Website: https://osteuropastudien.wordpress.com
Nicole Gallina is a central European politologist who publishes on Eastern European topics and political theoretical questions, and teaches regularly at Swiss and Eastern European Universities.
It is hardly three weeks since the election of Donald Trump as US president. The German Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier reacted harshly to his victory. But his election apparently was not taken as a warning that similar...
The overall picture for Russia in autumn 2016 in regard to some of its former European colonies that once belonged to the Soviet Union is rather favorable. Belarus and Armenia have the closest relation with Russia, and are politically and...
In the last few months, Russia conducted a round of intensive exercises “rehearsing” offensive warfare. A development that has culminated in late summer 2016. Observers noted that in the first two August weeks already, “Russian armed...
European media and politics are very busy this summer: Brexit, terror attacks in France and Germany, the Turkish president purging secular forces. In the meantime the most threatening development is not on the top agenda: Russia has used...
While NATO is staging the “Anaconda-16” exercises in Poland, Russian airforce conducts reconnaissance flights over the territory of Belarus and has been redeploying the 28th separate motorized rifle brigade of the Russian armed forces...
Russia is increasingly pushing its narrative of being forced to prepare for war against NATO and the US. Unfortunately, the narrative is well received in western liberal and anti-American circles, and used to “prove” NATO’s and...
While the special monitoring mission of the OSCE has played an at least ambiguous role in Ukraine, there are indications the organization’s leadership strives for greater projects. Back in December 2014, Russia’s Foreign Minister...
Knowing of how to confront Russia has not been a German virtue. Historically, cooperation has worked much better – for both sides. During the Cold War, a “change through rapprochement” became the official policy of the German Federal...
At the beginning of February 2016, the Ukrainian ATO (anti-terrorism operation) command blamed the OSCE directly for its inaction for the first time. The organization had not been able to respond to increased attacked of the combined...
So what was Russia up to in 2015 beyond its continuing war in Ukraine, capturing the Donetsk airport and the Debaltseve area last winter (at a high cost for own men and material, and for the civilian population in the Debaltseve region)...
When Ukrainian prosecutors released audio intercepts that appeared to show the direct involvement of Kremlin top advisor Sergey Glazyev in Russia’s takeover of Crimea and pro-separatist rallies in eastern Ukraine in August 2016, they...
