Eurasia

On 21 February 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the end of his Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, announced Russia’s suspension of its participation in the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).1 He immediately clarified that the break did not mean withdrawal from the Treaty. The announcement provoked a …

The United States and China have entered a phase of competition for technological advantage, intensified by pandemic-induced supply chain vulnerabilities as well as a fundamental reorientation of global power dynamics where technology has come to play an unprecedented role. According to Eric Schmidt, the former Google leader, “Many Americans still …

Moldova’s new government faces renewed hybrid threats from Russia, with experts fearing a sophisticated disinformation campaign will be enacted to force another change of power. The previous administration, headed by Natalia Gavrilița and inaugurated in August 2021, resigned on February 10. It had faced multiple crises including the war in …

Media in Kosovo often publish the personal data of individuals in a race for clicks that ignores standards on ethics.When Indeksonline, an online media outlet in Kosovo, reported in January that a participant in a local reality TV show was HIV positive, dozens of other media ran with the story. …

Poland cements its status as key NATO state with Biden visit; as Slovakia commemorates the anniversary of the contract killing of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, a new trial date for the alleged masterminds is set. All eyes on Poland this week as US President Joe Biden visited first …

Russian television stations and Moscow’s local mouthpieces have been promoting unsubstantiated theories about an imminent attack on Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria from neighbouring Ukraine. Fears have grown in recent days in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria about a possible military attack, after pro-Russian television stations, the dominant media force …

Albanians face the dual challenge of safeguarding themselves from foreign cyber-attacks – while worrying about the potential misuse of their personal data by their own government and political parties.As local elections approach in Albania, the debate surrounding the use of IT tools by political parties for collecting and utilizing citizens’ …

The once-vaunted unity of the V4 has been shattered by the war in Ukraine and Poland and Hungary’s diametrically opposed views on it. 2023 holds out little hope of a rapprochement. Central Europe’s regional grouping of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia was formed originally to coordinate positions before EU accession, …

The war in Ukraine has stoked inflation and increased the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion throughout Europe. With food and energy prices remaining high in 2023, experts expect more people to fall below the poverty line. At the end of 2021, 95.4 million people in …

While the world has been distracted, even amused, by the diplomatic tussle around China’s recent high-altitude balloon flights across North America, there are signs that Beijing and Washington are preparing for something so much more serious: armed conflict over Taiwan. Reviewing recent developments in the Asia-Pacific region raises a tried-and-true …