It is no surprise that the international community has become more preoccupied with the diplomatic relations between Estonia and Russia. While interest in the country’s political affairs is not particularly new, the increasing tensions between the Baltic states and Russia continue to alarm those who fear the possibility of conflict.

There is much talk of the rise of populism throughout Europe. It is a new specter haunting the liberal democratic order. Although often used as a label, populism is neither a coherent political ideology or programme, nor fascism pure and simple. Rather, populism is a specific form of political articulation reacting to changes in the societal consensus. It tells us that politics “as usual” needs to be renewed or fixed.

On April 2nd, Aleksandar Vučić won Serbia's presidential election. Ever since, dozens of people have been gathering in Serbian towns to oppose the government's alleged authoritarian turn, electoral fraud and the strict control over mass media.

Interview with Oleksandr Chalyi, the former First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, State Secretary for European Integration and Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of Ukraine. Interviewer: Kateryna Pryshchepa. 

“We are living in the days where what we call liberal non-democracy – in which we lived for the past 20 years – ends, and we can return to real democracy,” said Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary, when congratulating Donald Trump on his victory in the United States presidential election.One hundred days have passed since the so-called “big bang”. While some are celebrating, the Left is mourning the defeat of liberalism and the countries that might be left without America’s support. However, it is the EU, not America, that faces the real crisis.

In what is regarded as an unexpected move, Belarusian authorities recently arrested three pro-Russian contributors to a Kremlin-friendly news outlet arguing against Belarusian independence from Russia. The arrests come at a time when relations between Belarus and Russia have increasingly deteriorated, while those with the European Union seem to have slightly warmed, despite ongoing concerns about the human rights situation in the country. However, Europe would be well advised to approach Belarus only cautiously.

Within the last several years, Russia’s information techniques and their application in Europe and elsewhere have been the focus of research of many scholars in defense, security and other areas of study. A lot of these scholars have considered the improvement and relative success of their application as part of the supposedly emerged hybrid warfare doctrine. However, a closer look at Russia’s recently displayed informational capabilities in Europe points to the presence of Soviet-inherited practices of information operations, which were used by the USSR against the West after the Second World War. Among these practices applied by the USSR and later inherited by Russia are so-called “active measures.” Recently, they have been used by the Kremlin in the Ukraine crisis as well as Europe, where it has worked on sowing discord and creating a sense of disunity among EU and NATO member states.

An interview with Dzianis Melyantsou, senior analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies. Interviewer: Maciej Makulski

An Interview with Ulrike Guérot, the Founder and Director of the European Democracy Lab at the European School of Governance in Berlin and the author of Why Europe Needs to Become a Republic. A Political Utopia. Interviewer: Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska.