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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.

Content

In the News

Mar 4, 2014

Pavel: Perceived US Weakness Emboldens Putin

By Barry Pavel

Atlantic Council VP and Brent Scowcroft Center Director Barry Pavel is quoted in the National Post on the failure of Western powers to check Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Eastern Europe:

Russia Ukraine

Article

Mar 3, 2014

Russia, Ukraine, the Neighbourhood: Changing Putin’s Risk Calculus

By Matthew Bryza

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is part of the highest-stakes gambits of President Putin’s career. Putin is not bent on war or on dismembering Ukraine. Rather, he seeks to reverse his humiliating defeat in failing to intimidate Ukraine into abandoning its return to Europe.

Russia Ukraine

In the News

Mar 3, 2014

Benitez: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Demands NATO Response

By Jorge Benitez

Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Fellow and NATOSource Director Jorge Benitez writes for The Hill on how NATO should respond to Russia’s occupation of Crimea:

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Mar 3, 2014

US Must Pull Germany Into Helping Lead NATO Against Russia

By Erik Brattberg

If Russia pursues and consolidates its armed seizure of Ukrainian territory in Crimea, the US and NATO have no politically viable option for reversing that advance by military force. What the West can do, however, is too modify Moscow’s calculations, making it more costly for Putin to sustain his aggressive effort to hold Ukraine within […]

Germany Russia
President Barack Obama discussing Ukraine with national security advisors, Feb. 28, 2014

NATOSource

Mar 3, 2014

President Obama’s Foreign Policy is Based on Fantasy

By Editorial Board of the Washington Post

For five years, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality.

China Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 3, 2014

Four Steps NATO can Take to Support Ukraine

By Ian Brzezinski

NATO’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council, met Sunday to discuss Russia’s invasion of Crimea and its threat to take military action elsewhere in Ukraine. Immediately afterwards, the Alliance convened a session of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, which brought Kyiv to the table.  The meetings yielded a strong statement from NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rassmussen who […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 3, 2014

How to Beat a Russian Cyber Assault on Ukraine

By Jason Healey

Ukraine and its friends in the United States, NATO, and European Union need to prepare now for a probably inevitable (but just possibly preventable) cyber conflict with Russian-backed proxies. Russian government behavior is clear when its perceived interests in its “near abroad” are at risk.  The trend started most obviously in 1999 when the Kremlin turned […]

Cybersecurity Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 2, 2014

Nicholas Burns: Five Steps Obama Should Take Now Against Russia

By New Atlanticist

President Obama can quickly take five concrete steps to blunt Russia’s military seizure of control in the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, former Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in an Atlantic Council conference call today with journalists and Council members. “President Obama faces the most difficult international crisis of his presidency,” Burns said, and the […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 2, 2014

Putin’s Strategy

By Damon Wilson

President Putin is striking back and playing for keeps in Ukraine. After losing his lever of control over Ukraine when the pliant and dependent former President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia, Putin is seeking to regain his leverage by dismembering Ukraine.

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Mar 2, 2014

Putin’s Risk of Blowback From Ukraine

By Ian Brzezinski

US Should Stress to Russia the Costs it Will Pay at Home Russia’s invasion of Crimea, and the Russian parliament’s authorization for President Vladimir Putin’s to use military force throughout Ukraine, reflects Putin’s longstanding desire to reacquire territory lost through the collapse of the Soviet Union. This incursion violates a treaty Russia signed in 1994 […]

Eastern Europe Russia

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