Latest Articles about Europe's East
Security Service Raids Ukrainian State Gas Companies
On March 4 and 5 armed units of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted raids on the headquarters of Naftohaz Ukrainy, the state-owned oil and gas company, and UkrTranshaz, the operator of the Ukrainian gas pipeline company. According to a March 5 report by... MORE
Yushchenko, Tymoshenko Pledge Reforms in Letter to IMF
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko have managed to set their differences aside and agree on a reform package in an effort to save the economy from imminent collapse. Yushchenko and Tymoshenko agreed on March 2 on the content of a letter... MORE
Javier Solana Visits Belarus
On February 19, in the latest stage of the increasing rapprochement between the EU and Belarus, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana visited Minsk and met with Belarus President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The meeting was perceived by several sources as a... MORE
Ukraine Warns of Looming Gas Payment Default to Gazprom
Will the European Union face a new cutoff of gas supplies from Russia in March? This possibility became more ominous when Ukraine's states-owned gas monopoly, Naftohaz Ukrainy, warned that it might not be able to pay its February gas bills on February 19. Barely a... MORE
NATO-Ukraine Partnership Hobbled Ahead of NATO’s Anniversary Summit
NATO's most ambitious, most highly developed, and for a time most promising partnership, the one with Ukraine, is sliding backward despite efforts at NATO headquarters to keep it on track. Ukrainian authorities and certain West European governments within NATO share responsibility for the backsliding. The... MORE
Yushchenko Criticizes Tymoshenko for Gas Accords and Plea for Loan from Moscow
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has accused Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of betraying national interests in the gas agreements concluded in Moscow on January 19 and 20 and by turning to Russia for a loan. Yushchenko used the February 10 meeting of the National Security and... MORE
Gongadze Murder Still Casts a Shadow over Yushchenko Presidency
On January 27 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) issued another damning report about the poor state of Ukraine's investigation into the murder of opposition journalist Georgi Gongadze in the fall of 2000 (www.assembly.coe.int). The involvement of senior Ukrainian leaders in the... MORE
Tymoshenko Defeats Yanukovych in Parliament
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko survived a no-confidence motion in parliament on February 5. The motion was backed by 203 votes, 23 short of the number required in the 450-seat chamber to oust the government. This was another victory of this kind for Tymoshenko, who... MORE
Will Lukashenka Be Welcomed in Prague?
Since last October, the European Union, through an Eastern Partnership Program originally initiated last summer by Poland and Sweden, has taken several steps to normalize relations with Belarus. For some members of the opposition, the maneuvers appear to abandon the EU's former insistence on democratization... MORE
Who Owns the Gas in Ukraine’s Underground Reservoirs?
The gas dispute that left half of Europe without gas in early January was officially settled by accords signed by Gazprom and Naftohaz Ukrainy in Moscow on January 19 and 20. The clash, however, is apparently not over. Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash, who owns the... MORE