Russia

Putin’s willing provocateur: Lukashenka escalates EU border crisis

By Brian Whitmore

Shots were fired at the Belarusian-Polish border last week as Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka's hybrid war against the European Union threatened to escalate further amid the weaponization of migrants.

How sustainable is the Belarusian economy?

By Anders Åslund

Belarus dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka faces mounting sanctions pressure but the Soviet-style Belarusian economy will likely prove sustainable unless the West focuses pressure on Lukashenka's Russian enablers.

Medvedev echoes Putin’s dangerous Ukraine obsession

By Peter Dickinson

Former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has penned a vitriolic essay attacking the current Ukrainian leadership that underlines the scale of Moscow's dangerous obsession with the loss of Ukraine.

Europe’s energy crisis highlights dangers of reliance on Russia

By Aura Sabadus

Russia stands accused of exploiting the current gas crisis in Europe as part of Kremlin efforts to strengthen Moscow's position in EU energy markets and push through certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Binnendijk and Vershbow in Defense News: Needed: A transatlantic agreement on European strategic autonomy

By Hans Binnendijk, Alexander Vershbow

Hans Binnendijk and Alexander Vershbow write that the United States should drop its objections, agree with its European allies on how to ensure that strategic autonomy results in greater European strategic responsibility, and then embed that agreement in both NATO’s new strategic concept and the European Union’s new strategic compass.

Ukraine seeks peace with the past

By Olesya Khromeychuk

Since becoming independent in 1991, Ukraine had been locked in relentless memory wars. Three decades on, the country may now be moving towards a new era marked by more meaningful commemoration of the troubled past.

West seeks new ways to hold Belarus dictator Lukashenka accountable

By Brian Whitmore

US and EU leaders are exploring new options as they seek to hold Kremlin-backed Belarus dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka accountable for his increasingly brazen violations of international norms.

Baltic Sea Security Conference 2021

The fourth international Baltic Sea Security Conference (BSSC) on October 5-6, 2021, organized by the Atlantic Council Northern Europe Office in cooperation with the Swedish Armed Forces, took place with a new 2021-2025 Swedish Total Defence strategy in place. The BSSC was thus a timely platform for representatives of the Nordic and Baltic states, Germany, […]