Despite much diplomatic effort, the situation in Ukraine worsens. A coordinated Russian campaign, including an invasion threat, special operations destabilization in eastern Ukraine patterned on the Crimea model, and warnings of gas cutoffs document ever more clearly Vladi­mir Putin’s aim to cripple the Ukrainian government and control much or even all of this strategically vital European country.

More than two decades after the Cold War supposedly came to a peaceful conclusion,Russia’s encroachment on Ukrainian sovereignty and its outright annexation of Crimea have occasioned a retro flashback. A byproduct of this geopolitical turmoil is NATO’s renewed importance to foreign policy.

The sign outside the new visitor centre reads simply “The Battle of Bannockburn” as though one had rolled up in time for the fight, instead of 700 years too late. The approach to the site goes through the dull suburbs of Stirling, via a northerly spur of Scotland’s patchy motorway system.

In December 2012, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was on vacation in Berlin when he decided to detour to the Netherlands. He wanted to get a firsthand sense of the famed Dutch approach to water management. 

While the Klitschko brothers are known as champions of heavyweight boxing, the older brother Vitali is transforming himself into a politician that represents the new Ukraine. Formerly called “Doctor Ironfist,” Vitali is extending his heavyweight champion brand far beyond HBO sports audiences -- he has emerged as the international spokesperson for the pro-Western, pro-reform Ukraine. 

Latvia is joining Lithuania in banning Russian state television broadcasts because it found that several programs about the Ukraine crisis were tendentious and not in the Baltic nation’s security interests.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the McCain Institute present a discussion on Russian Propaganda and Russian minorities in Eastern Europe.