The language issue in Ukraine: An attempt at a new perspective. OSW Study 40/2012

Ukraine has been an independent state for only 20 years and the consequence of the long-term incorporation of Ukrainian lands into the Russian/Soviet state is an ethnically mixed society. In Ukraine, alongside Ukrainians, there are very many Russians and members of other nationalities of the former Soviet Union as well as a still large group of people who identify themselves as Soviets (in terms of their nationality). A significant part of Ukrainians use Russian in their everyday life (particularly professional) while knowing Ukrainian to only a small degree or not at all. Due to this Kyiv has to implement a language policy (which does not have to be pursued in e.g. Poland or Hungary) in search of solutions to ensure the stable functioning of a modern state for a multilingual society. The language issue is therefore an important challenge for the Ukrainian state and one of the more significant issues in Ukraine’s internal politics. In this text I eschew a detailed analysis of the question of Crimea as its social dynamics (also in the language area) is clearly distinct from the remaining part of Ukraine for four reasons: the short-term character of the region’s links with Ukraine, its relative geographic isolation (Crimea is almost an island), the formal autonomy of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and the presence of the Crimean Tatar community which is demanding the recognition of its language rights.

EU Sanctions Policy towards Russia: The Sanctioner-Sanctionee’s Game of Thrones. CEPS Working Document No. 402/January 2015

Since Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the start of the conflict in the Donbass region, the EU has introduced three waves of restrictive measures against Russia, which are regularly updated. Having thus expanded from measures targeting individuals to entire sectors, the current EU sanctions policy impacts Russia’s financial markets, energy sector and defence industry. On top of this, new bans affect EU investments, services and trade in Crimea and Sevastopol. While they hurt the Russian economy, the EU sanctions also have a boomerang effect, especially in conjunction with the countersanctions imposed by the Kremlin on EU food imports. In this lose-lose situation, the usefulness of the EU sanctions has been called into doubt, in particular in those EU member states that are the most economically intertwined with Russia. How successful has the EU been so far in pushing its case with the Kremlin and what moves are left for the two main actors in the sanctioner-sanctionee ‘Game of Thrones’? This Working Document offers a SWOT analysis of the EU sanctions policy towards Russia and identifies the Strengths for the EU to cultivate, Weaknesses to minimise, Opportunities to seize and Threats to counteract.

Western Strategic Poverty: The Ukrainian Crisis and the New World Order. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 14 Special Issue, March 2014

From Introduction. The Ukrainian crisis, which deepened in February with the invasion of the Crimean peninsula by Russia, has exposed a serious poverty of strategy and leadership from Europe and the US. Such a lack of strategic vision in responding to the Ukrainian crisis, considered by Nicholas Burns among others, as one of the greatest crises in Europe since 1991, diverges between the European Union and the US. It is undeniable that the western leadership is unable to get its act together. In the US, the perpetual fratricide between the republicans and democrats over anything is affecting the development and implementation of sound foreign policies, while in the EU, there is no clear European leadership emerging, neither from the 28 Member States nor the High Representative and Presidents of the Council and Commission. The EU is once again facing its perpetual policy of risk aversion. On the one hand, the US remains conflicted in identifying its identity in this post-liberal world order, while the EU difficulty faces the inevitable limitation of its soft power. With a West in crisis, no decent strategy and/or policy to unravel, or at least contain, the Ukrainian crisis can emerge in this axiomatic moment with the making of the new world order.

Russia in the Balkans: How should the EU respond? EPC Policy Brief, 12 October 2015

On 3 September 2015, Russia's 7th Guards Airborne-Assault (Mountain) Division kicked off an exercise near the Black Sea city of Novorossiysk, some 150 km southeast of the annexed Crimean peninsula. The timing was chosen carefully. 'Swift Response', a large-scale drill run by NATO alongside the coastline of Romania and Bulgaria, along with other European locations, had concluded several days earlier. Codenamed 'Slavic Brotherhood', the war games at Novorossiysk involved Belarusian Special Forces and, strikingly, paratroopers from Serbia. Here was a country negotiating its accession to the EU and a recent signatory of a cooperation deal with NATO that was siding with the self-declared competitor of the West.

Das politische Gedicht auf die europäischen Ereignisse von 1854 : mit einem Anhang aus dem "Tagebuch eines Schriftstellers" /

Mode of access: Internet.

The war in the Crimea /

Mode of access: Internet.

Bismarck, the man and the statesman : being the reflections and reminiscences of Otto, prince von Bismarck,

Translation of the author's Gedanken und erinnerungen, Stuttgart, 1898.

At home and on the battlefield;

Appendices: I. Some account of Mary and Charlotte Stephenson (1771-1850; 1772-1853), sisters of Sir Benjamin Stephenson, written by their niece, Charlotte Augusta Stephenson (p. 363-370)--II. The romantic story of Mrs. George Coxe (1753-1843), told by her great-niece, Charlotte Augusta Stephenson (p. 371-377)

Abulghasi Bahadür Chani Historia Mongolorum et Tatarorum : nunc primum tatarice edita auctoritate et munificenti︠a︡ /

Mode of access: Internet.

Journal kept during the Russian war, from the departure of the army from England in April, 1854, to the fall of Sebastopol /

Mode of access: Internet.

Talfīq al-akhbār wa-talqīḥ al-āthār fī waqāʼiʻ Qazān wa-Bulghār wa-mulūk al-Tatār.

Mode of access: Internet.

Preussens auswärtige Politik 1850 bis 1858 : Unveröffentlichte Dokumente aus dem Nachlasse des Ministerpräsidenten Otto Frhrn. v. Manteuffel /

1. Bd. 1850 bis 1852 (Von Olmüss bis zur Errichtung des zweiten französischen Kaiserreichs, Vom 1. November 1850 bis zum 2. Dezember 1852) -- 2. Bd. 1852 bis 1854 (Die orientalische Frage bis zum Beginn des Krimkrieges, Vom 2. Dezember 1852 bis zum 14. Dezember 1854) -- 3. Bd. 1854 bis 1858 (Von der Beendigung der orientalischen Krisis bis zum Beginn der neuen Aera, Vom 15. Dezember 1854 bis zum 6. November 1858).

Der russisch-türkische Krieg und der Kriegsschauplatz in politischer : örtlicher und militärischer Beziehung.

Mode of access: Internet.

The war: from the landing at Gallipoli to the death of Lord Raglan.

Mode of access: Internet.

Soyer's culinary campaign. Being historical reminiscences of the late war. With the plain wit of cookery for military and civil institutions the army, navy, public, etc. etc.

Added t.p., illus.