scale attack against […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Apr 9, 2015

The Bear is Inside the Wire

By Frank J. Cilluffo and Sharon L. Cardash

Russian hackers, fresh from breaching the State Department’s unclassified networks in recent months, have managed to sneak into “sensitive but unclassified” White House networks, CNN reported on April 7. The perpetrators gained access to real-time non-public details of the President’s schedule, precisely the type of information foreign intelligence services prioritize for collection. The White House […]

Cybersecurity Russia

AfricaSource

Apr 9, 2015

Congo’s Democracy Deficit Continues to Grow

By J. Peter Pham

Joseph Kabila continues to underscore the irony of the official name of the country he has misgoverned for more than a decade, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As I noted previously, Kabila—in power since 2001 when, at the ripe old age of 29, he succeeded his warlord father after the latter was shot […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 9, 2015

Avoiding the ‘New Mediocre’

By Ashish Kumar Sen

IMF Managing Director Lagarde warns against a protracted period of low growth becoming the ‘new reality’ The global economic recovery is “moderate and uneven” and policymakers must work together to prevent a protracted period of low growth from becoming the “new reality,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said April 9. While the global […]

UkraineAlert

Apr 9, 2015

Poroshenko Goes Hunting for Oligarchs

By Brian Mefford

Ukraine won an important battle in the war against the oligarchs with the removal of Dnipropetrovsk Governor Ihor Kolomoyskyi last week. But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the Ukrainian parliament are just getting started.  On April 7 the government challenged billionaire Rinat Akhmetov’s grip on energy companies. Some parliamentarians are pushing to curb the power […]

Ukraine
Czech soldiers participating in exercise Noble Jump, April 8, 2015

NATOSource

Apr 9, 2015

Exercise Tests If New NATO Force Can Respond Rapidly

By Naftali Bendavid, Wall Street Journal

When 200 Dutch troops converged on the air force base here this week, it wasn’t a routine case of reporting for duty but a test for a key element of NATO’s response to the renewed Russian threat.

Central Europe Germany

New Atlanticist

Apr 9, 2015

Can Gazprom Really Cut Out Ukrainian Transit Post-South Stream?

By Nolan Theisen

Despite an unceremonious end to the controversial South Stream mega-pipeline, Russia remains outspoken and determined in its effort to carve Ukraine entirely out of its European natural gas deliveries which accounted for 62 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Gazprom’s European-bound exports in 2014. Formally announced in 2007, South Stream had been the centerpiece of this […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

MENASource

Apr 9, 2015

Top News: Iran Calls for Unity Government in Yemen

By MENASource

In the most direct US criticism yet of Tehran’s backing of the Houthi rebels, Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington would not accept foreign interference in Yemen.