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Category: Issue 4 2026

Issue 4/2026: Fragility of peace

As we are well into the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, old questions are beginning to stir from beneath the surface, particularly: how should the West engage with Russia, if at all?

June 23, 2026 - New Eastern Europe

For a sustainable peace, Russia must fundamentally change

An interview with Alexandra Polivanova, a human rights activist with Memorial. Interviewer: Clara Sandgren

June 23, 2026 - Alexandra Polivanova Clara Sandgren

Britain, Russia, and Europe’s awareness problem

Europeans have not concluded that Russia is benign, but that the cost of confronting it is theirs to bear personally through economic pressure while the threat itself remains distant and abstract. This is not a failure of policy design. It is a failure of the domestic political architecture needed to support it.

June 23, 2026 - Callum Fraser

The price of normalizing Russia

A ceasefire will not change the essence of the regime in Moscow. Only time will show if European leaders remain as resolute about not returning to business as usual as they are today. As economic uncertainty deepens globally, pragmatism may increasingly overshadow humanitarian concerns. Yet, if some form of post-war normalization in Europe’s relations with Russia is on the cards – and if international companies begin to lobby for it – it would be fair to insist on certain preconditions.

June 23, 2026 - Nina Rozhanovskaya

There will not be another Russian revolution

Revolutions upset old institutions and tear societies apart. They do so in the name of the noblest goal: the ultimate happiness of humankind. They are led by dreamers, motivated by compassion and a desire for a better world. They never start out as power hungry monsters, but that is often how they end up. In that sense, we could argue that most revolutions fail.

June 23, 2026 - James C. Pearce

It is not the time to talk to Russia

Calls have been growing across European political and expert circles – including within the European Union – for high-level political engagement with Russia. Much of this momentum stems from the recent talks between senior officials from Russia and the United States, including discussions on a possible settlement of the war in Ukraine.

June 23, 2026 - Marek Menkiszak

Deter, start small and monitor domestic policy

In order to discuss a European strategy towards Russia, some basic assumptions about the nature of the agreement to end hostilities between Russia and Ukraine must be made. Here we assume that each of the two parties has achieved a partial victory, but that neither has attained its maximum goals.

June 23, 2026 - Susan Stewart

Europe cannot build a Russia policy on a ceasefire alone

Russia's aggression extends far beyond the war in Ukraine, and Europe must therefore maintain whatever restrictive measures and strategic bottlenecks are necessary to limit Russia's capacity to threaten and destabilize European societies. Europe needs to define and effectively use its leverage vis-à-vis Russia in order to pressure, or persuade, decision makers in Moscow to change their hostile policies and end the country's shadow war.

June 23, 2026 - Stefan Ingvarsson

Europe’s clavo ardiendo non-strategy

The Spanish expression, agarrarse a un clavo ardiendo – literally, “to cling to a burning nail,” something like “clutching at straws” in English – describes the instinct to seize on the thinnest hope in a desperate situation, no matter how implausible or even absurd that hope may be. And this seems to be a recurring European habit when dealing with Russia.

June 23, 2026 - Nicolás de Pedro

Engagement without illusions

The strategic approach that the EU should adopt towards Russia depends, first and foremost, on how the conflict in Ukraine comes to an end. In the case of a simple ceasefire, for example, relations should remain cool and Ukraine’s operational readiness must be ensured.

June 23, 2026 - Tiziano Marino

The other Russia that is not

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe created its Platform for Dialogue with Russian democratic forces in exile to give voice to "the other Russia" – those who reject the war and represent a democratic alternative to Vladimir Putin's regime. Two sessions in, the platform's record raises serious questions about whether that "other Russia" exists in the form European institutions have assumed.

June 23, 2026 - Beka Iromashvili

Moscow’s latest propaganda myth

Without much notice from western commentators, during the past half a decade, the Kremlin’s propagandists have begun pushing a new myth about Russia’s greatness. They claim that Russian is Europe’s most widely spoken native language. On the other hand, Moscow decries the supposedly endangered status of Russian across the continent.

June 23, 2026 - Tomasz Kamusella

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