Latest articles from Vladimir Socor
Purge of Serb Negotiating Team To Precipitate Onerous Energy Agreements with Russia
Serbia’s coalition government has removed Economics Minister Mladan Dinkic from his concurrent assignment as head of the negotiating team on energy agreements with Russia. The impending oil and gas deals involve essentially a Russian takeover of Serbia’s energy sector. Dinkic and his colleagues who were... MORE
Hungary Doubling Efforts for Nabucco Ahead of Budapest Summit
The Hungarian government and the private MOL energy company are doubling their efforts to help launch the Nabucco gas project on schedule. Given Hungary’s 80 percent dependence on Russian gas, even the oft-wavering Socialist Party has joined the consensus view that supply diversification through Nabucco... MORE
Moscow Wants the OSCE To Negotiate Directly with South Ossetia
In the wake of the OSCE’s year-end meeting, Russia is continuing to block the return of OSCE monitors to a South Ossetia ethnically cleansed of its Georgian population and occupied by massive Russian forces in breach of the armistice. The Russians have prevented the mission’s... MORE
OSCE’s Year-End Conference Continues Pattern of Failure
The OSCE’s Finnish chairmanship fell between two stools at the organization’s year-end conference on December 4 and 5 in Helsinki. Despite Russia’s recent invasion of Georgia, a chairmanship overly eager to produce a final political declaration by consensus gave in to Russia on basic issues... MORE
Ukrainian and Georgian ANPs Are Also Testing NATO
The NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on December 3 announced that Albania and Croatia were now completing their Membership Action Plans (MAPs) and would be welcomed at the NATO Summit in April 2009 as new members of the alliance. The ministerial communiqué takes note of... MORE
From MAPs to ANPs: the Background to NATO’s Compromise Decision
NATO’s ministerial meeting on December 3 decided to offer Annual National Plans (ANPs), instead of Membership Action Plans (MAPs), to Georgia and Ukraine. The old NATO-Ukraine Commission and the new NATO-Georgia Commission are to draw up and administer the ANPs (see EDM, December 5). A... MORE
NATO ANPs Instead of MAPs for Ukraine and Georgia
NATO has pushed aside the Membership Action Plans (MAPs) as mechanisms for Ukraine’s and Georgia’s eventual accession to the alliance. On December 3 in Brussels, the North Atlantic Council (NAC) meeting at the level of ministers of foreign affairs decided to develop Annual National Programs... MORE
OSCE Avoids the Hard Issues at Year-End Conference
In common with all OSCE chairmanships since 2003 (when Russian veto power mauled the organization irreparably during the Dutch chairmanship), Finland set itself a minimal task in 2008: to ensure institutional survival by deferring to Russia in Europe’s East and hosting a “successful” year-end conference,... MORE
Russia’s Invasion of Georgia Overshadows OSCE’s Year-End Conference
Like many other organizations struggling for relevance or plain survival, the OSCE looks to summitry as a panacea. Unable to deal with Russia’s invasion of Georgia and other Kremlin challenges, the OSCE can instead call a summit for 2009 to accommodate the Kremlin. This might... MORE
Lukoil Embarking on a Vast Expansion Program Despite Financial Crisis
Apparently undaunted by the financial and credit crisis, Russia’s Lukoil company has embarked on a vast program of expansion into European Union territory. Where Russian state-controlled companies may encounter resistance, Lukoil presents itself as privately owned. This distinction has, however, become almost meaningless in practical... MORE