Ukraine
The Negroni Diaries
With Sweden now a NATO member, what’s next?
Sweden completed the necessary diplomatic formalities on March 7, depositing its instrument of accession with the U.S. State Department in Washington, which manages the...
EU Institutions
EU strives to boost ability to detect and prepare for cyber threats
The Belgian Presidency of the European Council on March 6 informally agreed on the Cyber Solidarity Act (CSoA), aiming to build a more resilient,...
Democracy & Human Rights
U.S. joins International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children
On March 7, the office of the spokesperson at the U.S. Department of State issued a media note, clearly meant to be circulated in...
Russia Sanctions
Russia sanctions remain a powerful tool to support Ukraine’s defense
Western leaders should not dismiss the two-year long sanctions campaign (as opposed to the 2014 Crimea sanctions) as unsuccessful simply because the Kremlin has...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Moldova’s 2024 elections: Why it matters
Since the war in Ukraine commenced, the neighboring Republic of Moldova, led by President Maia Sandu, has strongly supported Kyiv. As the tiny, landlocked...
Invasion of Ukraine
Canada and aiding the democratic cause in Ukraine
Though the funding of Ukraine’s war against Russia remains the main topic of the American Congress, Ukraine’s relationship with its other key Western partners,...
Ukraine
Ukraine’s persecuted mayor
Lest it be forgotten, the major thematic issue in post-Maidan and pre-war Ukraine was, and continues to be, the transformation of Ukrainian society along...
Armenia
Russia’s powerful economic levers over Armenia
Armenia's relations with its strategic partner Russia are getting worse and worse and its leaders seem to desire a shift in geopolitical orientation towards the West....
Economy & Business
Rebuilding Ukraine: Opportunities and concerns for foreign businesses
Such is the scale of the effort required to rebuild Ukraine that the World Bank in March 2023 estimated it at $411 billion. That...
Democracy & Human Rights
On confronting evil in the modern world
Now is an appropriate time to morally clarify the underlying narrative of what is happening in Israel and Ukraine.
Survivors of the last century’s greatest...
Invasion of Ukraine
It takes time to defeat a dictatorship
Whether it is acknowledged or not, Ukraine and the West are in the process of learning a very hard but essential lesson about the...
Disasters and Reconstruction Initiatives
US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery announced
President Joe Biden announced on September 14 the appointment of Penny Pritzker as the US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery.In this role, she...
Zero Tolerance
Zelensky Athens visit eclipses Mitsotakis’ informal Western Balkans Summit
Receiving a full house of Western Balkan leaders, as well as several EU luminaries, in Athens on an evening when much of northern Greece...
Agriculture & Food Security
Possible new solutions to Ukraine’s grain export challenge emerge
In view of the collapse of the UN’s Black Sea Grain Initiative in July at Russia’s insistence, work is proceeding in multiple sectors to...
The Negroni Diaries
Strange goings on in Northern Greece seem to worry Ankara
Government-linked Turkish media have indicated concern about a series of visits and events in Greece’s Evros prefecture -- the Greek-Turkish border region -- which...
Defense & Security
White House support for F-16s to Ukraine is a major momentum shift in the 18-month war
After months of waffling and amid increasingly desperate pleas from Kyiv, the White House has signaled to European allies in recent weeks that the...
Defense & Security
When it comes to defense, the politicians must listen to those who know best – the generals
The halls of power are walked by people who know little, care even less and yet have the right to supersede and ignore the advice of those who know better.
Europe & Eurasia
Putin’s New START withdrawal has broad implications
Vladimir Putin continues to persuade Russians that the West provoked his imperialist war of aggression against Ukraine. His announcement that he would no longer...
Defense & Security
Providing Ukraine with advanced Western fighters is a logical step towards battlefield success
While Ukraine may have weathered the storm of Russia’s initial onslaught and retaliated with a force and determination largely thought to have been beyond...
Invasion of Ukraine
What a difference one year makes
Ukraine’s steadfastness has shown Putin's dreams of a post-Soviet Russian Empire are pure fiction.
Columns
Could this be the end of the Chekist renaissance?
Russia's once all-powerful successor to the KGB - the FSB - is watching its status crumble after major military defeats in Ukraine.
Columns
Putin threatens global security with renewed nuclear saber rattling
Putin's maniacal compulsion to start a nuclear war is not just a sinister ultimatum to world peace, it is simply mad.
Invasion of Ukraine
Pentagon’s reported change on targeting could result in a more costly, earlier defeat for Moscow
The idea that a country which Russians have been told could never put up effective resistance is actually winning, dragging their country into a grim battle of attrition, will do more to make Russian people doubt their leadership than any inhumane rocket attack against their cities.
Europe & Eurasia
Poland is going its own way
The leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, continues to attack Germany, the main focus of his ire in Europe. Kaczynski...
