As part of a broader analytical report on recent developments in Ukraine, Shant TV interviewed RSC Director Richard Giragosian on February 20. Giragosian joined two other Armenian analysts in assessing the intensifying violence between the Ukrainian government and the demonstrators and analyzed the implications for Russia and the West, as well as the future of Ukraine.

www.shanttv.com/am/news/political/2014_02_20/14587/

In an extended interview with Boon (“original”) TV on February 20, RSC Project Coordinator Haykak Arshamyan assessed current challenges facing Armenia, explaining that “for over two thousand years, the nation has faced a dilemma in orientation, East or West, Europe or Russia, and other various directions.”  He went on to add that “each time, in different historical periods, we have had to face a dilemma again, and we now find ourselves on the threshold of collapse: a collapse of the political system, economic collapse, or a loss of statehood.”

http://boon.am/suveranitate-haykak-arshamyan/

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In an interview with 1in.am (in English and dubbed into Armenian), RSC Director Richard Giragosian assessed recent developments in Ukraine, the future of Armenian-EU relations and commented on other pressing regional issues, including Armenian-Turkish normalization efforts and Nagorno Karabagh.

http://www.1in.am/arm/armenia_interview_252277.html

In the third in a series of RSC commentaries published on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Armenian Service website blog, RSC Director Richard Giragosian assessed a new wave of instability in the near abroad.

Giragosian noted that “as mounting unrest and violence now rages in Ukraine, instability now seems to be spreading throughout the so-called ‘near abroad,’ Moscow’s descriptive term for the former Soviet space. Clearly, Ukraine now stands as a pivotal arena of confrontation and conflict, on several levels.”

The Regional Studies Center (RSC) convened a special “focus group” discussion on February 17 focusing on the outlook for Armenia-EU relations, including an assessment of the implications from the Armenian president’s controversial September 2013 decision to forego the long-planned initialing of an Association Agreement with the EU. The focus group discussion was organized as part of the research project EUIMPACTEAST (France/UK) entitled, “Exploring the EU's influence on Domestic Change in Eastern Partnership Countries” (for more information on the project, please go to: www.euimpacteast.org).