The economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which experienced a period of stagnation last year, are poised for a modest revival in 2024, but both the Russian and Turkish economies are already overheating.
Russian forces must only make an offensive push for 250km to cut the Baltic states from Europe.
France is taking independent steps regarding the South Caucasus, as French President Emmanuel Macron attempts to bolster his role as a top European leader.
Candidate states for EU accession such as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia remain in a zone of insecurity where Russia can intervene minimally in a hybrid way.
Sanctions on Russia have had mixed results after two years of war, inflicting real pain on the Russian economy, but the lack of effective enforcement has muted their effect, a panel organised by Brussels-based think-tank Bruegel.
In 2023, the combined state debt and state-guaranteed debt increased by 30.4% to $145.3bn, representing 85% of the estimated GDP (up from 49% in 2021 and 77.8% in 2022).
February is the new August in Russia. Ever since the 1991 coup that ended Soviet communism August was reputed to be the month of black swans that changed the course of Russian history.
Watching Yulia Navalnaya's stoic declaration to carry on her husband's battle against Putin and his regime, I found myself wrestling with scepticism, not about Yulia's intentions or her undeniable bravery, but about the broader context she is in.
Moldova and Montenegro already targets of Russian destabilisation efforts, says RUSI report.
It is a sad day for anyone interested in Russia and the former Soviet Union. Alexey Navalny, for all his flaws, represented a brave, unyielding voice in the wilderness refusing to succumb to fear of a merciless regime.
I cannot recall another instance in history when a US president invited an enemy to attack our allies. Imagine how those comments sound in Lithuania, Estonia, or Poland.
As of February 4, 2024, 356 international companies (9.6% of the total number of entries in the KSE database, or 27.8% of the companies that generated revenue in Russia in 2022) have entirely ceased operations in Russia.
And what’s seen is quite encouraging.
Eurosceptics' ability to exploit protests will test the EU's potential to influence its Eastern Neighbourhood. At the same time, electoral cycles in Eastern Europe favour the consolidation and perpetuation of autocracies.
Over the last two years, I have given a lot of talks around the United States and the world about the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I have a talk discerning the causes of the war and the possibility of a Russia-Nato clash.
For all the talk of the Kremlin’s rising confidence since late 2023, the reality is in fact far from encouraging for Russia. Rather oddly, a nation mired in a foreign war it cannot easily extricate itself from against a far smaller adversary.
External environment has become dramatically less supportive for the Russian economy and critical buffers are coming under pressure, Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) said in its latest Russia Chartbook released on January 24.
It has suddenly become unexpectedly and depressingly fashionable to predict the imminence of World War III, and the westward march of Moscow’s grim legions.
In Soviet times, the steel industry was the very symbol of the country’s planned industrialization. The sector revived in the 1990s before flourishing in the noughties, becoming one of Russia's big export-earners. But sanctions have hit it hard.
Preliminary figures from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (Ukrstat) show that Ukraine’s GDP grew by 9.3% y/y in the third quarter of 2023. But the outlook for 2024 is clouded by uncertainty over crucial western funding.