New initiatives supporting Russian economic and political objectives keep emerging in Ukraine as the date of the expected signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union at the November 28–29 EU Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius approaches. On August 9, the leader of the... MORE

The European Commission encourages Slovakia to emulate Hungary and Poland transiting natural gas supplies from Western Europe to Ukraine. Such deliveries involve re-exporting gas volumes and reverse-using transit systems. Following German RWE Supply & Trading, some other European companies may well also consider selling gas... MORE

To reduce its dependence on Gazprom’s supply monopoly, Ukraine has recently initiated the procurement of natural gas from European gas-trading companies. RWE (Rheinisch-Westfaelisches Elektrizitaetswerk, Germany’s second-largest energy conglomerate) has become the first major European company to deliver gas to Ukraine (see EDM, April 1).The European... MORE

Regardless of political atmospherics, Belarus is a proactive participant in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Northern Distribution Network (NDN) for logistical support to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The NDN includes several overland routes, starting from the Baltic seaports of Klaipeda, Riga and Tallinn, ramifying... MORE

On July 29, the Russian defense ministry’s Zvezda Television announced that new helicopters would “soon” be delivered to Russian “peacekeeping” troops in Moldova’s Transnistria territory. It claimed that the matter “is being agreed upon” with Moldova, following the green light already received from Tiraspol (Zvezda... MORE

In a surprising move, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka did not end up going to Kiev, Ukraine, to celebrate the 1025th anniversary of the baptism of Rus, a common legacy of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, solemnly celebrated in all the three East Slavic countries (https://naviny.by/rubrics/politic/2013/07/30/ic_articles_112_182507/). Observers... MORE

On July 28, Vladimir Putin completed a working visit to Kyiv that immediately caused controversy about the outlook of Ukrainian-Russian relations. The Russian president had a brief meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych, on July 27 while attending the official celebration of the 1025th... MORE

The Belarusian parliament has selectively revived the so-called “golden share” rule that applied between 1997 and 2008. According to that rule, the state’s representatives on the board of directors of any privately owned enterprise could block various decisions made by its management team. The existence... MORE

From 1990 until 1994, Moldova faced two secessionist, Russia-oriented “republics” on its territory: Transnistria and Gagauzia. The autonomy settlement, negotiated by Chisinau with the Gagauz in 1994, retrieved Moldova’s southern territory that had at that stage been practically lost. It also succeeded in de-coupling the... MORE

Moldova faces multiple Russian proxy operations to destabilize the country ahead of the European Union’s November 2013 Eastern Partnership Summit. Among such proxies, Gagauz radicals of 1990 vintage seek a more far-reaching level of Gagauz territorial autonomy, with hints at possible secession. Although marginal in... MORE