![The EU and Russia: A fragile neighbourhood [What Think Tanks are thinking]](https://i0.wp.com/epthinktank.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/EPRS_BRIE_TT_698855_Russia_final.png?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Written by Marcin Grajewski.
Russia’s military build-up along its border with Ukraine, and its masterminding – alleged by many politicians and analysts – of the refugee crisis on the borders of Belarus with Poland and Lithuania, have sparked concerns over the implications of Moscow’s aggressive foreign policy. Russia has amassed nearly 100 000 troops near the Ukrainian border, provoking renewed fears that Moscow is about to invade, seven years after it annexed the Crimean peninsula and destabilised the eastern regions of Ukraine. In Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has allowed migrants to take flights into the country to purposely transfer them on to Belarus’s borders with neighbouring EU Member States.
This note gathers links to recent publications and commentaries from many international think tanks on Russia’s foreign and security policy and its implications for neighbouring countries, the European Union and global geopolitics.
Why Russia could invade Ukraine again
European Council on Foreign Relations, December 2021
Small victories: Why US-Russia relations could improve under Biden
European Council on Foreign Relations, December 2021
Russia’s destabilisation of Ukraine: A litmus test for transatlantic partners
European Policy Centre, December 2021
Ukraine: Conflict at the crossroads of Europe and Russia
Council on Foreign Relations, December 2021
Russia’s threats place Europe at a pivotal moment
Chatham House, December 2021
What Biden should say to Putin on Ukraine
Brookings Institution, December 2021
Why is Russia amassing troops at its border with Ukraine?
International Institute for Strategic Studies, December 2021
Russia and China mobilize transatlantic partners
Carnegie Europe, December 2021
NATO must adapt to an era of hybrid threats
Carnegie Europe, December 2021
Responding to Russia’s new military buildup near Ukraine
International Crisis Group, December 2021
Greece, Russia and the EU: The way forward
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, December 2021
Will Putin miscalculate?
Brookings Institution, November 2021
The Kremlin’s strange victory: How Putin exploits American dysfunction and fuels American decline
Brookings Institution, November 2021
Russia’s military movements: What they could mean for Ukraine, Europe, and NATO
European Council on Foreign Relations, November 2021
How the Kremlin has weaponized the Facebook files
Brookings Institution, November 2021
When security in Europe conflicts with democracy in Poland
Brookings Institution, November 2021
How to energize NATO’s response to Russia’s threats against Ukraine
Council on Foreign Relations, November 2021
Why the West should deter a Russian attack on Ukraine
Centre for European Reform, November 2021
Putin, Lukashenko and lessons learned from Zapad-2021
Casimir Pulaski Foundation, November 2021
Russia on the path of confrontation
Casimir Pulaski Foundation, November 2021
Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine obsession could spark a major European war
Atlantic Council, November 2021
Is Europe in denial about Russia?
Carnegie Europe, November 2021
How the German ‘traffic light’ coalition can solve the EU border crisis
European Council on Foreign Relations, November 2021
No quiet on the eastern front: The migration crisis engineered by Belarus
European Council on Foreign Relations, November 2021
Russia conducts direct-ascent anti-satellite test
International Institute for Strategic Studies, December 2021
The last of the offended: Russia’s first post-Putin diplomats
European Council on Foreign Relations, November 2021
Three decades of Russian policy in the European part of the post-Soviet space: Swimming against the current
Finnish Institute of Foreign Relations, November 2021
Russian policy towards Central Asia 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union: Sphere of influence shrinking?
Finnish Institute of Foreign Relations, November 2021
The young and the restless: Europe, Russia, and the next generation of diplomats in the Eastern Partnership
European Council on Foreign Relations, November 2021
Moldova’s gas deal with Russia: David tries to draw with Goliath
European Council on Foreign Relations, November 2021
Ukraine-Russia relations
Chatham House, November 2021
Lukashenko is the problem, not the migrants
Centre for European Reform, November 2021
Lukashenko uses migrants to exploit Europe’s vulnerability
Carnegie Europe, November 2021
Lessons from EU-Belarus relations
Bertelsmann Stiftung, November 2021
Russia’s Ukrainian dilemma: Moscow’s strategy towards Kyiv
Center for Eastern Studies, November 2021
Support for Lukashenko. Russia’s response to the migration crisis
Center for Eastern Studies, November 2021
Russia–Belarus: A sham acceleration of integration
Center for Eastern Studies, November 2021
Attribution als Herausforderung für EU-Cybersanktionen
Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, November 2021
Dealing with Russia in the Arctic: Between exceptionalism and militarization
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik, November 2021
The comeback kid: Russia in Latin America
European Union Institute for Security Studies, November 2021
French and German approaches to Russia
Chatham House, November 2021
Russia’s ‘gas pivot’ to Asia: How Europe can protect itself and pursue the green transition
European Council on Foreign Relations, October 2021
Is Russia using energy as a weapon again?
Council on Foreign Relations, October 2021
Why the United States should have invited Russia to join the counter-ransomware initiative
Council on Foreign Relations, October 2021
EU sanctions on Belarus as an effective policy tool
Center for Social and Economic Research, October 2021
Covid-19 in Russia: What are the economic, political and human effects?
Institut français des relations internationales, October 2021
The V4 towards a new NATO Strategic Concept and the EU Strategic Compass
Europeum, Antall József Knowledge Centre, Casimir Pulaski Foundation, Slovak Security Policy Institute, October 2021
What deters Russia: Enduring principles for responding to Moscow
Chatham House, October 2021
Russia’s defensive economic model: Paper tiger reforms and state-led investment spending as patchwork fixes
Bertelsmann Stiftung, October 2021
Russian gas on the EU market: Increased transmission and continuing uncertainty
Center for Eastern Studies, October 2021
Lithuania’s reactions to the escalating migration crisis
Center for Eastern Studies, October 2021
Putin’s pipeline is a strategic weapon: It must be stopped
Atlantic Council, October 2021
Possible instruments to better operationalise the EU strategy towards Russia
Polish Institute of International Affairs, October 2021
Advanced military technology in Russia
Chatham House, September 2021
How half-hearted sanctions put the future of Belarus at risk
European Council on Foreign Relations, September 2021
Russia, elections, and the West: Ten years later
European Council on Foreign Relations, September 2021
Russian parliamentary elections: Mission accomplished
Bertelsmann Stiftung, September 2021
Why we must not recognize Russia’s fraudulent election
Atlantic Council, September 2021
Elections in Russia: A measure for nothing or relevant after all?
Egmont, September 2021
Russia and 9/11: Roads not taken
Chatham House, September 2021
America must lead the international response to Russia’s human rights crisis
Atlantic Council, September 2021
Nord Stream 2 comes on stream: Good business or bad geopolitics?
Friends of Europe, September 2021
America must lead the international response to Russia’s human rights crisis
Atlantic Council, September 2021
How Russia made Apple and Google complicit in its internet crackdown
Atlantic Council, September 2021
Read this briefing on ‘The EU and Russia: A fragile neighbourhood‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
Usually, a think tank is where discussions take place between different points of view in order to grasp reality, or a problem, more thoroughly and become able to understand it and help finding useful pathways. This compilation shows a completely biased perspective on the relations between the West and Russia. It becomes legitimate to speculate about the reasons behind this massive attempt to influence people’s minds. Bad reasons come to mind very easily. Russia appears to be the thinktankers’ Oceania while they live in Eurasia — in fact, it looks like we live in Orwell’s dystopia already.