Ukraine - Russia

Like many countries of the Global South, South Africa espouses an independent, non-aligned approach to foreign policy. This approach has been criticized during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as a superficial excuse to be ‘soft’ on Russia. Deeper reflection and analysis however, points to a finely calibrated multi-alignment strategy, which allows South Africa to secure its national interests while carefully balancing relations with the United States (U.S.), European Union (EU) and ot ...

This paper was originally published on iai.it Europe’s natural gas system experienced unprecedented stress following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since the outbreak of the war, the European Union has strived to secure alternative supplies, fill its gas storage facilities and reduce consumption. Success on these fronts was enabled by fundamental market changes that the bloc unlocked during a long period of low gas prices over the past two decades, in addition to emergency and diplo ...

Cette 6ème édition du rapport géopolitique de l’Afrique s’inscrit dans la même ligne éditoriale que ses précédentes. Elle se veut une plateforme où des auteurs et analystes africains racontent l’Afrique géopolitique de 2022 en débordant parfois sur les événements saillants du début de 2023. Ce moment, d’environ une année et demie, ne peut échapper à la guerre en Ukraine comme toile de fond du monde. Même lorsque les auteurs ne s’y réfèrent pas explicitement, cett ...

The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have reignited the debate on efficiency versus resilience in international trade and global value chains (GVCs). This policy brief[a] (i) explains the contrasting perspectives of the private sector (primarily seeking efficiency) and the public sector (aiming for resilience); (ii) demonstrates that GVCs are still flourishing, despite some mounting signals of a geo-fragmentation leading to greater reallocation of the GVCs; and (iii) provide ...

In a recent telephone conversation, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially invited Assimi Goïta, the military chief of the transition in Mali, to take part in the second Russia-Africa summit to be held in Saint Petersburg. This summit is scheduled for July 2023, according to Mikhail Bogdanov, the special representative of the president of Russia to the Middle East and Africa and deputy foreign minister. Russia is openly optimistic that several African leaders will attend the pl ...

In early January 2023, a man was detained near the Russian-Norwegian border at 1.58 a.m. local time. The night was frost-bite cold and the man, a Russian citizen, had run across the frozen Pasvik River, at a place where it was a few hundred meters wide. He’d jumped some barbed-wired fences, which demarcated the border. The Russian avoided official checkpoints because he was a fugitive, and dogs were following him through the polar night, barking, menacing. Their masters aimed at the ...

This publication provides an insight into the lens through which countries of the Global South view the current period of successive crises, brought about by an ongoing global pandemic and a war in Europe. It highlights how the combined weight of history, culture, and geography has shaped the Global South’s interests and is influencing its foreign policy stance during one of the most dangerous periods of Great-Power competition in recent times—one that could see the fracturing of th ...

This publication was originally published in rsaiconnect.onlinelibrary.wiley.com   The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, scaled up the ongoing conflict in Donbas beyond its regional borders, hindering and halting different aspects of economic life. Considering the internal geography of Ukraine's economic structure, the damage to physical infrastructure and supply chain disruption are likely to propagate to other parts of the country through an intricate plot of pro ...

A merchant ship passed Turkey’s Bosphorus  Strait on its way from Syria to Russia late last month, observed “Bloomberg”( August 9, 2022), transporting military equipment, including trucks, documented by satellite imagery. The “Sparta II”, a cargo ship leased by Oboronlogistika to the Russian military, was on its way from Tartus to the Black Sea harbor Novorosslysk. No tanks were sighted, or Russian fighter jets, just these trucks, but   the moderate value of the cargo, noted Bloom ...

Lorsque l’URSS (Union des Républiques socialistes soviétiques) est démantelée ; il s’installe en Occident un sentiment de victoire définitive qui porte au trône du monde la puissance occidentale, démocratique et libérale. La mondialisation, qui avait timidement pointé du nez durant les années 80, commence à s’ériger en occidentalisation du monde. L’Occident n’avait pourtant pas su gérer sa victoire. Au lieu d’intégrer le continuateur de l’URSS, il le marginalise et l’ ...

