Carnegie Moscow Center
The 50-year-old arms control regime that helped keep the Cold War cold is beyond repair. It's time to begin discussing ways of moving toward a new global strategic regime.
The slump in gas prices will create plenty of problems, but at the same time it could provide a much-needed purging of an industry that in recent years has seen increasingly absurd projects unveiled for pipelines and LNG terminals.
EU moves to coordinate efforts against the new coronavirus, relax regulatory enforcement, and demonstrate solidarity can help to show that the European Union can provide added value to individual EU countries, and that it remains a force to be reckoned with.
In Ukraine, the chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic combined with the country’s existing political problems could sharpen the appetite for authoritarianism in Ukrainian society.
There is little reason to expect that the far-right Alternative for Germany party will become a leading political force. Yet the political landscape will inevitably take on a different form, as Merkel-era centrism gives way to growing ideological polarization.
Many Brits continue to believe that Russia interfered in the Brexit referendum campaign by financing and promoting the Leave campaign. In addition, the legacy of the poisoning of the Skripals will impact bilateral relations for years to come, with no mutually acceptable resolution in sight.
The concentration of pro-Russia gestures in the Western Balkans cement the impression that a major expansion of the Kremlin’s influence in the region is in the cards. But there’s another possible reading of the fallout from Macron’s high-handed behavior.
At meetings like ASEM we create the environment and the conditions to enhance the connections we have between our societies and our citizens. This is the real goal of frameworks such as ASEM
Solving humanitarian problems and stabilizing the area around the line of contact is the bare minimum outcome of talks on Ukraine that all sides consider necessary. At the same time, each side suspects that for its opponents, this minimum is also the maximum in terms of what is politically acceptable.
Russia needs Belarus and Lukashenko to serve as an alluring example to other post-Soviet rulers of how beneficial integration with Russia can be. As long as Moscow has the ambition of preserving its influence over the post-Soviet states, any Russian leader will need Lukashenko as a showcase ally.