Policy Memos | Аналитика 101

Protecting ‘Our’ History: Politics, Memory, and the Russian State

On May 14, 2009, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev signed Decree No. 549, “On the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for Countering Attempts to Falsify History to the…

A Curse or a Blessing?: What to Expect from a Typical Developing Resource-Abundant State

It might seem obvious that a country endowed with larger quantities of natural resources has an advantage and, other conditions being similar, will grow faster than resource-poor countries. This is…

The Russian Black Sea Fleet After the Georgian War

Russian ships left their bases in Sevastopol and Novorossisk and sailed for the Georgian coast on August 9, the day after hostilities began in the region. A total of 13…

The Circassian Dimension of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics

In 2014, the popular Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi will host the Winter Olympics, signifying Russia’s increasingly high international profile. The honor of hosting the Olympics is a…

Wrestling from Brotherly Hugs: Prospects for Involving Belarus in Regional Energy Cooperation

Contradicting dire forecasts of economic crisis and even collapse, “Lukanomics” has managed to lead Belarus into a thirteenth consecutive year of uninterrupted economic growth. This stability, however, has been heavily…

The South Caucasus Corridor after the Russian-Georgian War

The “five-day war” between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 has many dimensions. For those trying to discern its strategic implications, perhaps the most important is its impact on alternative…

All Quiet on the Karabagh Front?

The present state of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno Karabagh and the surrounding territories can be simultaneously assessed in three completely different tones: hopeful, alarmist, and cynically bored. A flurry…

How We Assess Civil Society Developments: The Russia Example

In assessing a country’s commitment to democracy, civil society developments are a key component. An encouraged, or at least unfettered, civil society usually provides evidence of democratic governance. An overtly…

War in Georgia and the ‘Russian Card’ in Ukrainian Politics

Escalation of the South Ossetian conflict into a Russian-Georgian war immediately changed the security climate in the post-Soviet space. For the first time since 1991, the Russian Federation officially rejected…

Can Russia Win the Ideological Battle in Georgia?

Georgia has been one of the most vocally independent-minded countries among the Soviet Union’s successor states. As Georgia’s ambitions to draw closer to Europe and the transatlantic community have grown,…

Civil Society in the New Authoritarianism

Russian prime minister and former president Vladimir Putin’s efforts to strengthen the Russian state are well-known. His consistent advocacy of a strong society is less so. In this respect, Putin’s…

Russian-Ukrainian Relations After the Georgian War

There is little doubt that the August 2008 crisis in Georgia affected relations between Russia and Ukraine. At the time, a number of analysts voiced serious concerns that Ukraine would…

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Policy Memos | Аналитика