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Issue 4/2026: Fragility of peace

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Russia’s imprisoned mothers

As Russia’s prison population shrinks due to wartime military recruitment, another trend is becoming increasingly visible: the growing number of women behind bars. Among them are mothers imprisoned for anti-war activism, political dissent or alleged “extremism”, many now isolated from their children and cut off from the outside world.

June 23, 2026 - Eilish Hart

Navigating the narrowing space for lawful dissent in Russia

When the Russian government moved to block Telegram this year, activists across the country attempted to organize protests against what many saw as the latest step in the Kremlin’s tightening grip on freedom of expression. Their efforts, and the authorities’ response, reveal how even limited forms of public dissent in Russia are increasingly treated as a threat while the shrinking digital space leaves civil society with fewer and fewer ways to organize.

June 23, 2026 - Veronica Snoj

A two-way road to Ukraine’s EU integration

What happens when long-held myths about Ukraine and the European Union are shattered by war, propaganda, and shared vulnerability? In a world drifting toward new bipolar rivalries, Ukraine’s EU integration is no longer only a question of enlargement, but a test of whether Europe can remain sovereign, secure, and strategically relevant.

June 23, 2026 - Valerii Pekar Yuliya Shtaltovna

How Ukraine is reshaping NATO

Ukraine is no longer just a recipient of NATO support, it is increasingly reshaping the Alliance itself. From battlefield-tested drone warfare tactics to unprecedented institutional integration, Russia’s full-scale invasion has accelerated a transformation in which Ukraine has become both NATO’s partner and one of its most important sources of military innovation.

June 23, 2026 - Kseniya Sotnikova

Russia struggling for influence in the South Caucasus

The South Caucasus is no longer a peripheral space between larger powers, but an increasingly important corridor linking Europe with Central Asia and wider Eurasian networks. Yet as its strategic importance grows, the region is becoming the focus of a broader struggle between competing visions of order: one based on connectivity and diversification, and another rooted in dependency, constrained sovereignty, and buffer-zone politics.

June 23, 2026 - Megi Benia

Georgia’s government takes on the diaspora

Georgia’s ruling party argues that new restrictions on diaspora voting are meant to protect elections from foreign interference. In practice, however, the changes could make it nearly impossible for many Georgians living abroad to participate in future elections.

June 23, 2026 - Nino Chanadiri

A storm over Lithuania

In Lithuania the second half of 2025 was marked by mass protests, the likes of which the country had not seen in a long time. They were caused by a shift in the political landscape following the 2024 parliamentary elections, which resulted in a victory for the Social Democratic Party. From the very beginning, this situation stirred up strong emotions and deepened divisions within society.

June 23, 2026 - Nikodem Szczygłowski

Hungary’s foreign policy post-Orbán

To hope that Péter Magyar will be the complete opposite of Viktor Orbán is too naïve. In foreign policy, the new prime minister may even follow some of his predecessor’s paths, but with a more moderate stance. For the moment, the new government appears eager to rebuild relations with the European Union and contribute to a strong Central Europe.

June 23, 2026 - Benjámin Lux

Hungary’s new momentum for democratic renewal

Hungary’s Péter Magyar learned that technocratic politics alone is insufficient, since politics is also largely about identity, community, and storytelling. Thus, unlike earlier opposition forces, Magyar’s Tisza did not limit itself to anti-Orbán slogans, but instead brought back something that was painfully absent from Hungarian public life: a nation-unifying narrative capable of transcending political camps.

June 23, 2026 - Gábor Énekes

The left bench in Hungary is empty

With a two-thirds majority, Péter Magyar and his Tisza party can push through almost any decision. The question is not whether the new authorities will be more democratic than Viktor Orbán – they clearly are – but whether they will restrain themselves over the long term.

June 23, 2026 - Gábor Harangozó

Calls to save the Ohrid region grow in North Macedonia

For nearly five decades, the ancient city of Ohrid and its lake have enjoyed UNESCO protection as one of the world’s rare mixed natural and cultural heritage sites. Yet a wave of uncontrolled construction, illegal development and mounting tourism pressure is now transforming the region’s historic panorama, and raising the real possibility that Lake Ohrid could soon be placed on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger.

June 22, 2026 - Miki Trajkovski

A father’s last recordings before genocide

A forgotten VHS tape found in a Belgrade second-hand shop became the starting point for an intimate and deeply human story about war, memory and loss. In The Srebrenica Tape – From Dad, for Alisa, director Chiara Sambuchi follows a daughter’s journey to reconnect with the father she lost during the Bosnian War, while confronting the silences and traumas that still shape lives three decades after the genocide.

June 22, 2026 - JP O'Malley

We must learn to live with war

An interview with Jacek Siewiera, former head of the National Security Bureau in Poland. Interviewer: Aureliusz M. Pędziwol

June 22, 2026 - Aureliusz M. Pędziwol Jacek Siewiera

The battle for Ukrainian identity

Russia’s war against Ukraine is being fought not only on the battlefield, but also in museums, archives and cultural institutions struggling to preserve the country’s historical and cultural memory. From the ruins of Mariupol to diaspora institutions in New York, a growing network of historians, archivists and cultural workers is documenting destruction while resisting the erasure of Ukraine’s past.

June 22, 2026 - Zach Rogers

Prometheism, post-Russia, and the future of policy in Eurasia

One hundred years ago, Marshal Józef Piłsudski institutionalized a bold vision for Poland’s foreign policy in the face of Soviet imperialism and aggression. Today, when Russian revisionism evokes the geopolitical threats of the previous century, western academics and foreign policymakers should look to revive Piłsudski’s Promethean strategy to decolonize Russia once and for all.

June 22, 2026 - Kacper Grass

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