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The Power Vertical

The Power Vertical is a blog and podcast for Russia wonks and Kremlin watchers by Brian Whitmore. It covers emerging and developing trends in Russian politics, shining a spotlight on the high-stakes power struggles, machinations, and clashing interests that shape Kremlin policy today.

Host and Eurasia Center Senior Fellow Brian Whitmore invites guest experts to deliver their insights and analysis in this weekly podcast. The Atlantic Council and the Charles T. McDowell Center for Global Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington co-sponsor this production.

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The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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New Atlanticist

Mar 13, 2018

From Russia With Hate

By Stephen Blank

The poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal, his daughter, and twenty-one other British citizens in Salisbury is the most recent of too many such examples.  On March 12, days after the attempted assassination of Skripal, Nikolai Glushkov, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his home in […]

Russia United Kingdom
TillersonFiredFeature

New Atlanticist

Mar 13, 2018

A State of Mind: Tillerson vs. Pompeo on the Issues, and What that Means for US Foreign Policy

By Atlantic Council

Newly former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his replacement, former Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, do not necessarily see eye to eye on every major foreign policy issue. Their divergent views raise serious questions as to how the shake-up in leadership at Foggy Bottom will alter the course of US foreign policy […]

Iran Korea

UkraineAlert

Mar 13, 2018

Q&A: Tillerson Out, Pompeo In. What Does It Mean for Russia and Ukraine?

By Melinda Haring

On March 13, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was sacked. US President Donald Trump plans to replace him with former CIA director Mike Pompeo. UkraineAlert asked its experts the following: What does Pompeo think about Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aggressive foreign policy? What does the leadership change mean for US policy toward Ukraine […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Mar 12, 2018

Russia Makes a Killing off its Military Support to Assad

By Lama Fakih

Russia’s state-owned arms company has reaped enormous profits from its support to Bashar al-Assad’s government, which is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria. The chief executive officer of Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, said that in 2017 the company signed contracts in fifty-three countries worth approximately $15 billion. These contracts include new clients in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific […]

Russia Syria

EnergySource

Mar 12, 2018

Global Energy Center working paper highlights risks of Nord Stream 2

By Global Energy Center

In a new working paper, Global Energy Center Senior Fellow Alan Riley highlights the risks that could stem from the construction of the contentious proposed Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which would bring gas from Russia to Germany. In the working paper, Dr. Riley emphasizes that the proposed pipeline would have negative implications for European […]

Geopolitics & Energy Security Oil and Gas

New Atlanticist

Mar 10, 2018

The Trump Administration’s Sanctions Policy: Competence and Questions

By Daniel Fried

In a speech March 9 at the Atlantic Council, US Department of Treasury Undersecretary Sigal Mandelker, the Trump administration’s top sanctions official, confirmed that new Russia sanctions are being prepared, and suggested that they would target members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s power structure. This was just one of the items covered in a half-day […]

Iran Korea

EnergySource

Mar 8, 2018

Responding to Russia: Time to back backhaul

By John Roberts

Did Gazprom’s sudden move to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in early March give Europe a chance to secure an almost instantaneous improvement to its energy security? Gazprom’s response to what it saw as an adverse February 28 ruling by an arbitration court in Stockholm, effectively ordering the Russian gas giant to pay  $2.64 […]

Geopolitics & Energy Security Oil and Gas

New Atlanticist

Mar 7, 2018

Here’s How the United States and Europe Should Counter Disinformation

By Rachel Ansley

Any US or European response to the ongoing issue of disinformation must not exploit the openness of a democratic society, but work within its boundaries to ensure transparency of information, according to the Atlantic Council’s Daniel Fried. “We have to fight disinformation within the norms of our government,” said Fried, a distinguished fellow in the […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 6, 2018

Can The West Be Saved?

By Stanley Sloan

An unholy alliance of Russia, the Islamic State, and far-right Western politicians and political movements is threatening democracies in the West. The Western populists—playing off fears created by the Islamic State and cooperating both formally and less openly with Russia—seek to move democracies in the West away from a political system that is based on […]

European Union International Organizations

UkraineAlert

Mar 6, 2018

Torture in Eastern Ukraine—and What Comes After It

By Iuliia Mendel

Oleksiy Kanarskyy, a twenty-five-year old Ukrainian, never thought he would celebrate January 1 in freedom. His hopes had faded during three years of detention in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, after endless promises of a prisoners’ exchange between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists. But on December 27, 2017, the largest prisoner swap since […]

Russia Ukraine

Experts