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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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Russia’s prominent business weekly, Ekspert, leads its edition this week with the declaration that "Donbas is the Heart of Russia." The article, by its chief editor, Valeriy Fadeyev, picks up the theme from a 1920s Soviet campaign that included the poster at right, which shows industrial goods from Donbas being pumped throughout the Soviet economy. (www.ekspert.com; CC License)

New Atlanticist

Jun 13, 2014

DIRECT TRANSLATION: ‘Donbas, the Heart of Russia’

By Irena Chalupa

A Commentator Close to Putin Writes: Unitary Ukraine is Finished A prominent Russian business magazine, Ekspert, publishes a lead article this week by two highly placed Russian policy thinkers writing about Ukraine’s southeastern provinces and proclaiming, “We won’t abandon them.” That emotional headline might represent more than just another piece of nationalist opinion-making, for the […]

Russia Ukraine
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Jan. 22, 2014

NATOSource

Jun 12, 2014

Russia Acknowledges Sending Aid to Eastern Ukraine

By Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post

Russia’s top diplomat on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time an official relationship with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, the same day that one of their top leaders made a surprise appearance in Moscow to whip up support for his cause.

OSCE Russia
F-22A Raptor intercepts Russian TU-95 Bear bomber near Alaskan airspace, Nov. 22, 2007

NATOSource

Jun 12, 2014

Russian Bombers Fly Within 50 Miles of California Coast

By Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon

Four Russian strategic bombers triggered U.S. air defense systems while conducting practice bombing runs near Alaska this week, with two of the Tu-95 Bear H aircraft coming within 50 miles of the California coast, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) confirmed Wednesday.

Russia United States and Canada

In the News

Jun 12, 2014

Kramer: A New Western Strategy Toward Russia

By Franklin Kramer

Brent Scowcroft Center Distinguished Fellow Franklin D. Kramer cowrites for The Hill‘s Congress Blog on shaping a long-term Western strategy towards Russia:

Russia Ukraine
Russian military exercise ZAPAD 2009

NATOSource

Jun 11, 2014

Russia Responds to Annual NATO Maneuvers with Surprise Exercise of First Strike Forces

By RT

The Baltic Sea and skies are getting crowded as Russia launches military training of its assault forces in the exclave of Kaliningrad in answer to the double war-games being conducted by joint NATO forces on the territory of the three Baltic States.

NATO Northern Europe
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, June 10, 2014

NATOSource

Jun 10, 2014

Rasmussen Outlines Strategic Transatlantic Priorities

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO

[H]istory has taught us that freedom does not come for free. We must work for it. Invest in it. And, if necessary, fight for it.

Economy & Business Energy & Environment
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after meeting of NATO-Russia Council, December 4, 2009

NATOSource

Jun 10, 2014

Grushko Warns that Moscow May Withdraw from NATO-Russia Founding Act

By Voice of Russia

NATO was and is a leading military organization in the European-Atlantic region

NATO Russia
Norwegian artillery unit participating in Unified Vision exercise, May 25, 2014

NATOSource

Jun 10, 2014

Russia ‘Forced’ to Take ‘Military Measures’ If NATO Deploys More Troops in Eastern Allies

By Lidia Kelly and Gabriela Baczynska, Reuters

Russia would consider any further expansion of NATO forces near its borders a “demonstration of hostile intentions” and would take political and military measures to ensure its own security, a senior diplomat was quoted on Monday as saying.

NATO Russia
Armed men outside Sloviansk city council, April 14, 2014

NATOSource

Jun 9, 2014

‘Masterly’ Russian Operations in Ukraine Leave NATO One Step Behind

By Sam Jones, Financial Times

In more than a dozen interviews, planners, security officials and members of the intelligence community have spoken of Moscow with universal, if grudging, praise.

Intelligence NATO
Novaya Gazeta's website published a story and photo it said is of Sergei Zhdanovich, a Russian army veteran who went to fight alongside Ukraine's separatists, and was recently buried in his hometown near Moscow. (www.novayagazeta.ru)

New Atlanticist

Jun 9, 2014

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Russian Fighters, Killed in Ukraine, are Buried Quietly Near Moscow

By James Rupert

Russia’s Ekho Moskvy radio and the newspaper Novaya Gazeta (partly owned by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev), have been peeling back the secrecy surrounding the thirty-one Russian citizens killed two weeks ago fighting with secessionist militias in southeast Ukraine. Novaya Gazeta reports that thirty of those killed were ethnic Russians, and the other a Chechen. […]

Russia Ukraine

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