Information is among our planet's most coveted resources, calling upon us to examine how it is incorporated as an object of power and domination into national and international political processes. Tensions around this resource arise not only in territories directly controlled by States, but also in contested territories, including the intangible acceptance of these, as occurs in cyberspace. The Russia-Ukraine war epitomizes this. Having "disconnected" Russia and conversely maintain ...

L’information constitue l’une des ressources les plus convoitées sur la planète, et invite à examiner la manière dont elle s’intègre en tant qu’objet de pouvoir et de domination dans les processus politiques, nationaux et internationaux. Les tensions autour de cette ressource s’expriment non seulement à travers les territoires directement contrôlés par les États mais aussi ceux disputés ou de compétition, y compris dans leur acceptation intangible comme pour le cyberespace. La guerr ...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, scaled up the ongoing conflict in Donbas beyond its regional borders, hindering and halting different aspects of economic life. Considering the internal geography of Ukraine’s economic structure, the damages to physical infrastructure and supply chain disruptions are likely to propagate to other parts of the country through an intricate plot of production and income linkages. From a disaggregated analysis of multiregional and mul ...

Le conflit russo-ukrainien fragilise la sécurité alimentaire d'un grand nombre de pays africains, la Russie et l'Ukraine étant deux acteurs majeurs du marché agricole mondial, particulièrement celui du blé. C'est pourquoi, l'approvisionnement en blé du continent est au premier rang concerné par ce conflit qui perdure, dont le premier enseignement concerne le risque de non approvisionnement, en blé russe et ukrainien, des pays qui en sont le plus dépendants. Cette étude montre qu'il ...

L’invasion russe de l'Ukraine a incité l'Union Européenne, en coordination avec d’autres puissances mondiales, à monter en urgence une réponse coordonnée de sanctions sans précédent. La plus emblématique d'entre elles est l'embargo partiel contre le pétrole et autres produits raffinés russes, qui signifie en essence la transition du commerce pétrolier d’une logique économique vers une logique géopolitique. D'où la montée en flèche des cours du pétrole et d'autres matières premières. ...

Avant la pandémie Covid-19, le continent abritait les économies à la croissance la plus rapide du monde et plusieurs pays africains montraient les premiers signes de transformation structurelle et de progrès vers l’émergence économique. Plus de deux ans après la pandémie et les ondes de choc qui en ont résulté, deux questions cruciales se posent : dans quelle mesure le choc sanitaire Covid-19, exacerbé par la crise ukrainienne, a-t-il constitué un tournant dans le processus général ...

“February 24, 2022,” noted Robert Pszczel in « Nato Review”(July 7, 2022),”is likely to engrave itself on the history template of the contemporary world.”Pszczel, a Senior fellow  at the Polanski Foundation, Warsaw, and former Polish diplomat serving as director  of the NATO information office  in Moscow for half a decade, judged Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified invasion of Ukraine is  not only a “manifestation of a huge  security danger that has shattered peace in Europe”, but “has ...

The world is facing its worst food crisis in 70 years as a perfect storm of geopolitical events contributes to a spike in prices. Wheat alone has jumped 53% since the start of the year. Alarmingly, a number of governments have responded to the crisis with export bans. Governments and organizations worldwide must act decisively to avoid knee-jerk neo-mercantilism, which would add to the volatility in the global economy. Globalization is at a fragile moment, and mercantilism still lur ...

October 22, 1962. One of those days in history to be forever part of destiny- warships of the Soviet Union confronting the US Navy off Cuba, an ally of Moscow, which convinced Fidel Castro to participate in a secret conspiracy: the stationing of strategic nuclear missiles on the island, located just 90 miles off the continental United States. Once discovered, US President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine on Moscow's ships. History would be repeated another time on a differ ...

Three questions to Jamal Machrouh   This article was initially published on https://www.institutmontaigne.org/   Morocco was among the countries not taking part in the March 2 UN General Assembly vote following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This position raised questions in Europe as Morocco is Europe's largest partner in the Maghreb. Jamal Machrouh, Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, sheds light on Morocco's perceived neutrality in the Ukrainian conflict in o ...

