Observing Russia’s elections
Whatever the electoral outcome, Putin wins. But this time, the manner of the Russian strongman?s victory will undermine not only Russian democracy; but the credibility of Europe?s democracy-promotion.
Experts & Staff
Nicu Popescu
ECFR Alumni · Director, Wider Europe programme
Areas of expertise
Russian domestic and foreign policies; Eastern Partnership countries and their relations with the EU; post-Soviet conflicts; cybersecurity
Languages
English, Russian, French, Romanian
Biography
Nicu Popescu was the director of the Wider Europe programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and he works from ECFR’s Paris office. His topics of focus include EU’s relations with Russia and the Eastern Partnership countries.
In 2019, Popescu served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova. Previously, he worked as a senior analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies (2013-2018); senior advisor on foreign policy to the prime minister of Moldova (2010, 2012-2013); senior research fellow at ECFR’s London office (2007-2009, 2011-2012), and as a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (2005-2007).
Popescu teaches at Sciences-Po Paris. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. He is author of the EU foreign policy and post-Soviet conflicts: stealth intervention (Routledge 2010), and co-editor of Russia Rising: Putin’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East and North Africa (with Dimitar Bechev and Stanislav Secrieru, I.B. Tauris 2021) and Democratization in EU Foreign Policy (with Benedetta Berti and Kristina Mikulova, Routledge 2015).
A Power Audit of EU-Russia relations
Despite its economic strength and military might, the EU has begun to behave as if it were subordinate to an increasingly assertive Russia
A ?Power Audit? of EU 27-Russia relations
Despite its economic strength and military might, the EU has begun to behave as if it were subordinate to an increasingly assertive Russia. Read ECFR's “Power Audit” of EU-Russia relations.
Guardian: Russia as the new Donald Rumsfeld
Russia has emerged as the most divisive issue in the European Union since Donald Rumsfeld split the European club into ?new’ and ?old’ member states. Read an opinion piece published through Project Syndicate.
EU’s Borders and Neighbours
The post-modern EU can learn from the medieval concept of borders
In the media
Those elections could be a signal for other countries facing similar issues in Eastern Europe
Nicu Popescu is quoted in Le Journal du Dimanche on the Moldavian elections
It’s a significantly bigger win than anyone expected… It’s a once in a generation opportunity to defeat, and push back against and combat corruption, and that’s what this mandate is for
Nicu Popescu comments on what the landslide election victory of the pro-EU Action and Solidarity Party means for Moldova
Nicu Popescu talks in this podcast about the elections and state of politics in Moldova
From a European perspective, the evasive and dismissive attitude on the part of the German political class towards any military support for Ukraine is out of time
Why Germany should help Kyiv with weapons explains Nicu Popescu in his op-ed
Nicu Popescu explains in this podcast why and how the European Union should strengthen the security cooperation with its eastern neighbours