Carnegie Politika podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Carnegie Europe's director Rosa Balfour and senior fellow Tom de Waal to discuss Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, and Serbia, which find themselves caught between Russia and the EU.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine is accelerating the process of China edging out Russia from Central and Eastern Europe.

On May 11, the Russian government took a major step in the energy sanctions war. It placed EuRoPol Gaz and Gazprom Germania and its affiliates under sanctions, prohibiting Russian companies from having any dealings with these entities. Why would the Russian government sanction its own companies?

The vote to Leave was mainly a protest vote. It was the vote of people who hated “Brussels” and the European Union, but hated London and the international financial system just as much. The black irony of this is that it is precisely the social category of working-class protest voters who are likely to suffer when Britain loses the privileged access it currently has to the EU’s single market.

The current confrontation between the West and Russia will continue. Within that confrontation, however, a degree of cooperation is possible.

Both Russia and the European Union are at a stage when setting out their own domestic priorities and defining their respective global roles are more important than achieving an alliance.