Eastern Europe

War in Ukraine Has Left Eastern Europe Sleepless

WARSAW — For the past seven weeks, Dr. Simona Neliubsiene has struggled to focus on her patients’ charts, distracted by images of bombed cities flashing in her head. At night, she lies awake in bed, her heart thumping, frantically doom-scrolling through the latest news about Russia’s war in Ukraine. “I never had anxiety attacks before,” […]

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Federal Reserve Walks a Tightrope Between Inflation and Recession

In an interview, James D. Hamilton, professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, and a leading expert on the economic effects of oil shocks, said they had “made major contributions to recessions over many decades.” At current oil price and supply levels, the effects of the Russian war “are fairly manageable for […]

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Putin’s War to Bring Ukraine to Heel Unites Eastern Europe in Alarm

PODBORSKO, Poland — Scattered around the forest in Poland like archaeological ruins, the crumbling concrete bunkers for decades stored Soviet nuclear warheads. Today, they store only memories — deeply painful for Poland, joyous for the Kremlin — of the vanished empire that President Vladimir V. Putin wants to rebuild, starting with his war in Ukraine. […]

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Unity in a Foreign Policy Crisis, but Questions Still to be Answered

WASHINGTON — President Biden’s challenge on Tuesday night was to unite Americans behind his confrontation with a brutal Russian leader who has shattered more than three decades of post-Cold War peace without setting off fears that the return of superpower conflict will inflict an unacceptable cost. Even as scenes of ruin were being flashed to […]

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‘Putin Chose This War’: Biden Denounces Russia’s Actions in Ukraine

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Thursday denounced President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his “sinister vision for the future of our world,” vowing that Mr. Putin and his country would pay as the United States imposed a new round of economic sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this […]

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How Russia Attacked Ukraine and What Happens Next

After months of troop and tank buildups, of grim warnings of violence and vague assurances of peace, and of efforts at diplomacy in Washington, the halls of the United Nations and the capitals of Europe, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began early Thursday morning, with shelling and rocket attacks on several major cities including the capital, […]

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Vladimir Putin: Crafty Strategist or Aggrieved and Reckless Leader?

MOSCOW — At this moment of crescendo for the Ukraine crisis, it all comes down to what kind of leader President Vladimir V. Putin is. In Moscow, many analysts remain convinced that the Russian president is essentially rational, and that the risks of invading Ukraine would be so great that his huge troop buildup makes […]

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Putin Warns the West and Ukraine, but Keeps His Intentions a Mystery

MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin said he was prepared to keep negotiating over Russia’s security demands in Eastern Europe but offered a stark warning over the possibility of a full-scale war between Russia and the West — using a five-hour meeting with his French counterpart on Monday to keep the world guessing about his […]

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Fiona Hill: For Russia’s President Putin, It’s Not Just About Ukraine

For weeks, American officials have huddled to make sense of the official documents with Russia’s demands and the contradictory commentary, pondered how to deter Mr. Putin in Ukraine and scrambled to talk on his timeline. All the while, Mr. Putin and his proxies have ratcheted up their statements. Kremlin officials have not just challenged the […]

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