Conflict Zones: North Caucasus and Western Balkans Compared. By: Janusz Bugajski. Publisher: Jamestown Foundation, 2014.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin pushes to establish dominion over Crimea, Russia’s control over the North Caucasus is growing ever frailer. Current Russian policies in the restive region, their historical precedents in Yugoslavia and the region’s potential futures are the subject of Conflict Zones: North Caucasus and Western Balkans Compared, a new monograph by Janusz Bugajski that has been published by the Jamestown Foundation. The author, a veteran foreign policy analyst and fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, analyses the current situation in the restive region by making a detailed comparison with the Balkans, noting that “this volatile region increasingly resembles the Western Balkans in the 1990s before and during the collapse of Yugoslavia.”  

The European Union’s Eastern Partnership was dealt a major blow when Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan made a surprise announcement that his republic will join Russia’s Customs Union during a visit to Moscow in early September. EU leaders expressed shock and dismay at the surprise about-face, while members of the Armenian opposition protested the decision outside […]