Post-Soviet Jewish refugees in Poland: Status and Perspectives

Poland has unexpectedly become a key space of encounter between local Jewish life and thousands of Jews from Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries displaced by war and political repression. Based on first-hand observations and direct work with refugees, the text reveals hidden tensions, linguistic dynamics, and institutional blind spots that shape everyday Jewish existence in contemporary Poland. It also raises a provocative question: why does a country with such a large aliyah potential remain on the margins of Israel’s repatriation priorities?

Monthly Monitoring of Analytical Publications on Post-Soviet Conflicts

Selecting an overarching frame for the academic works we chose for the December issue of our monitoring bulletin, we noticed that all of them, in one way or another, touch upon the civilizational influence of the Soviet Union—an influence that has not ended even today, 34 years after the USSR ceased to exist, in December. The post-Soviet space—and, more broadly, the post-Soviet perimeter of geopolitical influence—is not merely a historical shorthand for the past. It remains an operative category, a geopolitical reality today—already, in just a few days, in the second quarter of the twenty-first century.

The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy and the Conflicts at the Post-Soviet Space

This paper explores how the 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy reframes American thinking on power, sovereignty, and conflict management in the post-Soviet space. Focusing on the practical logic embedded in the Strategy rather than its declarative language, it traces how a shift toward pragmatism, selective engagement, and economic priorities alters the environment in which regional conflicts unfold. The analysis invites the reader to reconsider familiar post-Soviet crises through a new strategic lens that emphasizes interests, leverage, and deal-making over ideology and institutional norms.

Antisemitic Conspiracy Narratives in the Post-Soviet Geopolitics

"Instrumentalization of antisemitism,” which means using this topic in isolation from real problems for political purposes, primarily to discredit opponents, has been used repeatedly in the post-Soviet space. Thus, since Russia’s succession and appending of the Ukrainian Crimea peninsula and active military and diplomatic involvement on the side of Eastern Ukraine separatists against the Ukrainian pro-European regime in 2014 and till now, both Kyiv and Moscow have viewed the Jewish world as a positive asset for the achievement of their immediate and strategic goals.

The Geography Trap: Cases of Kazakhstan and Baltic States

Kazakhstan should take notice. Moscow has a long record of turning yesterday’s partners into today’s expendable liabilities. Diversifying trade routes, investing in non-Russian infrastructure and reducing exposure to Russian transit systems are not luxuries; they are survival strategies.

BESA Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Digest No. 26 (November 2025)

In November 2025, the materials published by the Post-Soviet Conflicts Research Program at BESA focused mainly on the issue of Kazakhstan’s accession to the Abraham Accords and on the problem of combatants’ reintegration and political participation in Russia and Ukraine.

Monthly Monitoring of Analytical Publications on Post-Soviet Conflicts

The watchword of our October monitoring issue is “Method.” This edition brings together unusual, at times even exotic, yet strictly academic materials. It so happened that in October several works were released in open access that, specifically in terms of research methodology on conflicts, look like breakthroughs toward new horizons. We invite the reader simply to enjoy this reading – as we did ourselves.

Veterans of Combat Operations as a New Systemic Factor in Ukrainian Domestic Politics

In the first part of our study we examined the social and political role of “SVO veterans” in the contemporary political and public landscape of Russia. We concluded that this role is not only significant—it is configurational and systemic, and it is not painted strictly in black or white. This article focuses on the other side of the conflict in southeastern Russia and Ukraine and presents an analysis of the social and political roles of veterans of the conflict within Ukrainian politics and society—today and in the near future.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and the Abrahamic Accord 2.0

The return of Donald Trump to the White House has reenergized U.S. efforts to expand the Abraham Accords into a far more ambitious geopolitical framework. What began as a set of normalization agreements between Israel and key Arab partners is now evolving into a wider strategic architecture spanning the Middle East, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. This report explores the opportunities and tensions emerging from this shift, with Kazakhstan’s unexpected early entry marking a significant new phase.

SVO Veterans’ as a New Systemic Factor in Russian Domestic Politics

The ongoing military conflict in the south-east of Russia and Ukraine is producing consequences that extend far beyond the battlefield. With hundreds of thousands of servicemen simultaneously deployed, the scale of participation is generating deep structural shifts inside Russia itself. This report examines how the formation of a new, massive cohort of “SVO veterans” is beginning to reshape the country’s political, social, and administrative landscape in ways that will define its internal trajectory for years to come.

PSCRP