Lately, the relations between Minsk and Kiev have intensified evidently. It is considered that they are stimulated by the EU program “Eastern Partnership” launched on May 7th and in the end of the project of “Union state”, marked by a scandalous statement of Russian Vice Prime-Minister and the Minister of Finance Aleksey Kudrin about oncoming collapse of Belarusian economy made on May 28th in Minsk. The following harsh and negative reaction of Aleksander Lukashenko guided Minsk to search for new various schemes with other states. And primarily with such neighbors as Ukraine and Lithuania on bilateral and multilateral grounds. READ MORE

Last time we talked to David Kramer in November 2007. Then he was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, responsible for Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus affairs, and later an Assistant Secretary of State. READ MORE

Russia has an ongoing fear of being encircled and slowly pushed back by the West, making it difficult for other nations to have valuable relations with Moscow. Should the West even pursue a partnership with such a paranoid regime, even though the alternative is very unpleasant? READ MORE