The visit by U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden to Kyiv on July 21-22 was a strenuous test of his diplomatic skills. He needed to avoid the political land mines separating Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his nemesis, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as well as present a... MORE

President Viktor Yushchenko announced his bid for a second term on July 18 defying pundits who believed his low popularity of 2-3 percent would deter him (www.president.gov.ua, July 18). Yushchenko used the highest peak in Ukraine - Hoverla in the Carpathians - to declare his... MORE

European Commission (EC) and Ukrainian government experts will meet in Kiev on July 24 to discuss Ukraine's request for a loan to pump Russian gas into underground reservoirs for the winter. As the Naftohaz Ukrainy state-controlled oil and gas behemoth is nearly bankrupt, Ukraine has... MORE

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the second review of its stabilization program for Ukraine on July 10. A visiting IMF delegation recommended that the IMF board grant Ukraine the third $3.3 billion tranche of the $16.4 billion stand-by loan. Kyiv received the previous two... MORE

In line with implementing stricter security policies in Sevastopol and the Crimea, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is adopting tougher policies towards Russian intelligence activities in the peninsula. These follow the August 2008 decrees restricting the movement of Russian Black Sea Fleet vessels in... MORE

July 10 marked fifteen years since Alyaksandr Lukashenka's victory in the second round of the 1994 presidential election in Belarus. Though he has retained power partly by undemocratic means, repressing opponents and monopolizing the media, his success is nonetheless remarkable and worthy of analysis.In the... MORE

U.S. President Barack Obama's first summit meeting in Moscow with Russian leaders did not warrant headlines in the Ukrainian media. The top story, understandably, continued to be the seemingly unending political crisis in the country, as a consequence of which, American-Russian summitry was buried in... MORE

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko may return to the idea of disbanding parliament and call snap elections. The opposition Party of Regions (PRU), which has the largest caucus in parliament, has disrupted parliament's work following its leader Viktor Yanukovych's failure to form a grand coalition with... MORE

Following a recent telephone conversation between the head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, and the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the commission urged all E.U. member states to immediately begin filling gas storage facilities because they believe that a new Russian-Ukrainian gas war... MORE

Along with the crisis and lame-duck situation of state institutions, Moldova's multi-party system has also revealed its deficient substance. The Communist Party, anachronistic as such, has proven far stronger than all the other parties in terms of mass appeal and internal discipline. The party is... MORE