In the European Union’s second Eastern Partnership Integration Index (EPII) report, trends evident already last year are continuing (https://eap-index.eu/). Ukraine is moving “away from its one-time status as the ENP [European Neighborhood Policy] poster child.” This report confirms the EU’s assessment of the first year... MORE

Even after more than twenty years of statehood, Belarusians have not developed a distinctive national identity. In most countries of the Old World, the marker of identity is language. According to the internet portal Budzma.org, Novak, a Minsk-based sociological firm, conducted a national survey devoted... MORE

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry has come up with amendments to the National Energy Strategy, according to which gas imports will decline from 40 billion cubic meters (bcm) last year to as little as 5 bcm in 2030. Domestic gas consumption is expected to decline less steeply... MORE

On June 4, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met in Moscow with Nina Shtansky, the “foreign minister” of Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria. To justify why the meeting bypassed and excluded Moldovan representatives, the Russian press-release identified Shtansky as “the political representative of Transnistria... MORE

Belarusian Minister of the Interior Ihar Shunievich announced recently that on July 3, national Independence Day, some 2,600 prisoners are to be released (RIA Novosti, June 12). The statement raised the hopes of some that the remaining political prisoners in Belarus might be on the... MORE

Ukraine, which with Poland co-hosts the Euro 2012 football championship from June 8-July 1, has been lambasted for corruption and racism. Widespread reports have focused on Ukraine spending more than Poland on Euro 2012 even though its GDP per capita is four times smaller and... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Belarus and the nature of the Belarus-Russia relationship continue to be debated. It can certainly be argued that “the Belarusian president is merely forestalling the inevitable, which is deeper integration on terms determined by Russia” (see EDM 31 May).... MORE

Several Ukrainian people’s deputies had their faces bruised and their shirts torn in a fistfight in parliament on April 24. The opposition caucuses of Our Ukraine and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc (BYT) provoked the brawl in order to disrupt voting on a controversial... MORE

Today (May 31), Russia’s President Vladimir Putin made the first foreign trip of his new term in office. The visit was to neighboring Belarus to hold talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, in Minsk. Putin’s choice of Belarus was something of a surprise as... MORE

Ukraine’s united opposition, Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party and Arseniy Yatseniuk’s Front Zmin (Front for Change), held a congress on May 12 on the symbolic St. Sophia’s Cathedral Square in Kyiv. The congress released a detailed program for the upcoming October parliamentary elections.Boxing champion Vitaliy... MORE