On-line Intelligence Bulletin of the European Press Agency
By Nina Bachkatov and Andrew Wilson
The meeting between presidents Macron and Putin was a demonstration of cultural diplomacy at its best. Culture and history provided a key background to this first meeting between the presidents of two countries whose diplomatic relations had suffer of the general Western distaste towards Putin’s Russia. Continue reading “Moscow-Versailles”
By Nina Bachkatov and Andrew Wilson
The most burning question for millions of Muscovites is about housing, another sign that Russians’ political apathy stops when politics affect their personal daily life. Continue reading “Muscovites’ housing dilemna”
By Andrew Wilson and Nina Bachkatov
For a man described as isolated on the world stage, President Putin has been shaking a lot of hands in the course of a week. The most predictable was his meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel, in the President’s Sochi summer residence on 2 May. Continue reading “Diplomatic defile in Moscow – Russia at work on a Syrian solution”
By Nina Bachkatov and Andrew Wilson
The US missile strike on the Syrian base of Shayrat has given Moscow its first real lesson about the personality and leadership of President Trump. The strike fulfils Russians’ worst fears by showing that:
(1) Trump is versatile. One day he hints that President Assad might be used as an interlocutor in finding a political solution to the Syrian conflict; the next day he rushes to a dramatic military response to an irresponsible chemical attack on civilians. Continue reading “Syria and Russia trapped by Assad?”
By Nina Bachkatov and Andrew Wilson
The current mobilisation in Belarus’ streets demonstrates once again how social tensions can quickly morph into political contestations. But speaking of a Minsk Maidan seems a step too far for the moment. Continue reading “Belarus: beset with change”
By Nina Bachkatov and Andrew Wilson
The 13 March provisional agreement between Gazprom and the European Commission represents a return to economics in the complex energy relation between Russia and the European Union. Continue reading “Gazprom and UE, a return to the reason”
By Nina Bachkatov and Andrew Wilson
Since late 2016, questions have raised about the way Putin’s Russia can, or cannot, mark the dual centenaries of the February and October revolutions. The need for caution is all too obvious. The history of the Revolution “that shocked the world” has never been simply a matter for historians – in the West, just as in the communist world. Continue reading “1917 – A problematic celebration”