Any enforcement of peace through violence is absurd Fear is not an adequate description of the feeling when bombs explode in your vicinity and you feel an invisible, destructive wave envelop your body, soul, and mind.  Tears may flow, screams are to be absorbed by those whose legs or arms are ripped out of their bodies by the blast-they may be blind forever, never hear a sound again, but in your subconscious, the blasts will never desert you ever., Thunderstorms remind-soaked you ...

The goal of throttling oligarchs Once again, the private jet of the world’s most famous oligarch, Roman Abramovich, was spotted in the Emirates, which more than ever seems attractive to wealthy Russians, who are less welcome, or not at all, in London anymore, the capital, which once was known as Londongrad, when its mayor was Boris Johnson, now the Prime minister. He is attempting to revive his fading political fortunes by acting like a pocket-size war leader a la Winston Churchill ...

Les crises internationales de type de la guerre en Ukraine constituent des ruptures historiques qui induisent des changements profonds de paradigmes, mais aussi de systèmes d’alliances et de marges d’influence. Elles produisent, à terme, une nouvelle configuration des rapports de force, ce qui exige des acteurs des capacités d’anticipation et d’adaptation. Le continent Africain se trouve géopolitiquement, et en quelque sorte géographiquement, à la première loge de la guerre d ...

The war in Ukraine ignited fierce opposition on grounds of principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Populations weighed in the balance of power. Yet, for principles invoked against Russia to find universal resonance, the West should ensure it acts in accordance with these principles. Global solidarity implies treating all peoples equally. ...

La guerre d’Ukraine a suscité une vive réprobation au nom des principes de souveraineté et d’intégrité territoriale. Les populations ont pesé dans le rapport de force. Néanmoins, pour que les principes invoqués contre la Russie puissent nourrir un consensus universel, l’Occident devra lui-même agir en conformité avec eux. Une solidarité planétaire suppose de traiter tous les peuples de la même manière. ...

In addition to the deaths and destruction in Ukraine, the Russian invasion has caused several significant shocks to the global economy. In addition to the geopolitical consequences of the war, reinforcing the downward trend in trade globalization and financial integration, new rounds of disruptions to supply chains and higher commodity prices have already led to downward revisions in economic growth projections, accompanied by higher inflation. The commodity price shock, intensify ...

Following on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and severe drought in North Africa, the Russian invasion of Ukraine – large exporters of food and, in the case of Russia, energy— may inflict increased hunger on the food insecure in Morocco – despite mitigating measures by the government. Morocco is so far successfully shielding its large poor and vulnerable population by subsidizing essential commodities. With memories of the violent protests during the 2007/08 food and fuel crisis s ...

Which nation is next on Putin’s list, the Baltic states, Poland? “An oligarch is one of the select few people, who rule or influence leaders in an oligarchy- a government in which power is held by a select few individuals or a small class of powerful people” (www.dictionary.com) Now we know. The oligarchs of Moscow and St Petersburg, Vladivostok or Sevastopol, are forced to dig into their reserves, hidden cash, tons of Euro, dollar, pound wherever possible to camouflage their mone ...

La guerre russo-ukrainienne est engagée sur de nombreux théâtres, y compris celui de l'information et de la communication. A travers des dynamiques hybrides, anciens et nouveaux médias, sont mobilisés à la fois à des fins d'information, de persuasion et de propagande, avec en toile de fond une crise sous-jacente, celle des fake news. Chaque camp est soucieux de contrôler ses messages et de relayer son propre cadrage. D'un côté, la communication russe cherche à légitimer ...

The war between Russia and Ukraine unfolds on many theaters, including information and communication. Hybrid strategies and media old and new are utilized for information, persuasion and propaganda, with one underlying predicament, fake news, constantly lurking. Each side is keen on controlling its messages and relaying its narrative. On one hand, Russian communication seeks to legitimize its action and turn the opponent's camp from oppressed to provocateur. On the other, Ukrainian ...