Albania
EU Tirana Summit: Enlargement must go on
The summit's generic one size fits all “membership perspective” statement was seen as good news by most after the topic of EU Enlargement had become a highly controversial subject.
Newsletter
One rule for life & what maps mean: Keep Jordan Peterson away from Ukraine
For Peterson to refer to Russia's invasion as an ‘incursion’ is nothing more than insulting. The word does not make allowances for the wholesale destruction of cities, the occupation of territory and the murder of the inhabitants.
Invasion of Ukraine
Contemplating evil in Ukraine
According to the Geneva Conventions, Russia is perpetrating genocide against the Ukrainian people.
Invasion of Ukraine
Mykolaiv’s fight with collaborators saves lives and wrecks Russia’s plans in the south
Oleksy Vadatursky and his wife Raisa, one of the wealthiest couples in the Mykolaiv region, were killed in a Russian missile strike this summer....
Arts & Culture
For the Eurovision, Turin and Piedmont shows their vocation for hospitality on many levels
Music brings people together, even in the most challenging times. The Eurovision Song contest, one of the most important international songwriting competitions globally, is...
Albania
After Macron victory, Enlargement diplomacy back on the radar
With the war in Ukraine and the noise surrounding the French presidential elections, the subject of EU Enlargement into the Western Balkans had almost...
Africa
Moscow is moving Wagner mercenaries from Syria and Africa to Ukraine
Media reports from around the world have indicated that more than 1,000 mercenaries from Russia's infamous private military company Wagner have been transferred from...
Energy
For now, Slovakia sees NATO, not EU forces, Russian firewall
Slovakia favors the European Union’s collective military aspirations, but NATO has become even more important in guaranteeing the bloc’s security, Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Ivan...
Invasion of Ukraine
EU Council slams reported Russian atrocities committed in Ukraine
The European Council said on April 4 the EU condemns in the strongest possible terms the reported atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces...
Economy & Business
Sanctions expand as Russia approaches major default
No American President ever travels to Europe without a bag full of so-called “deliverables” and US President Joe Biden duly arrived in Brussels last...
Invasion of Ukraine
Russia’s invasion: A decisive human failure
War in Europe has moved into its third week. While the full end result is not yet clear, a new reality is starting to...
Energy
Ukraine, Moldova accelerate synchronization of power systems
Following an urgent request by Ukrenergo and Moldova for emergency synchronisation, the TSOs of Continental Europe agreed to start on March 16 the trial...
Economy & Business
Pressed by sanctions, Russia narrowly escapes default
While the global sanctions campaign against Russia is not yet a month old, investors and sanctioneers held their breath this week as Russia struggled...
Invasion of Ukraine
Ukraine and its freedom narrative
Despite the images of destruction, ruin, and human tragedy, the world is seeing the violent birth pangs of a future great and modern nation,...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Don’t forget the refugee crisis after the fighting stops
In the time following Russia’s indefensible invasion of Ukraine, over two million people have fled the country according to the United Nations. The lines...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Foreign volunteers
Even if you're a keen student of military history, you may not have heard of the Royal Air Force Eagle Squadrons. Like a great...
Analysis
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the purest manifestation of everyone’s worst fears about Putin
Before the crack of dawn on February 24, Russian bombs and missiles began to fall on Ukrainian cities and military installations. The worst fears...
Ukraine
EU to coordinate urgent supplies to Ukraine in the energy sector
The European Commission is actively working on ensuring that Ukraine can maintain stable electricity and gas supplies despite the war, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri...
Invasion of Ukraine
Will ‘no-fly’ zones fly over Ukraine
During a recent news conference, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was confronted with a plea for establishing a ‘no-fly zone’ This suggestion was quickly dissected...
Rest of World
Romanians offer heartfelt support to Ukrainian refugees at the border
The war following the Russian invasion in Ukraine changed many lives. At the Romanian borders, we can see people that are heartbroken and have...
Economy & Business
The economic bearpit – When “over there” becomes “over here”
An apology – with a ghastly diet of death, destruction and depravity currently raging around us, it may seem callous to examine the economic...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Is the Ukraine ‘crisis’ just another US charade?
Today we face an avoidable crisis that was predictable, actually predicted, willfully precipitated, but easily resolved by the application of common sense.We are being...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Europe’s dithering on Ukraine may be the final nail in coffin for the EU
There isn't a lot that makes me proud to be British these days. Neither the country nor its people are what they once were;...
Belarus
What if gas stops flowing through Ukraine?
Russia continues to keep more than 100,000 troops on its long border with Ukraine and carry out military exercises in Belarus. The US has,...
Energy
EU, US discuss energy security as Russia-Ukraine tensions rise
The United States will do everything it can to help ease any disruptions to Europe’s energy supply, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said...
Defense & Security
The West’s disunity stems from the latent Russophilia; anti-Anglo-Americanism of key EU nations
If you personify countries by combining their politics with their national identity, it's amazing how representative the characters are. For example, the UK is...
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