For this latest instalment in our series on Russia’s relations with its neighbours, we turn to the oil-rich nation of Azerbaijan. Rovshan Ibrahimov argues that the country has rebounded from plumbing lows…
The United States had just gone through a bruising election, but in Congress Democratic and Republican leaders gathered to unveil the bust of Vaclav Havel, the playwright and first post-Communist Czech…
This latest instalment in our series on Russia’s relations with its neighbours focuses on Georgia. Caucasus-watcher Julie George explains how the Ukraine situation has magnified the uneasy truce that continues…
Aided and abetted by a disciplined Republican party, a common meme in the American media is the foreign policy failure of the Obama administration. The purported evidence is there for all to see. It includes…
Whether through improvisation, opportunism, fear or calculation, 2014 has seen a massive shift in the way political authority works in Russia. Moscow has moved dramatically away from a legal-rational way…
Tony Abbott always said he wanted the Brisbane G20 to come up with practical actions and a communique of no more than three pages. He achieved both objectives – although the communique had a mass of attached…
The Defence Department is watching Russian naval vessels that are currently transiting international waters to the north of Australia ahead of the weekend G20 attended by president Vladimir Putin. In the…
Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall that ushered in the end of communism in eastern Europe and the break-up of the Soviet Union, all the signs point to a new Cold War between Russia and…
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker and Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics, including Russia and the G20 Leaders’ Summit, Australia and China’s impending…
The Russians have started coming. On Thursday, an aircraft with about 80-90 Russians arrived in preparation for the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane. There will be four more official planes, including President…
In this latest instalment in our series on Russia’s relations with its neighbours, we head south-east to Turkey. The former centre of the Ottoman Empire has been booming in the past decade – and Russia…
Once again Julie Bishop has demonstrated she can lay claim to be currently the best performing minister in cabinet. On her recent overseas trip, Foreign Minister Bishop secured an apparently useful meeting…
A bizarre one-off exhibition in Moscow was recently announced to celebrate Vladimir Putin’s birthday. An anonymous group of artists contributed paintings depicting the president as the Greek hero Heracles…
Tony Abbott did not repeat his pledge to “shirt-front” Vladimir Putin when pressed on the subject a day after his initial threat. Now the promise is for a “very, very robust conversation” with the Russian…
A senior Russian diplomat says Australia-Russia relations are at a “historic low”, as Tony Abbott has pledged to “shirt-front” Vladimir Putin at the G20 next month over the downing of flight MH17. In a…
The G20 is bigger than the bad behaviour of any one country, and it would be unfortunate if the controversy over Russian president Vladimir Putin’s presence – now confirmed - were to overshadow next month’s…
Belarus and Moldova are two former-Soviet states which have moved in very different directions since the end of the Cold War. Moldova has looked firmly west, but struggled to escape Russia’s influence…
When Russia announced counter-sanctions against the European Union, USA, Canada and Australia banning imports of food items from those countries, it was clear there would be imminent consequences. But…
Sarah Ashwin, London School of Economics and Political Science
While Russia faces global disapproval over its role in Ukraine, president Vladimir Putin has trouble brewing at home. A shared sense of nationalist fervour had helped to underpin an approval rating that…
The Poles and Russians have had a difficult relationship going back centuries. In recent times, the key problem has been competing geopolitical ambitions over the former Soviet republics. Poland wants…