By Marc Herzog.

In the last decade, relations between Turkey and Russia have confidently surpassed their former cold-war hostility and undergone immense economic and geo-political improvement. FPC Research Associate Marc Herzog takes a look at the changing relationship between the old rivals and what it means for them and the wider world.

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By Alfie Stroud.

If it is true that Ratko Mladic has been happily pottering around the same cobbled Belgrade hills among which his erstwhile commander-in-chief, Radovan Karadzic, was found peddling alternative medicines last year, Serbia's hopes of quick accession to the EU have been dashed. That is, they will have been, as long as the enlarging EU retains the courage of its convictions and remains serious about its moral credentials.

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By Andrew Monaghan.

Andrew Monaghan argues that NATO should exgage constructively with Moscow's proposals for strategic reform

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By Alexander Jackson.

As part of our continuing series of Fresh Insights papers that give younger writers the opportunity to publish, FPC Associate Alexander Jackson gives us his take on the ongoing challenges facing Moldova and Transdniestra.

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By Adam Hug. Source: The Guardian Comment is Free

The gas dispute may be over, but Kiev now needs the west's help to escape reliance on Russia says FPC Policy Director Adam Hug.

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By Dick Leonard. Source: The European Voice

It looked plain sailing for the Croatian membership negotiations last autumn, when Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn announced that they should be completed during 2009, with membership following by 2011 at the latest. Since then the prospect has somewhat darkened.

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By Dick Leonard, Dick Leonard. Source: European Voice

The recently concluded (if it really is) gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine has done no good for the latter country's reputation. Unlike a year ago, when Russia was almost universally condemned, this time the response within the EU has been more nuanced, with both parties being seen as almost equally at fault.

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By Pavel Miller.

The past year has seen more disputes between Russia and the West than at any other time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. From the Kosovo crisis to Iran's nuclear ambitions, it has been extremely difficult to achieve a consensus over the most pressing global challenges. In recent months, tension increased over NATO expansion into former Soviet territory, failure to agree on sanctions directed at Zimbabwe and U.S. plans for anti-missile defence bases in Eastern Europe. Despite disappointment over the failure of both sides to see eye-to-eye regarding these matters, the frustrations over Russia's apparent 'assertiveness' should not translate into a rejection of her role in global affairs. In order to overcome the disagreements, negotiation must prevail through comprehension of Russia's perspective, as opposed to the confrontational rhetoric and calls for punitive measures endorsed by Senator John McCain.

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By Dick Leonard. Source: European Voice

Don't rush into it, suggests Dick Leonard

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By Jennifer Moll, Jennifer Moll. Source: International Herald Tribune, 20 April

There is little doubt that Putin's government is in an unenviable position of having to find a way to reassert the authority of the weak and corrupt Russian state.

It does not follow, however, that Europe should stand back and watch as Putin centralizes power and damages the prospects for Russia's democratic and economic development. It is precisely because Russia is the West's "strategic partner" that we must take an active interest in its fate.

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By David Atkinson, Jennifer Moll, Jennifer Moll. Source: FPC Analysis, April 2005

Five years after President Putin's accession to power, portraying Russia as a friend of the West, sharing values and a mutual commitment to democracy, is increasingly difficult to defend. As President Bush pointedly remarked at last month's summit with Putin in Bratislava: 'Democracies have certain things in common - a rule of law and protection of minorities, and a free press and a viable political opposition.' Putin's recent moves to reassert the power of the Kremlin and tamper with the independence of both media and judiciary suggest that none of the items on President Bush's list are now guaranteed in Russia. Added to the mounting evidence of Russia's continued meddling in the internal affairs of its neighbours - namely in the Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova – this has led to a perceptible hardening in international opinion. Last month, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in the UK parliament called on the government to take a tougher stance on Russia's violations of human and democratic rights more generally, instead of confining censure to the ongoing problems in Chechnya.

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By Jennifer Moll, Jennifer Moll. Source: Open Democracy 14 March 2005

If, as Mary Dejevsky has asserted in The West gets Putin wrong, Vladimir Putin is the best that the West can hope for in the current Russian political climate, it is from this knowledge that the West must press for positive changes in Russia.

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Source: The Moscow Times, 30 September 2004

As citizens of the Euro-Atlantic community of democracies, we wish to express our sympathy and solidarity with the people of the Russian Federation in their struggle against terrorism. The mass murderers who seized School No. 1 in Beslan committed a heinous act of terrorism for which there can be no rationale or excuse. While other mass murderers have killed children and unarmed civilians, the calculated targeting of so many innocent children at school is an unprecedented act of barbarism that violates the values and norms of our community and which all civilized nations must condemn.

At the same time, we are deeply concerned that these tragic events are being used to further undermine democracy in Russia.

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By Fiona Hill. Source: The Globalist, 26th August 2004

Russia is back on the global strategic and economic map. For starters, it has regained the prominence in global energy markets it enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s, when the Soviet Union - not Saudi Arabia — was the preeminent world oil producer. But Russia now has a "new soft power" role that extends far beyond its energy resources.

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