How to train your dictator: Putin’s control over Lukashenka
Lukashenka is complicit in Russia’s war on Ukraine. But this should not stigmatise members of the Belarusian democratic movement – who need more support than they are receiving.
Belarus
Bonfire of sovereignty: Russian tanks in Belarus
Regardless of whether Russia launches another major offensive against Ukraine, Belarus’s territory will increasingly become a source of military threats to all its western neighbours – not just Ukraine
Kazakh lessons for authoritarian leaders: How Putin and Lukashenka could fail the test
Before the January 2022 riots, Kazakhstan was a model for managing transitions of power in the post-Soviet world. The leaders of Russia and Belarus will be furiously taking notes on how to avoid a similar fate.
How the German “traffic light” coalition can solve the EU border crisis
Germany’s new government could defuse the conflict between Poland and Belarus by demonstrating greater toughness on Lukashenka and showing willingness to accept a limited number of migrants. And the EU should be ready to use its most effective weapon: trade.
How migration became a weapon: the Belarus-Polish border crisis
What is coercive engineered migration? And what would be the best way for the EU to respond to Minsk’s tactics?
No quiet on the eastern front: The migration crisis engineered by Belarus
The EU should show the Lukashenka regime that it will no longer tolerate the weaponisation of migration. As with any form of blackmail, it would be senseless and dangerous to make concessions – because the aggressor will only demand more.
The young and the restless: Europe, Russia, and the next generation of diplomats in the Eastern Partnership
Young diplomats in Eastern Partnership countries are optimistic and pro-European. Many of them want the EU to become a bolder geopolitical actor.
8 Nov
Migration crisis on the EU Eastern border: how the EU can protect borders and human rights
Since summer 2021, Poland and Lithuania have been confronted with an unprecedented action by the Lukashenko regime, which aims to exert political pressure on both…
How half-hearted sanctions put the future of Belarus at risk
The EU is currently assembling its fifth package of sanctions on Belarus. Here is what European governments and the Belarusian opposition should draw from how things have gone so far.
Belarus’s creature of crisis: Two heads, one body
A year on from the falsified presidential election, two Belaruses now occupy the international arena. Neither the West nor Russia will be able to change this reality, but each will have to learn to live with both.