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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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NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, April 16, 2014

NATOSource

May 21, 2014

Secretary General: NATO’s Eastern Allies ‘Gravely Concerned’ About Russian Actions

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO

[W]hat we have seen in… in Ukraine is outrageous.

NATO Russia

In the News

May 21, 2014

Ullman: History Counts II

By Harlan Ullman

Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Adviser Harlan Ullman writes for UPI on the importance of looking at events in Ukraine and other places through a historical lens:

Russia Syria

Congressional Relations

May 21, 2014

Merkel Testifies Before House on Energy Resources in Central Asia

By David Merkel

Eurasia Center Senior Fellow David Merkel testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the subject of the development of energy resources in Central Asia:

Russia
US paratroopers in Estonia

NATOSource

May 20, 2014

European Ground Troops Need to Join US Units Defending NATO’s Eastern Allies

By Steven Pifer, Financial Times

Given Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine, companies of airborne soldiers have been deployed to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to assure those countries and serve as tripwires. But the soldiers are all Americans. Where are the Europeans?

Europe & Eurasia NATO
REUTERS/Konstantin Grishin

New Atlanticist

May 20, 2014

For Crimea’s Tatars, Russia’s Occupation is a ‘Third Tragedy’

By Idil Izmirli

Note to Western Allies: ‘Tatars Understand That They Now Face a Long, New Struggle’  In the dark first hours of May 18, 1944, Soviet army convoys rumbled into the villages of Crimea’s native Tatars and began forcing 230,000 of them into exile. Soldiers packed the Tatars into rail cars, typically without food or water, to […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

May 19, 2014

Journalism is a Crime In Crimea

By Volodymyr Prytula

Under Russian Control, Vigilantes and Police Detain, Beat, Threaten Reporters Osman Pashaev, 37, is one of the most popular television reporters in Crimea. Pashaev, an ethnic Tatar, worked for years for the region’s Tatar channel ATR and recently founded his own internet channel. Yesterday, Pashaev joined other Crimea journalists in covering the Tatar community’s public […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

May 19, 2014

Russian Separatist Commander Appeals for Volunteers, Says He is Short of Fighters

By Irena Chalupa

Colonel Igor Girkin, in Video, Laments Failure of Ukrainians to Rally to His Secessionist Uprising The Russian armed forces colonel commanding eastern Ukraine’s secessionist militias can’t recruit enough local men as fighters, and that doesn’t make him happy.  Igor Girkin has been away from his family and his apartment in Moscow for months now, leading […]

Russia Ukraine
BAE found malicious code in ten countries

NATOSource

May 19, 2014

Russian Cyber Campaign Continues to Penetrate NATO Ministries

By Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg View

It shouldn’t be easy to shut down a European ministry for days, depriving bureaucrats of access to e-mail and the web. Someone, however, has managed to do just that to Belgium’s foreign ministry, which had to quarantine its entire computer system last Saturday

NATO Russia
REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

New Atlanticist

May 19, 2014

Russian Campaign in Eastern Ukraine is Losing Steam, ex-US Ambassador Says

By James Rupert

Atlantic Council’s John Herbst Cites Putin Pullbacks, Statements by Russian Leaders in Ukraine Insurgency Today’s announcement by Russia’s government that President Vladimir Putin has ordered a pullback of Russian troops from Ukraine’s border is the latest of a half-dozen signals that “the Russian effort to destabilize eastern Ukraine is losing steam,” according to the director […]

Russia Ukraine
Latvian soldier participating in Steadfast Jazz exercise

NATOSource

May 19, 2014

Unprotected in the East: NATO Appears Toothless in Russia Crisis

By Spiegel

According to information SPIEGEL obtained by SPIEGEL, a draft version of a comprehensive, restricted internal NATO assessment of the situation reads: “Russia’s ability to undertake significant military action with little warning presents a wider threat to the maintenance of security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.

Germany NATO

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