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1 month ago | 
cepa.org | Julius Strauss |Ruth Deyermond |Mila Tanghe |Marija Golubeva
It makes for haunting viewing. A Russian soldier, almost certainly a 32-year-old father-of-two-daughters called Oleg Yakovlev from the city of Saratov, shouts “Film me! Film me!” as a Ukrainian captive, one of six who have surrendered, walks slowly away from him. As a member of his squad films, Yakovlev raises his Kalashnikov assault rifle and riddles the unarmed Ukrainian with bullets.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Aliide Naylor |Bill Echikson |Oona Lagercrantz |Marija Golubeva
In the Baltic states, as in Ukraine, Donald Trump’s November 5 election victory was marked by a deep breath followed by a focus on the positive. Baltic politicians (past and present) started to note the potential benefits. Former Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, in a recent interview with ERR, seemed to take the increasingly popular tack that the Biden administration has been milquetoast during the four years it has been in power, while also expressing cautious optimism.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Bill Echikson |Oona Lagercrantz |Marija Golubeva |Mike Martin
When the European Union enacted its revolutionary Digital Markets Act in 2022 – labeling key US companies as “gatekeepers” subject to strict antitrust rules – US officials stayed silent. Many agreed that Apple, Google, Meta, and other Silicon Valley behemoths stifled competition and needed to be reined in. Under President Joseph Biden, Big Tech faced pressure from Washington watchdogs.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Marija Golubeva |Aliide Naylor |Bill Echikson |Oona Lagercrantz
It was a very narrow victory. After relentless campaigning against Russian interference on an extraordinary scale, Maia Sandu secured her second term as Moldovan President and with it a mandate to continue with Moldova’s integration in the EU. This is not the end of the story, not even close to the end.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Irina Borogan |Andrei Soldatov |Richard Arnold |Marija Golubeva
Almost three months after the Ukrainian armed forces entered the Russian region of Kursk, the Kremlin’s response to the attack, after the initial shock, appears rather effective, despite the deeply humiliating and continuing presence of Ukrainian troops on Russian soil. The incursion will have had many aims, one of which may have been a hope that it would provoke the political unrest in Russia the Kremlin built. It hasn’t.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Elisabeth Braw |Kseniya Kirillova |Mykyta Vorobiov |Marija Golubeva
There was a time, not so long ago when many viewed gray zone aggression as a marginal concern. Even those who paid attention to it mostly focused on cyber aggression and disinformation campaigns. Now, it has become much more serious because we haven’t managed to deter it. Examples of hostile activity by the authoritarian axis of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are proliferating.
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Marija Golubeva
Ursula von der Leyen has been sidelined on occasions, and she has made some mistakes, but there was never really a serious alternative to her as head of the European Union’s executive arm, the European Commission. That’s good news for Ukraine and for closer European defense cooperation. Re-elected for a second five-year term on July 18, she actually increased her vote, winning the support of 401 members of the European Parliament from a total of 720.
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Jul 16, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Marija Golubeva
It may be infuriating for most European governments and for Brussels, but Victor Orbán’s plan to use Hungary’s EU Council presidency to troll the very institution he is supposed to chair is going well and even allows him to demonstrate clout in the international arena. This has put his (many) European opponents in a tight spot.
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May 7, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Marija Golubeva
Moldova and Georgia, the other European Union (EU) candidate countries that share a border with Russia, are currently caught in an onslaught of hybrid attacks aiming to undermine and ultimately destroy the bloc’s plans of enlargement to the East. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire former prime minister and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, referred to the EU and US as a “global party of war” at a government-organized rally on April 29.
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Feb 5, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Marija Golubeva
There was little drama over the decision on the European Union’s (EU’s) aid package of €50bn ($54bn) to Ukraine. The decision was taken — unanimously — barely minutes after the beginning of February 1’s extraordinary EU summit, which was called specifically to solve the impasse caused by Hungary’s previous refusal to sign the check along with everyone else. Viktor Orbán did not raise objections this time.
