View from Sofia: In the shadow of elections
Bulgaria's Russia policy could go in any direction after 6 November
Russia
View from Madrid: The many-faced Janus
Spain is inclined towards conditional accommodation with Russia but tends to refrain from open overtures towards Moscow
View from Rome: Reflection before renewal
Italy sees the European Council as a forum for policy and political discussion, where measures should be debated instead of simply adopted.
View from Paris: The Syrian prism
'Selective engagement' echoes perfectly France's preferred approach to Russia
View from Berlin: Keeping Europe’s cool
Merkel does not want an escalation of Russia-bashing out of fear, as it would only reward the Kremlin’s scaremongering.
Aleppo is paying for Russia’s imagined global threat
Russia's brutality in Aleppo reflects Moscow’s perspective on warfighting, its military capabilities, and its sense of threat.
ECFR’s World in 30 Minutes: Donald Trump, NATO, Russia and Iran
ECFR’s director Mark Leonard first speaks with David Sanger, journalist from the New York Times, about what Donald Trump would mean for the future of…
‘New KGB’ plans betray Putin’s anxiety
If true, this would be a serious shift in policy, reflecting a dawning awareness on Putin’s part that his old strategies for governing Russia are looking increasingly ineffective.
The new power couple: Russia and Iran in the Middle East
Joint military operations in Syria have brought Russia and Iran relations closer than at any point since World War II
Putin’s gamble on Russia’s Duma elections
Putin has sought to improve the apparent transparency of the electoral process while simultaneously strengthening the chance of a United Russia win. But pulling the election date forward delivers a short term benefit at the expense of longer term risk.