Commentary & Analysis

Energy Developments in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean

By Atlantic Council

The Atlantic Council’s Eurasian Energy Futures Initiative hosted the Cypriot Minister of Energy, Commerce, Industry, and Tourism, H.E. Yiorgos Lakkotrypis on March 9 on the energy developments in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Human Rights Abuses in Russian Occupied Crimea

By Atlantic Council

On March 6, the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center hosted a panel discussion introducing a report Human Rights Abuses in Russian-Occupied Crimea, by Andrii Klymenko. The report chronicles how in one year of occupation, the Russian authorities have established a repressive system of control aimed at suppressing and intimidating “disloyal” groups. Rather than protecting […]

Did Kharkiv Just Become Russia’s Next Target in Ukraine War?

By New Atlanticist

A Criminal Case Could Turn the City’s Political Strongman Back into a Kremlin Ally  In Russia’s campaign to re-assert control over Ukraine, a logical target for its “hybrid war” is Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and a center of its Russian-speaking population. And indeed, Russia has been working steadily to destabilize Kharkiv (just 25 miles from […]

Ukraine’s Shrinking Hryvnia: How Alarming Is It?

By Yuriy Gorodnichenko

Kyiv Has Begun the Hard Steps of Reform; IMF and Allies Must Now Deliver Quickly The dramatic plunge last month in the value of the hryvnia, Ukraine’s currency, sparked speculation about an immediate, national economic collapse. Despite the drama—the hryvnia lost more than half of its value against the dollar in February, hitting a record […]

Herbst Testifies to Senate Committee on US Policy in Ukraine

John E. Herbst, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center, will testify on “US Policy in Ukraine: Countering Russia and Driving Reform” before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 10 a.m. on March 10.Watch here. Read testimony here.

Ukraine: The High Cost of Ignoring Russia’s Land Grab in Crimea

Report documents rights abuses; Kremlin ‘greatest security challenge,’ says Atlantic Council’s Herbst The apparent US indifference toward the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in February 2014 amounts to giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a green light to commit similar acts of aggression against other countries, panelists warned during a March 6 conference at the Atlantic […]

The Kremlin’s Secret War: Soldiers’ Families Shattered and Silenced

By New Atlanticist

A Vice News Documentary Shows What Russia Is Hiding—and How Since last summer, when President Vladimir Putin’s government first deployed major units of Russian conventional army troops to fight in its war against Ukraine, the Kremlin has used state secrecy, propaganda, intimidation, and violence to conceal the story. Police have obstructed journalists, arrested them—and in […]

US and Allies Risk War with Russia by a ‘Hesitancy on Ukraine’

By New Atlanticist

Wilson: Only the US Can Lead in Defending Europe Against Putin’s Rising Ambition The United States and its allies must confront the aggressive actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin because failing to do so will escalate his ambitions—perhaps to the point of forcing a war with NATO, the Atlantic Council’s Damon Wilson told the US […]

Before Russia’s Next Offensive, Obama Should Take the Lead

By New Atlanticist

Burns: Give Arms to Ukraine, More NATO Cover to Baltics—and Leadership for Europe President Barack Obama has given space for Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel to lead recently in the Western response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. But it’s now time for the US president to take the reins back, writes former Undersecretary of State Nicholas […]