Russia Archive

Although Western attention has focused on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a potential threat to Western influence in Eurasia, another institution, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), currently represents a more serious near-term challenge. Last October, the leaders of the CSTO convened one of their most important summits in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. The assembled presidents and senior staff reached several important decisions that testify to the CSTO’s expanding regional security ambitions. First, they adopted procedures formally authorizing members to conduct joint peacekeeping operations. Second, by reaffirming Moscow’s willingness to sell arms to its CSTO allies on a […]

BELGRADE, Serbia — The two leading contenders in Serbia’s presidential election are mixing their messages on Europe, Russia and nationalism. Campaign posters across the country show Democratic Party candidate President Boris Tadic, a pro-European, in front of the national flag. The tricolor, however, is difficult to spot on nationalist Tomislav Nikolic’s posters. Instead, he is telling all he is a lifelong pro-European, despite also saying that EU membership will have to wait until Serbia’s sovereignty over the province of Kosovo is assured. That outcome is far from certain with Kosovo’s declaration of independence set to come soon after the presidential […]

Although Donald Tusk has only been Polish prime minister since early November, he has already made clear that reconciling with Russia is a key goal for his new government. He told a recent news conference that, “The improvement of relations between Moscow and Warsaw is a priority goal of current Polish foreign policy.” The two sides have resolved some strains and begun addressing others. The key issue now facing the Polish government is the extent to which it can both satisfy Moscow and enhance its leverage with Washington without antagonizing either party. Tusk, a former Solidarity activist and leader of […]

Diplomatic tension between Russia and Great Britain that has been building over the past year is likely to continue in 2008. The tension began in May 2007, when Russia refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the main suspect in the murder of Aleksandr Litvinenko, a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (the successor to the KGB) and an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko defected to Great Britain in 2000 and became a British citizen. He was poisoned with radioactive polonium at a London restaurant in November 2006 while attempting to investigate the murder of Russian journalist […]

According to official results released yesterday, Mikheil Saakashvili won a definitive first-round victory in this weekend’s snap presidential elections in Georgia. Saakashvili received a narrow majority of votes, thereby obviating the need to engage in a runoff with the next-highest vote getter. The Central Election Commission concluded the former president garnered 53 percent of the vote on Saturday, while the second-place finisher received 27 percent. Whatever their effects at home, the events of the last few months are unlikely to either improve Georgia’s already troubled relationship with Moscow or bolster its chances of joining NATO, which Saakashvili, his main political […]