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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

Feb 19, 2015

Karatnycky: Making the Most of Minsk

By Adrian Karatnycky

Transatlantic Relations Program Nonresident Senior Fellow Adrian Karatnycky writes for The New York Times on why the Minsk agreement is deeply flawed and what the West needs to do to respond to Putin’s strategy:

Russia Ukraine

In the News

Feb 18, 2015

Brzezinski on Russian Sanctions

By Ian Brzezinski

CNBC quotes Scowcroft Center Senior Fellow Ian Brzezinski on why the new Russian sanctions are simply symbolic: 

Russia

UkraineAlert

Feb 18, 2015

Amid the ‘Cease-Fire,’ Russian Forces Win a Battle in Ukraine

By New Atlanticist

Kyiv Forced into New Retreat; US, Europe Must Increase Support, Atlantic Council Analysts Say At midday February 18, three-and-a-half days beyond the designated hour for a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, fighting was continuing in the strategic city of Debaltseve, where Russian forces continue to pound a nearly surrounded Ukrainian contingent that may still number in […]

Eastern Europe Russia

In the News

Feb 17, 2015

Karatnycky: “We’re Dealing with a Battle for the Heart and Soul of Russia”

By Adrian Karatnycky

The AP quotes Transatlantic Relations Program Nonresident Senior Fellow Adrian Karatnycky on the fighting in Debaltseve and why the fight in Ukraine demonstrates a change in Russian values:

Russia Ukraine
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and British Prime Minister David Cameron, Sept. 4, 2014

NATOSource

Feb 17, 2015

David Cameron Will Encourage Britain’s Enemies If He Cuts Defense Spending, Warn Former NATO Chiefs

By Ben Riley-Smith, Telegraph

David Cameron will embolden Vladimir Putin and Islamic terrorists if he reneges on a commitment to spend two per cent of GDP on defence, two former Nato heads have warned.

NATO Russia
The leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine, Feb. 11, 2015

NATOSource

Feb 14, 2015

Stephen Walt Makes the Case for Appeasing Russia

By Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy

Those who favor arming Ukraine are also applying “deterrence model” remedies to what is almost certainly a “spiral model” situation.

NATO Russia

In the News

Feb 13, 2015

Herbst on Russian Popular Opinion

By John Herbst

The Star Tribune quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Director John Herbst on Russian popular opinion of Putin and the conflict in Ukraine:

Russia Ukraine

In the News

Feb 13, 2015

Dobriansky: Russia Should Be Prosecuted for its Crimes Against Humanity

Paula J. Dobriansky, who served as Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs from 2001 to 2009 and is an Atlantic Council Board member, writes in The Washington Post that the International Criminal Court must investigate Russia’s violations in Ukraine: “Russia’s grave violations of international humanitarian norms, especially the law of armed conflict, should […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2015

Making Ukraine’s ‘Glimmer of Hope’ Sustainable

By Sabine Freizer

If Russia Permits, the Minsk Accord Could Be a Start for Stabilizing Donbas The ceasefire agreement signed by Russia and Ukraine on in Minsk on 12 February offers what German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls “a glimmer of hope, no more no less” for constricting, and eventually ending, the war in southeast Ukraine’s Donbas region. Whether […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Feb 13, 2015

Russia’s Ukraine War Wins it the Advantage in New Truce Deal

By John E. Herbst

‘Minsk II’ Accord Will Let Moscow Keep Pumping Arms, Fighters into Ukraine’s Donbas With thousands of Ukrainian troops nearly surrounded in Donbas by the freshly armed, Kremlin-directed rebel militias, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko accepted the Minsk II agreement February 12. The new accord is clearly less advantageous to Kyiv than was the Minsk I agreement, which […]

Russia Ukraine

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