Belarus has expelled Sweden’s ambassador over his actions to support democracy, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said on Friday, as the European Union’s foreign policy chief said the bloc would consider responding with “appropriate” measures. READ MORE

The presidential election is still two weeks away and the inauguration of the next president more than two months off, but we can already analyze the results of Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency. The current focus is on his mentor and most likely successor, Vladimir Putin, who has made a number of policy statements as part of his tireless campaign efforts, including on foreign policy, which was not part of his brief as prime minister. READ MORE

After the declarations of Alexander Lukashenko in Astana about the prospects of Kazakh oil supplies to Belarus experts close to Belarusian authorities started to persuade people that Kazakhstan is evidently interested in cooperation with our country as it opens a direct access to European market. The situation is represented in such a way that state of unsettlement of some issues of the CU impedes to involve Kazakhstan into the new way of hydro carbons supply to Europe. However, the reaction of Kazakhstan on these songs of Belarusian alarms looks pragmatically reserved. READ MORE

Poland’s Baltic neighbours are observing the Civic Platform administration’s foreign policy with unease. The days when Poland served as the region’s leader, while President Lech Kaczynski mobilized Intermarum to defend against Russia’s aggressive policies, are long gone. Komorowski officially joined in the construction of a new Russian security architecture in Merkel’s and Sarkozy’s presence on 7 February. The following day, Lithuania called for the withdrawal of Russia’s nuclear weapons from the Kaliningrad region, while Estonia signed a defence cooperation agreement with Sweden, the Polish Gazeta Polska paper wrote on 9 March. READ MORE