Director of the Center V. Dubovyk has had a presentation at the PONARS Eurasia workshop in Istanbul on February 7th, 2016.

With the annexation of Crimea by the Russian federation the Black Sea region is experiencing some major turbulence, which might lead to a noticeably new strategic environment and security situation here. With this peninsula now under de-facto control of Russia it enjoys the proximity to all major segments of the Black Sea basin, which allows for previously inexistent strategic outreach and force projection. Moscow does not seem to be focused on defending the peninsula from any sort of invasion, but, instead, is preoccupied with preparing the attack capabilities there. The geostrategic landscape of the wider Black Sea region has been altered, the balance of power, correlation of forces in the area has been shifting.