President Vladimir Putin's support for his cabinet's measures aimed at debureaucratizing the economy have earned him applause both at home and abroad, even from some of those observers who fear that in other areas, such as press freedom, he is heading in an authoritarian direction.... MORE

Baltoskepticism--NATO's counterpart to the Euroskepticism which lingers elsewhere--is slowly but clearly losing ground among Western European members of the alliance. This incremental shift of opinion accompanies a stronger American momentum toward NATO's Baltic enlargement. Support is now growing also in NATO Europe for inviting Estonia,... MORE

On April 17-20, Spain's Foreign Affairs Minister Josep Pique paid an official visit to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania--the first high-level Spanish visit to the Baltic states in the ten years of restored independence. Pique called for the simultaneous admission of the three states to NATO... MORE

Along with the Kremlin's ongoing assault on Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-Most group, the main development in Russian politics this month has been moves by two formerly hostile political groups, the pro-Putin Unity party and the Fatherland-All Russia movement, to merge into a broad "centrist" bloc. Unity's... MORE

There have been reports that not everyone in Fatherland-All Russia is happy about the merger with Unity: Sources close to Yevgeny Primakov were quoted earlier this week as saying that he was unhappy about having been shunted aside (Moscow Times, April 16). On the other... MORE

Meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on April 16-17, Moldova's Communist President Vladimir Voronin came close to consenting to the transformation of his country into a Russian military outpost and political satellite. The deal is not yet quite sealed. As newly elected president, Voronin... MORE

There are at least four obvious flaws with President Vladimir Voronin's circular argument regarding Russian troops in Moldova. First, the Transdniester forces--with which Moscow scares Chisinau--are Moscow's own creation, armed and staffed by the Russian Federation's military. And Moscow insists that Transdniester's forces be authorized... MORE

At this initial stage in his presidency, Vladimir Voronin has thrown the European rhetoric of his predecessors Mircea Snegur and Petru Lucinschi overboard. Asked in Moscow whether Moldova aspired to join European institutions, Voronin replied that his country would join Europe together with Russia, Belarus... MORE

What is probably Ukraine's most successful government since its independence is about to be dismissed by a temporary coalition of communists and oligarchic factions in the parliament (Verkhovna Rada). A no-confidence vote is scheduled for next week. The right-wingers backing the liberal prime minister, Viktor... MORE

Russian environmentalists and liberal lawmakers suffered a setback yesterday when, in a second reading, the State Duma approved a controversial package of bills which could ultimately open the way for Russia to become a major importer of spent nuclear fuel from abroad. The vote appeared... MORE