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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.

The Russia Tomorrow series

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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.

Content

In the News

Mar 1, 2015

Herbst on the Ukrainian Pilot Held in a Moscow Prison

By John Herbst

The Philly Inquirer quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Director John Herbst on the Ukrainian pilot being held in a Moscow prison and how the West should respond:

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Feb 28, 2015

Storify: Russian Opposition Leader, Boris Nemtsov, Killed in Moscow

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic Russian opposition leader, was shot dead near the Kremlin in Moscow on February 27. Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister, had accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of leading Russia into a crisis with the West with his “mad, aggressive, and deadly policy of war against Ukraine.” “The country needs a political […]

Russia Ukraine

Event Recap

Feb 27, 2015

Germany’s Future Role in Transatlantic Security: A Conversation with Vice Admiral Andreas Krause, Chief of the German Navy

By Brent Scowcroft Center

Over the past year, tensions between Russia and NATO over the war in Ukraine have extended past NATO’s south-eastern border up to its most vulnerable north-eastern partners. It is along this border that Russia has launched three surprise military exercises in the past year, incorporating land, air, and sea offensive elements in scenarios eerily resembling […]

Germany NATO
German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, Oct. 10, 2007

NATOSource

Feb 27, 2015

The DNA of German Foreign Policy

By Frank Walter Steinmeier, Project Syndicate

[I]t is abundantly clear from the Review that our partners expect a more active – and even more robust – German foreign policy in the future. Expectations are high – perhaps too high at times.

Europe & Eurasia France
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK PM David Cameron, & President Barack Obama, June 25, 2009

NATOSource

Feb 27, 2015

NATO Defense Spending Promises Largely Ignored

By Sam Jones, Financial Times

Only two of Nato’s six biggest defence spenders — the US and France — will fulfil a pledge to protect military budgets made at the alliance’s summit five months ago.

France Germany

In the News

Feb 26, 2015

Business Insider Cites the Atlantic Council

By Ian Brzezinski and Nicholas Varangis

Business Insider cites an Atlantic Council chart demonstrating the NATO-Russia exercise gap from a NATOSource article by the Scowcroft Center’s Ian Brzezinski and Nicholas Varangis:

NATO Russia
SACEUR Gen. Philip Breedlove, May 23, 2013

NATOSource

Feb 25, 2015

General Breedlove: US Depends on European Allies and Partners to ‘Fully Defend Our National Security Interests’

By Philip Breedlove, EUCOM

Our many shared values, interests, and economic interdependence with Europe provides unique opportunities and assets for collective security as well as global security cooperation.

Europe & Eurasia NATO

In the News

Feb 25, 2015

Brzezinski on the “Exercise Gap” Between Russia and NATO

By Ian Brzezinski

BBC News quotes Scowcroft Center Senior Fellow Ian Brzezinski on the “exercise gap” between Russia and NATO from an Atlantic Council report:

NATO Russia
Soldiers from Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas Motorised Infantry Battalion, Dec. 31, 2001

NATOSource

Feb 24, 2015

Worried About Russia, Lithuania Reinstates Military Conscription

By Liudas Dapkus, AP

Lithuania will restore compulsory military service for young men as tensions in Ukraine continue to worry the small Baltic nation, the government said Tuesday.

Northern Europe Russia
Russia's Zapad strategic military exercises, Sept. 26, 2013

NATOSource

Feb 23, 2015

The NATO-Russia Exercise Gap

By Ian J. Brzezinski and Nicholas Varangis, Atlantic Council

Exercises are used by defense establishments to test their readiness, deployability, and logistical and combat proficiency.

NATO Russia

Experts