By Elkhan Nuriyev, Humboldt Senior Fellow, Centre for East European and International Studies

Almost three decades on from the fall of communism, the European Union’s Eastern neighborhood remains embroiled in protracted conflicts that have hampered regional integration, bred mistrust, and encouraged wasteful military spending. This is mainly because the leaders of the Eastern Partnership countries—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine—lack flexible reconciliation strategies that may help build peace and foster political stability and economic prosperity.
Complex lingering conflicts have made the European Union’s Eastern partners the objects of a damaging geopolitical tussle between Russia and the EU. READ MORE

• February 3, 2020

By Benyamin Poghosyan, PhD, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies

With Pompeo due in Minsk this week, and the Belarus presidential elections on the horizon, Moscow and Minsk have some difficult decisions to take.
Relations between Russia and Belarus are one of the hotly debated issues among pundits dealing with the politics of the post-Soviet space. Till recently bilateral relations were focused on economic cooperation, and more particularly, on the price of Russian gas and oil delivered to Belarus. In 2019 the accent shifted towards the practical implementation of the 1999 Union State treaty. The looming power transition in Russia in 2024, when President Putin fourth Presidential term expires, has inflamed the debate on the possibility of President Putin becoming the President of the Union state after 2024. This scenario was discussed as a possible way for President Putin to extend his power beyond 2024. READ MORE

• January 28, 2020

Belarus is looking for alternatives to Russian oil and is in talks with the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about supplies, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday, the Belta news agency reported.

• January 24, 2020

Belarus and Russia have agreed on an approach and method to compensation over tainted oil in the Druzhba pipeline, the RIA news agency said on Monday, citing the Belarusian government.

• January 24, 2020

Gazprom Neft, Russia’s third largest oil producer, believes Moscow’s cooperation with OPEC on output will continue into the long term, Deputy Chief Executive Vadim Yakovlev told reporters on Friday.

• January 22, 2020

Gazprom Neft, Russia’s third largest oil producer, believes Moscow’s cooperation with OPEC on output will continue into the long term, Deputy Chief Executive Vadim Yakovlev told reporters on Friday.

• January 22, 2020

President Vladimir Putin accelerated a shake-up of Russia’s political system on Monday, submitting a constitutional reform blueprint to parliament that will create a new center of power outside the presidency.

• January 20, 2020

The Russian parliament overwhelmingly backed President Vladimir Putin’s surprise choice for prime minister on Thursday after what one daily called a “January revolution”, a major political overhaul that some say could set Putin up as leader for life.

• January 20, 2020