The Eastern Front

In May 2023, Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), traveled to Russia to visit her ailing mother. While awaiting her flight back to the US in June, she was detained by Russian authorities and subsequently charged for failing to register as a “foreign agent.” If convicted, she faces up to five years in a Russian prison. On this episode of  The Eastern Fron...

On November 8, the European Commission adopted the 2023 enlargement package, which recommended opening negotiations for Ukraine and Moldova to officially join the EU. On this episode of  The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Oleksiy Goncharenko, Ukrainian parliament member, to discuss EU accession and Ukraine’s domestic politics. Do recent comments from Republic...

When one makes a seemingly dramatic choice, they are faced with the option to either walk back the consequences that choice has engendered or be consumed by that choice. This is the predicament Russian President Vladimir Putin has found himself in, argues AEI's Dr. Leon Aron in his new book, Riding the Tiger: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the Uses of War . On this episode of The Eastern Front , Gise...

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, The Telegraph 's journalists created a podcast, Ukraine: The Latest , to provide daily analysis on the conflict from a variety of angles. Since then, it has become one of the leading sources for coverage on the war. On this episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Francis Dearnley, assistant comment editor at The...

This past weekend saw Donald Tusk—former Polish prime minister and the head of the largest opposition group, Civic Coalition—declare victory for his party following the 2023 Polish parliamentary elections on October 15th. The elections marked Poland's highest voter turnout in the history of its democracy. On this week's episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Łukasz F...

There has been a longstanding trope in the United States that Ukraine is a hopelessly corrupt country, which has abetted the growing movement in favor of withdrawing aid. On this episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia welcome back Tamar Jacoby, director of the New Ukraine Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, to challenge misconceptions about Ukraine's corruption problem...

Since WWII, the relationship between American and German strategic culture has been deeply intertwined. However, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine was an external shock that fundamentally altered aspects of Germany's strategic culture, while leaving others untouched. On this episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Heiko Biehl, head of the research department at...

The international community is still reeling after Hamas launched a surprise air, sea, and land assault on Israel this past weekend that led to mass civilian casualties—the worst Israel has seen in its existence. In a pivot from The Eastern Front 's usual content, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia discuss the massacre, the problem with the current discourse around the conflict, and its implications for...

In the 1990s, Poland and Ukraine's real GDP per capita were roughly on par with one another. Over the span of 20 years, Poland has become almost three times as wealthy and is now a hub for Europe's capital market. On this episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Dr. Marek Dietl, CEO of the GPW Warsaw Stock Exchange and economic advisor to Polish president Andrzej Duda,...

Much of the criticism against Russia's invasion of Ukraine has come from Western political analysts, US and EU government officials, and the Ukrainians at the center of the conflict. Yet, seldom is the public at liberty to hear from Russian insiders who can best speak to President Vladimir Putin's strategic thinking. On this episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia sit down with...

Since the start of the Russian invasion, Ukraine has relied on Starlink—the internet technology company created by Elon Musk—to keep its communication networks alive and defend itself against Russian attacks. Yet, as the dominant power in the satellite internet space, Musk is in a unique position to decide the extent of Starlink's role in the war. Out of an alleged fear of escalating tensions with...

There is a growing sense on some corners of Capitol Hill that the US has been unilaterally supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression. And with the Biden administration having failed to explain to the American public why Ukraine matters to the US, many members of Congress are urging the US to roll back its aid packages. On this week's episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia s...

The recent appointment of Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar, as Ukraine's new defense minister has brought to the fore the role of Tatars in Ukraine's fight against Russia. On this episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Rim Gilfanov, director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tatar Bakhshir service, to shed light on Tatars: Where do they come from and what is the his...

On the evening of August 23rd, news broke of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's death after Russian aviation officials listed him as a member on a flight that suspiciously crashed north of Moscow. On this episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia convene to discuss what Prigozhin's death could mean for the Wagner group's legitimacy, the stability of Putin's regime, and the fate of...

Since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in early June, policymakers and analysts have criticized the Ukrainian military for underperforming. This past week, the Washington Post published an assessment by the US intelligence community that claimed Ukraine's counteroffensive wouldn't fulfill its principal objectives, despite "tens of billions of dollars" of Western equipment. On this episode of...

Brady Africk was nearly a year into his role as a media relations associate at AEI when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine took place. Feeling struck by the wrongness of the war, as he puts it on the podcast, he decided to harness his interest in the intersection between foreign policy and tech by publishing satellite imagery that tracked Russia's activities. Over a year later, Africk's maps...

On this episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia offer their take on events from the last several weeks and predict what lays ahead for Ukraine. They discuss Russia's escalating attacks on Ukraine's grain industry and what it suggests about President Vladimir Putin's new offensive strategy, China's growing stake in the conflict, how upcoming elections in Poland and Slovakia might...

In the second of The Eastern Front 's two-part series on Black Sea security, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Admiral James Foggo (ret.), dean for the Center for Maritime Strategy, about strategies for enhancing freedom of navigation in the Black Sea. Are we currently experiencing a Russian blockade of the Black Sea? How should the US respond to Russian actions in order to deter future alter...

Russia is facing global criticism for its recent attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube river and the decision to pull out of a July 2022 UN-brokered deal that enabled Ukrainian grain to be exported through the Black Sea. Immediately following the pullout, Russian authorities warned that any vessel traveling to Ukraine would be considered an enemy combatant. On this episode of The Eastern Front...

In February 2022, Andrey Liscovich, a Ukrainian native, was living a peaceful life in San Francisco, working on a new startup after graduating with his PhD from Harvard University and spending three years as the CEO of Uber Works. The war in Ukraine would change all of that. After witnessing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's resistance in the wake of Russia's invasion, Liscovich felt compe...

Of all the possible outcomes of Prigozhin's mutiny, most experts probably didn't expect to see Belarus figure itself so prominently in the narrative. Indeed, as Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko agreed to allow both Progizhin and Wagner forces into the country, questions arose about the fate of the Belarusian-Russian connection. On this episode of The Eastern Front , Giselle, Dalibor, and...

In his recent piece for Foreign Affairs , Radek Sikorski, Polish Member of the European Parliament, argued that Europe was "all bark and no bite." Despite its many attempts to get serious about its security, the EU nation states lack a unified defense policy, all act in defense of their own national interests, and would eventually lose its status as a superpower. On this episode of The Eastern Fro...

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moldova has attempted to forge closer ties with its Western neighbors. Geographically located between the EU and Ukraine, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't given up on projecting power in the former Soviet republic. To discuss Moldova's shifting relationship with the EU and Russia, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Siegfriend Muresan, Member...

Since Finland joined NATO in April, many defense analysts have begun referring to the Baltic Sea as "NATO Lake." What might be the long-term effects of NATO's gradual encirclement of this strategic region? Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia are joined by Minna Alander, research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, to discuss the security landscape of the Nordic region since Finland's...

The people of Georgia are all too familiar with Russian occupation. In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia in a brutal provocation that left tens of thousands displaced and persecuted. By the end of the five-day conflict, Russia gained control of two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine is a stark reminder to Georgians of what could potentially happen to them (...