Carnegie Moscow Center
2012 is an election year for both Russia and the United States. Presidential elections have already taken place in Russia, and they will be held in the United States in November. It remains to be seen how these political changes might affect Russian-American relations.
Russia has been in a post-empire state for the last 20 years. There is no way back to an empire now—Russia has passed the point of no return in this respect.
Relations between the West and Russia are still shifting as the West has yet to adjust to the post-Soviet reality and Russia has not settled on its relationship with the rest of the world.
The twentieth anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union comes at a moment of unique challenge and opportunity for the country, as Ukrainians look to their new leaders to resolve longstanding problems.
Two issues—military reform and interethnic relations in the Russian Federation—seem to have grabbed the most public attention since the Soviet collapse. They have had a big impact on Russia’s public and political life over the last twenty years, and affect the foundations for the country’s future development.
Told in eight parts, Eight Pieces of Empire follows the USSR’s disintegration and its aftermath through two decades of the author’s own reporting from the region.
On October 31, 2011, the world population reached 7 billion. However, for most of the post-Soviet nations, population levels have been declining.
Twenty years after its independence from the Soviet Union, Belarus faces increasing isolation, possible economic collapse, and the brutal regime of Alexander Lukashenka.
Moldova is facing many of the challenges of the post-Soviet space, including corruption, internal conflict, underdevelopment, and labor migration, but it is charting an ambitious path of reform, reconciliation, and European integration.
Twenty years after the end of the Soviet Union, Moscow should drop the notion of creating an exclusive power center in the post-Soviet space.