Geopolitics is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of states: de facto independent states with limited international recognition and relations between sub-national geopolitical entities, such as the federated states that make up a federation, confederation, or a quasi-federal system.
The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea are sometimes referred to as the "Baltic nations", less often and in historical circumstances also as the "Baltic republics", the "Baltic lands", or simply the Baltics.
The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is a decommissioned two-unit RBMK-1500 nuclear power station in Visaginas Municipality, Lithuania. It was named after the nearby city of Ignalina. Due to the plant's similarities to the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in both reactor design and lack of a robust containment building, Lithuania agreed to close the plant as part of its accession agreement to the European Union. Unit 1 was closed in December 2004; Unit 2, which counted for 25% of Lithuania's electricity generating capacity and supplied about 70% of Lithuania's electrical demand, was closed on December 31, 2009. Proposals have been made to construct a new nuclear power plant at the same site, but plans have not materialised since then.
The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union (FSU) or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged out of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they existed as Union Republics — top-level constituents of the Soviet Union. There are 15 post-Soviet states in total: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Each of these countries succeeded their respective Union Republics: the Armenian SSR, the Azerbaijan SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, the Estonian SSR, the Georgian SSR, the Kazakh SSR, the Kirghiz SSR, the Latvian SSR, the Lithuanian SSR, the Moldavian SSR, the Russian SFSR, the Tajik SSR, the Turkmen SSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Uzbek SSR. In Russia, the term "near abroad" is sometimes used to refer to other post-Soviet states.
Germany–Russia relations display cyclical patterns, moving back and forth from cooperation and alliance to strain and to total warfare. Historian John Wheeler-Bennett says that since the 1740s:
Anatol Lieven is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst best known for his expertise on the Taliban of Afghanistan. He is currently a visiting professor at King's College London and senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is also a contributor to the Valdai Discussion Club.
Eesti Gaas AS, branded internationally as Elenger, is an energy company with headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia. The company's main activity is selling and distributing of natural gas in Estonian, Latvian, Finnish, and Lithuanian markets. Eesti Gaas product portfolio includes also LNG, CNG, and electricity, including solar energy.
The June deportation was a mass deportation of tens of thousands of people from the territories which were occupied in 1940–1941: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, occupied Ukraine, and occupied Poland, and Moldavia by the Soviet Union.
Poland–Russia relations have a long and often turbulent history, dating to the late Middle Ages, when the Kingdom of Poland and Kievan Rus' and later the Grand Duchy of Moscow struggled over control of their borders. Over centuries, there have been several Polish–Russian Wars, with Poland once occupying Moscow and later Russia controlling much of Poland in the 19th as well as in the 20th century, leading to strained relations and multiple Polish attempts at re-acquiring independence. Polish–Russian relations entered a new phase following the fall of communism, 1989–1993, with relations warming under Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and later Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Relations began worsening considerably as a result of the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia, and later the 2014 annexation of Crimea and especially the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Relations between the Polish and Russian governments have become extremely unfriendly, and according to a 2022 poll, only 2% of Poles view Russia positively, the lowest number in the world among countries polled.
Michael A. Levi was a Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Economic Policy in the Obama White House. He was previously the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and environment at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a nonpartisan foreign-policy think tank and membership organization, and director of its Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies. He is an expert on energy and climate, highly regulated technology, and defense and security policy.
Paul A. Goble is an American analyst, writer and columnist with expertise on Russia. Trained at Miami University and the University of Chicago, he is the editor of four volumes on ethnic issues in the former Soviet Union and has published more than 150 articles on ethnic and nationality questions. Goble served as special adviser on Soviet nationality issues and Baltic affairs to Secretary of State James Baker.
Russia supplies a significant volume of fossil fuels to other European countries. In 2021, it was the largest exporter of oil and natural gas to the European Union, (90%) and 40% of gas consumed in the EU came from Russia.
Lithuania is a net energy importer. Primary energy use in Lithuania was 98 TWh, or 29 TWh per million people in 2009.
Nataliya Katser - Buchkovska is economist, expert on energy and investment, environmental activist.
The Lublin Triangle is a regional alliance of three European countries – Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine – for the purposes of strengthening mutual military, cultural, economic and political cooperation and supporting Ukraine's integration into the European Union and NATO. The Lublin Triangle initiative invokes the integrative heritage of the 1569 Union of Lublin.
Energy diplomacy is a form of diplomacy, and a subfield of international relations. It is closely related to its principal, foreign policy, and to overall national security, specifically energy security. Energy diplomacy began in the first half of the twentieth century and emerged as a term during the second oil crisis as a means of describing OPEC's actions. It has since mainly focused on the securitization of energy supplies, primarily fossil fuels, but also nuclear energy and increasingly sustainable energy, on a country or bloc basis.
This article lists events that occurred during 1997 in Estonia.
The Russia–EU gas dispute flared up in March 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine in late February. Russia and the major EU countries clashed over the issue of payment for pipeline natural gas exported to Europe by Russia's Gazprom. In June, Russia cut the flow of gas by more than half, in July it stopped and resumed it, and in September it stopped it altogether. On 26 September 2022, the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines both ruptured with evidence of sabotage.
This is a select bibliography of English language books and journal articles about the history of Russia and its empire from 1991 to present. It specifically excludes topics related to the Dissolution of the Soviet Union; see Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union for information on this subject. This bibliography is restricted to works about Russian history, and specifically excludes items such modern travel logs and guide books, popular culture, etc.
The Intermarium region comprises a group of geographically contiguous Central and Eastern European countries that share a common historical, social and cultural identity. Many were socialist buffer republics, either Soviet republics or otherwise subordinate to the USSR. As a region, they form a land buffer from the Baltic to the Black Sea that could balance future Russian influence in Europe.
