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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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In the News

Apr 15, 2015

Karatnycky: Vladimir Putin’s Secrets and Lies

By Adrian Karatnycky

Transatlantic Relations Program Nonresident Senior Fellow Adrian Karatnycky writes for Newsweek on how to understand Putin’s actions and comments to the media:

Russia

UkraineAlert

Apr 14, 2015

The Balkan Piece of the Putin Puzzle

By Stephen Blank

While the Russian threat to Poland and the Baltic States has sparked justified anxiety, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imperial adventure is just as much of a threat to the Balkans.  Moscow is putting on a full-court press—using energy exports, information warfare, trade, arms sales, and efforts to obtain military bases in Cyprus, Montenegro and Serbia—to […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

EconoGraphics

Apr 14, 2015

Who is Investing Abroad?

By Global Business & Economics

While the US still leads the world in outflowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the emerging markets are catching up quickly. Chinese outflowing FDI, in particular has grown tremendously: since 2005, it increased more than 30-fold in 8 years from $5 billion to $166 billion. While initial Chinese foreign investments focused on natural resource industries, over time the investments have spread to diverse industries like agriculture, manufacturing, and professional services. BRIC FDIs are emerging as key growth drivers for low income countries, improving their business environment, building infrastructure, creating jobs, and adding much-needed revenue to government coffers.

China Russia
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, May 29, 2014

NATOSource

Apr 13, 2015

Russia Concerned Finland and Sweden Moving Closer To NATO

By YLE and Helsinki Times

From YLE:  The Russian Foreign Ministry has written an article on its website condemning a Nordic minister declaration that appeared in the Norwegian paper Aftenposten last Thursday.

NATO NATO Partnerships
Norwegian F-16 intercepting Russian Tu-95 bomber

NATOSource

Apr 10, 2015

Due to Russian Aggression, Nordic States Increasing Their Military Cooperation

By Sveinung Berg Bentzrød, Aftenposten

In an op-ed published in the Oslo daily Aftenposten, five Nordic ministers have signed the text outlining a very distinct military cooperation. An extended cooperation.

Northern Europe Russia
Russia's Ambassador to NATO, Alexander Grushko

NATOSource

Apr 10, 2015

NATO Reduces Size of Russian Delegation After Internal Reports of Espionage

By Michael R. Gordon, New York Times

For a year after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization cut back its cooperation with Russia as punishment for the country’s incursions into Ukraine, Russia’s NATO mission has seemed curiously impervious to the deteriorating ties.

Intelligence NATO
ZAPAD 2013

NATOSource

Apr 9, 2015

Benitez: Russia’s Military Exercises are Very Dangerous

By Jela de Franceschi and Isabela Cocoli, Voice of America

NATOSource Director and Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Jorge Benitez said that Russian military activities along the Finnish border, the deployment of strategic weapons systems to Kaliningrad and Crimea, and positions across the Baltic Fleet, Black Sea Fleet, and in the western and southern military districts, mimicked a full-scale attack against […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Apr 9, 2015

The Bear is Inside the Wire

By Frank J. Cilluffo and Sharon L. Cardash

Russian hackers, fresh from breaching the State Department’s unclassified networks in recent months, have managed to sneak into “sensitive but unclassified” White House networks, CNN reported on April 7. The perpetrators gained access to real-time non-public details of the President’s schedule, precisely the type of information foreign intelligence services prioritize for collection. The White House […]

Cybersecurity Russia
Czech soldiers participating in exercise Noble Jump, April 8, 2015

NATOSource

Apr 9, 2015

Exercise Tests If New NATO Force Can Respond Rapidly

By Naftali Bendavid, Wall Street Journal

When 200 Dutch troops converged on the air force base here this week, it wasn’t a routine case of reporting for duty but a test for a key element of NATO’s response to the renewed Russian threat.

Central Europe Germany

New Atlanticist

Apr 9, 2015

Can Gazprom Really Cut Out Ukrainian Transit Post-South Stream?

By Nolan Theisen

Despite an unceremonious end to the controversial South Stream mega-pipeline, Russia remains outspoken and determined in its effort to carve Ukraine entirely out of its European natural gas deliveries which accounted for 62 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Gazprom’s European-bound exports in 2014. Formally announced in 2007, South Stream had been the centerpiece of this […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

Experts