This is a legacy website featuring a collection of work by the Carnegie Endowment’s global network of scholars on topics including Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, and the post-Soviet states. This site is a product of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Washington, D.C. For more recent work by Carnegie scholars in this field, please visit Carnegie Politika.
Independent Kyrgyzstan is unique in its recent political history. Over the last two years this country has functioned under a non-authoritarian system and has started moving in a different direction from its Central Asian neighbors.
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is most likely looking to persuade Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to leave power and prevent a collapse of the Syrian state and civil war.
Although Russia seeks to remain the critical broker between Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian opposition, its stance on Syria is beginning to shift as the prospects for Assad's long-term rule diminish.
Russia’s intransigence in the face of intense international pressure to halt the violence in Syria is confusing to much of the world, but there are real Russian financial and strategic interests at stake over Syria.
The Russian government may be changing its attitude towards Syria and penalizing the Assad regime for failing to heed Moscow's advice.
The fact that the Red Cross has appealed to Putin for authorization to provide humanitarian relief to Syria proves that Russia has become an indispensable player in dealing with the Assad regime.
Today, Russia is peripheral to many of the major conflicts in the world. While this gives Moscow an opportunity to take care of its own affairs, Russia also needs to define and fulfill its new international role.
Despite common views on international affairs and economic interests, the Russian-Chinese relationship is weak—even in the sphere of energy trade—and needs to be strengthened.
Public sentiment in many states has turned against nuclear energy following the March 2011 accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The Fukushima accident was, however, preventable.
As China's power continues to grow, Russians need to rediscover themselves as a Euro-Pacific nation and strengthen ties to East Asia in order to avoid becoming Beijing's junior partner.