After two heated discussions at the European Parliament’s (EP) Foreign Affairs Committee, Justas Paleckis, EP rapporteur on Belarus, modified his draft report (see EDM, June 14). The statement that in 2012 the human rights situation in Belarus improved was deleted. The situation is now described... MORE

A retired Ukrainian intelligence officer who attracted attention a month ago by calling for the formation of a Russian-Ukrainian corps to fight for the Syrian government now claims that there are 15,000 radical Islamists in the mountains of Crimea. Many of them, he claims, have... MORE

Addressing Gazprom’s annual general meeting of shareholders, CEO Alexei Miller warned that Gazprom would “never again, under any circumstances” use Ukraine’s gas storage system in the process of delivering Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine (Kommersant-Ukraina, July 4; Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 10; see EDM, July... MORE

Ukraine has recently initiated procurement of natural gas from European suppliers. These volumes are small but growing, correspondingly eroding Gazprom’s market share in Ukraine.The German Rheinisch-Westfaelisches Elektrizitaetswerk (RWE) is providing the volumes through its subsidiary, RWE Supply & Trading. Some of these gas volumes are... MORE

Ukraine stands on the threshold of finalizing the Association Agreement with the European Union, possibly signing it at the Vilnius summit in November. If signed, the agreement would open the way for European comprehensive support to the modernization of Ukraine’s gas transit system, which carries... MORE

Two identical texts in English (https://www.eurasiareview.com/28062013-belarus-and-the-eurasian-union-incremental-integration-analysis/) and in Russian (https://naviny.by/rubrics/economic/2013/06/29/ic_articles_113_182193/) specify pluses and minuses of Belarus’s involvement in the Russian-led Eurasian integration project. In the opinion of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies (BISS), a Minsk-based think tank funded by the West, the biggest plus... MORE

The world heavyweight boxing champion, Vitaly Klichko, may become the strongest challenger to the incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych in the presidential election scheduled for early 2015, recent opinion polls show. If his popularity stands the test of time, Ukraine may, for the first time, elect... MORE

A discussion sparked by calls from some Ukrainian nationalists to transform the Crimean Autonomous Republic into the 27th oblast of Ukraine has led to a remarkable admission by a Ukrainian expert. The autonomy that Crimea has enjoyed since 1992 is so small that the republic... MORE

In his play “Tuteishiya” (Locals), Janka Kupala (1882–1942), Belarus’s most famous poet and playwright, depicts two characters that are mirror reflections of each other. Whereas the Western Scientist speaks Polish and claims that “so-called Belarus” is in fact Poland, the Eastern Scientist speaks Russian and... MORE

In Ukraine, June 22 marks a day of mourning dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Great Patriotic War (Second World War). On this day, Ukrainian war veterans, military service officials and government representatives in different regions of the country come together and... MORE