In 2019, significant changes in the domestic political landscapes and leadership in Ukraine and Moldova brought a new impetus to Russian foreign policy in the region. Vladimir Zelenskiy swept the political system in Ukraine, taking executive and legislative branches under his full control. Pro-Russian Party of Socialists won parliamentary elections in Moldova and unexpectedly formed a ruling coalition with pro-EU forces, even if short-lived. In the meantime, President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko prepares for his re-election next year by “cutting a new window to Europe”, whereas his government is negotiating deeper integration with Moscow.
These developments arguably offer a momentum for Russia to recast its policies in the region. This seminar discusses and compares the three “faces” of Russian foreign policy – towards Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus respectively – and the main differences in its approaches. What are the key changes and how are they perceived in these countries? And what are the key implications of the new initiatives for development and security in the region and beyond?
For more information, please contact:
Maija Salonen, Project Manager, FIIA, maija.salonen@fiia.fi, +358 9 432 7727
Speakers
Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine
Svitlana Zalishchuk is a Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine. Prior to that she served as an elected member of Parliament of Ukraine since 2014. Ms Zalishchuk began her career as a TV and newspaper journalist. Later, she joined the presidential administration serving as a spokesperson to the Chief of Staff during 2005-2006. Ms Zalishchuk has co-founded and run the NGO ‘Centre of United Actions’. She has also founded the government watchdog CHESNO (Fair) and co-founded the Reanimation Package of Reforms, a platform that unites around 50 NGOs promoting democratic reforms in Ukraine. She has been granted the Anna Lindh Prize as a human rights defender (2016).
Senior Analyst, European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS)
Stanislav Secrieru is Senior Analyst at the EUISS, where he covers Russia and the EU’s eastern neighbourhood. His research interests are EU-Russia relations, Russia’s foreign and security policy in the post-Soviet region, protracted conflicts and the EU’s relations with the Eastern Partnership states. Before joining the EUISS, Stanislav was a Senior Research Fellow at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (2014-2016) and a Policy Analyst at the Open Society European Policy Institute in Brussels (2016-2017). He has also been a Research Fellow at the NATO Defence College (2006), the Institute for European Politics (2009-2010) and the New Europe College (2011-2012). Stanislav holds a PhD from the National School of Political Science and Public Administration in Bucharest.
Political Analyst, Sense Analytics
Artyom Shraibman is a Belarusian Political Analyst, contributor for TUT.BY and Carnegie.ru. Mr Shraibman is a founder of Sense Analytics, a consultancy agency that provides comprehensive political analysis on Belarus. Previously he worked in political journalism in Belarus for more than five years. Mr Shraibman holds a LLb in International Law (Belarusian State University) and MSc in Politics and Communications (London School of Economics).
Puheenjohtaja
Programme Director
Arkady Moshes is Programme Director for the Russia, EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood and Eurasia research programme. He is also a member of the Programme on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) at George Washington University. Moshes’ areas of expertise include Russian foreign policy, European-Russian relations as well as internal and foreign policy of Ukraine and Belarus. He received his Ph.D in history of international relations from the Russian Academy of Sciences (1992).
Before moving to Finland in 2002, he had been working in the Institute of Europe in Moscow since 1988. From 2008 to 2015 he was an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at Chatham House. From 2017 to 2022 he was a member of EU-Russia Expert Network (EUREN). He has been a visiting scholar at the Danish Institute for International Studies (2002) and the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (2016), a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2007) and a regular guest lecturer at the NATO Defence College (2005-10, 2013-15) and Geneva Center for Security Policy (1998-2022).
Arkady Moshes has authored a large number of academic and analytical publications and is a frequent media commentator.
He co-edited “A Slavic Triangle? Present and Future Relations Between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus” (Swedish National Defence College, 2002), “Russia as a Network State: What Works in Russia When State Institutions Do Not” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “What has remained of the USSR: Exploring the erosion of the post-Soviet space” (FIIA, 2019) and “Russian Policy toward Belarus after 2020 At a Turning Point?” (Lexington Books, 2023) and contributed articles to, among others, Security Dialogue, International Affairs, Post-Soviet Affairs and Demokratizatsiya.