Commentary & Analysis

Russia Looking for an Exit?

By James J. Coyle

As Russia increases its support for beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, rebels in eastern Ukraine have observed a ceasefire since September 1. The second Minsk ceasefire agreement, signed in February, had been repeatedly violated. But things have changed. Some separatist leaders have left the area, returning to posh jobs in Moscow. Former Donetsk Prime Minister […]

Creating ‘A Piece of America’ in the Carpathian Mountains

Camp America, located at a charmingly rustic resort in Ukraine’s Carpathian Mountains, welcomed twenty young Ukrainians for a week in August. For most of them, Camp America—a 24/7 English-language environment where all activities are conducted in English—was their first experience with native English speakers. “I like to tell our students that there are three international […]

Russian Involvement in Syria is Part of Larger Kremlin Strategy to Project Power in Europe and the Middle East

By Stephen Blank

Predictably, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intervention in Syria surprised the West. While it seems we’ve now figured out Putin’s objectives there, how they fit into Russia’s larger strategy still remains obscure. But we must begin to address that larger strategy even if the analysis remains incomplete. Besides sustaining Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as long as […]

Western Media Must Fight Russia’s Lethal Propaganda More Aggressively

By Halya Coynash

Three months after unknown assassins gunned down Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov outside the Kremlin, his daughter called for sanctions against those running Russia’s propaganda machine. Zhanna Nemtsova compared the dangerous rhetoric of state-controlled Russian media to the hateful radio broadcasts that precipitated Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Her appeal was widely reported, as had been her […]

Europe’s Top Security Threat: Poisoned Public Opinion in Russia

By Andreas Umland

The Russian Federation possesses—and will continue to possess for the foreseeable future—the second-largest nuclear arsenal on Earth. Like the Soviet Union before it and the United States today, this gives Moscow an overkill capacity. As did their communist predecessors, Russia’s leaders today command enough weapons of mass destruction to destroy humankind several times over. Moreover, […]

Investigative Journalists Present Exhaustive Report on ‘Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine’

The Russian government under President Vladimir Putin is “directly coordinating and leading the fight to destabilize and disunite Ukraine”—despite Putin’s increasingly desperate efforts to hide the truth—concludes a damning report issued September 17. “An Invasion by Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine” is a joint production of the New York-based nonprofit Institute […]

How Putin Shot Himself in the Foot

By Aaron Korewa

Russian propaganda managed to surpass its own absurdity when the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin, claimed that Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk fought alongside rebel forces in both Chechen wars. Yatsenyuk supposedly tortured and executed Russian soldiers there. This apparently took place in the mid-1990s when Yatsenyuk was a 20-year-old law student in […]

How the West Can Stand Up to Putin

By Terrell Jermaine Starr

Winter is less than four months away, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is already freezing eastern Ukraine. No, I’m not talking about the possibility of Ukraine not being able to renegotiate lower gas prices this year. (That’s another issue entirely). The kind of freeze that Putin is plotting for Ukraine is political. For more than […]

Ukraine After Euromaidan: What Difference Does a Revolution Make?

By Viktoriya Sereda

Many people claim that following the 2013-14 protests against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and worsening violence in the Donbas, Ukrainian attitudes have significantly changed—mainly towards European integration, support for democracy and the fight against corruption. Our project—“Region, Nation, and Beyond: An Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Reconsideration of Ukraine”—attempts to verify those […]