Eurasia

When Lithuania assumes the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) in January 2027, it will do so under genuinely exceptional circumstances: no Member State has previously chaired the Council’s most China-sensitive economic-security files while lacking diplomatic relations with the country those files concern. This absence cuts both ways. On the one hand, it deprives Lithuania of the bilateral diplomatic infrastructure that can support a Presidency, on the other, it denies Beijing a direct channel through which to pressure the presiding state

The parliamentary elections on October 3 will take place against the backdrop of three challenges that are new for Latvia. The first is the weakening of the coalition-capable center: the United List (AS), led by Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, leads in the polls, but its most acceptable coalition partners are hovering near the electoral threshold or remain below it.

For several months, social media has been flooded with images of long queues at petrol stations and exploding fuel storage tanks – not only in the Persian Gulf, but also in Europe. These scenes are unfolding in Russia itself, one of the most energy-rich countries in the world. Many had grown accustomed to Ukrainian energy infrastructure being targeted during the Russian invasion. However, circumstances have shifted, and Russia now finds itself forced to defend against aerial strikes targeting its own critical infrastructure. This naturally raises key questions: what prompted this Ukrainian strategy, why focus on the oil sector, and what impact is this having on Russian energy?

Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections are taking place at a moment when the country’s internal exhaustion has coincided with a sharp rise in the foreign-policy significance of the campaign.

Hungary’s new government led by Péter Magyar takes office next week with a mandate unprecedented in the country’s post-1989 history.

On 5 May 2026, the Romanian parliament passed a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan's cabinet, with 281 MPs supporting the motion – comfortably above the 233-vote threshold.

On April 20, GSSC hosted a conversation on Bulgaria’s snap parliamentary elections. Here are the key insights from the discussion.

Russia’s shadow fleet has become one of the central mechanisms enabling the continuation of Russian oil exports despite the extensive sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

On April 13, GSSC hosted a conversation on Hungary’s parliamentary elections. Here’s what you need to know.

Since 2019, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)¹ has been navigating a markedly changed geopolitical landscape, in which partnerships with non-EU actors are evaluated not only for their economic potential but also for their implications for security, political resilience, and long-term dependencies, particularly in the economic and technological spheres.

Following the two days of negotiations, on December 13, the U.S. represented by the special envoy John Coale managed to reach another interim deal with Belarus’ regime on the release of 123 political prisoners, including a part of very prominent political opponents and activists,

Analyses of China’s governance often fixate on political centralization, portraying the system as a “one-man show” dominated by President Xi Jinping. Since taking office in 2012 and securing an unprecedented third term, Xi has consolidated exceptional decision-making authority and positioned himself as the chief architect of policy across nearly all strategic domains.

On August 15 the whole world’s attention was focused on the President of the U.S. Donald Trump ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Around the time Trump’s plane was in the sky on the way to Alaska, Telegram channel Pul Pervogo, also known as Lukashenka-affiliated page on the messenger, was the first to report that Trump had called Alyaksandr Lukashenka.