OSW.

On 28 November, the American news website Axios reported on a non-paper that was sent on 19 November by the German government, via the embassy in Washington, to members of the US Congress concerning the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Its purpose is to convince them not to impose new sanctions on the entities involved […]

On 2 August, the US Department of State informed that a second round of US sanctions had been imposed on Russia due to the Russian chemical attacks on the Skripal family in Salisbury in the United Kingdom in March 2018 – writes Marek Menkiszak, analyst of Center for Eastern Studies (OSW).

The protests in Tbilisi which have been ongoing since 20 June have revealed the potential for discontent in Georgian society; the public has been disillusioned by the country’s bad economic and social situation (high unemployment, rising prices, and the weakening of the national currency), and the broken promises of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GD) party, […]

On 21 January another round of trilateral gas talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union was held in Brussels. This meeting mainly concerned the new Russian-Ukrainian transit contract; the transit contract currently in force between Gazprom and Naftogaz will expire as of 1 January 2020. During the meeting, European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič submitted […]

On 20 February, the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU Council (COREPER) endorsed a compromise version of the amendments to the gas directive which had been agreed a week earlier during the tripartite ‘trilogue’ meeting with the European Parliament & European Commission. This almost certainly guarantees that, after the last few formal steps are […]

On 9 July, the Romanian parliament passed an act regulating oil and gas extraction from offshore fields in the Black Sea. The leader of the government coalition, Liviu Dragnea, is arguing that the new regulations will make Romania self-sufficient in terms of gas production and will end its dependence on imports from Russia. The new […]

On 22 May, the Russian State Duma adopted a law on measures to counter the hostile actions of the United States and other countries (the so-called counter-sanctions law). In the coming days it will be adopted by the Federation Council and signed by the President. The law includes six general potential restrictions, which the Russian […]

The times of the oil eldorado for Russia are slowly coming to an end, but the effect of sanctions imposed on Russian companies and the budget can only be felt in 10-15 years. The condition is to keep them in power – said Dr. Szymon Kardaś, an analyst at the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW), […]

On 12 March, the British Prime Minister Theresa May issued an ultimatum that the Russian government explain how the Novichok combat nerve agent, which has been produced in Russia since the 1980s, came to be used on 4 March in Salisbury against Sergey Skripal (a British citizen and a former GRU colonel convicted in Russia […]

Marek Menkiszak, head of the Russian team at the Centre for Eastern Studies, describes Russia’s struggle with economic problems in the face of Western sanctions. How does the threat of new US restrictions affect Russians? Will it harm the disputed Nord Stream 2 project?