Europe & Eurasia

TTIP: On Track but Off Message?

By Global Business & Economics Program

Stakeholders remain optimistic that a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal can be reached, but they believe a less comprehensive agreement will result from more protracted talks, according to an Atlantic Council-Bertelsmann Foundation survey released today on the eve of the US-EU summit. The survey, a follow-up to a similar 2013 poll, gauges the attitudes of more than […]

NATO Commander Warns of Russian Threat to Separatist Moldova Region

By Washington Post and Reuters

U.S. and Ukrainian officials warned Sunday that Russia may be poised to expand its territorial conquest into eastern Ukraine and beyond, with a senior NATO official saying that Moscow might even order its troops to cross Ukraine to reach Moldova.

Hitting Russia’s Economy: What Obama and EU Must Do Wednesday in Brussels

By Frances G. Burwell

President Obama and his European Union colleagues will gather Wednesday in the most important meeting so far for Western governments as they decide how to respond to Russia’s egregious, illegal seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. US and European sanctions so far have targeted individuals among Moscow’s elite, rather than the broader Russian economy. At the […]

NATO Commander Concerned About Russian Military Buildup Near Ukraine

By Reuters

From Reuters:  NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, voiced concern about Moscow using a tactic of snap military exercises to prepare its forces for possible rapid incursions into a neighboring state, as it had done in the case of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

How the Crimea Crisis Will Breed Nuclear Bombs

By Taras Kuzio

Ukraine’s dismemberment by Russia dangerously weakens global security by inadvertently encouraging Iran, North Korea and other governments to stay determined in their efforts or dreams of building nuclear weapons. In any nuclear disarmament negotiation now, international assurances of protection for a de-nuclearizing state will ring hollow when measured against those given to Ukraine two decades […]

Putin Interprets the West’s Gradualism as a Sign of Weakness

By Editors of the Wall Street Journal

Maybe President Obama is catching on to Vladimir Putin. The Russian President keeps ignoring Mr. Obama’s pleas to stop carving up Ukraine, and at last on Thursday the U.S. President responded by imposing some sanctions worth the name.

Senators McCain, Durbin Push Congress to Sanction Russia

US Senate leaders John McCain [R-AZ] and Dick Durbin [D-IL] urged Congress to pass quickly – within a week – strong economic sanctions against Russia for its armed seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. In a conference call hosted by the Atlantic Council with journalists and council members, Durbin and McCain, both members of the Senate […]