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Latest articles from Vladimir Socor
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Georgia Adrift, US AWOL After Regime Change
Georgia’s parliamentary elections on October 1, 2012, have ushered in, not merely a rotation of government, but a change of regime, from President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream. The latter won an indisputable mandate in the narrow terms... MORE
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Political Factions Threaten to Derail Moldova’s European Course (Part Two)
Moldova’s Alliance for European Integration (AEI), governing since 2009, has all along been wracked by rivalries, pitting the two smaller parties against the larger one. The lure of Europe, and fear of the strong Communist opposition, have barely kept the AEI together thus far. Meanwhile,... MORE
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Political Factions Threaten to Derail Moldova’s European Course (Part One)
Until a few days ago, Moldova was on course to sign or at least to initial an Association Agreement with the European Union this year. Moldova was outpacing the other countries in the EU’s Eastern Partnership program toward the goals of association and free trade... MORE
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Russia Trips up Ukraine’s OSCE Chairmanship in Transnistria
Ukraine has declared the Transnistria conflict a top priority issue of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Ukrainian chairmanship in 2013 (OSCE press release, February 19). Nominally, the OSCE has been in charge of handling this conflict since 1993. Ukrainian diplomacy harbors... MORE
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Croatian Government Considers Expansion of Russian Energy Companies (Part Two)
Last month, the Croatian government signed up to Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline project; it agreed to re-start importing certain gas volumes from Gazprom through existing pipelines from 2013 onward; it welcomed Gazprom’s offers to build jointly-owned power plants in Croatia; heard an unexpected proposal for... MORE
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Croatian Government Invites Expansion of Russian Energy Companies (Part One)
Croatia is expected to join the European Union as a full member in July of this year. In the energy sector, however, Croatia’s center-left government is marking the EU accession in its own ways: First, by joining Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline project, in breach of... MORE
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Filat’s Reset: Moldovan Prime Minister Reaches out to Putin and Medvedev
Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat’s September 10–12 back-to-back visits with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (see accompanying article) amount to a reset of bilateral relations initiated by Filat. This marks the first time since 2003 (Kozak Memorandum’s collapse) that Putin deigns... MORE
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Moldova’s Filat Discusses Energy Sector Agreement with Russia’s Putin and Medvedev
On September 10–12, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev received Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat with his governmental delegation in Moscow and Sochi, respectively. The Transnistria conflict did not figure on the official agenda and seemed almost unmentioned in these discussions. Instead,... MORE
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Azerbaijan Drives the Planning on Trans-Anatolia Gas Pipeline Project
The Azerbaijani-Turkish Trans-Anatolia gas pipeline project (TANAP) for Caspian gas to Europe seems set to grow in scope and strategic ambitions. The line is planned to run from the Georgia-Turkey border to the Turkey–European Union border. The project’s initiator, Azerbaijan, is driving its growth in... MORE
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Turkey Sees Opportunity in Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline Project
Turkey is revisiting the trans-Caspian gas pipeline project after a decade-long hiatus. Ankara is now aligning with the European Union, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, supporting the transportation of Turkmenistan’s gas to Turkey and onward to Europe. Ten years ago, Turkey failed to capitalize on the first... MORE