Moldova's opposition parties are small and leader-centered. Most of the opposition parties compete against one another for the same segments of the electorate or for overlapping segments. In these cases party labels are also often irrelevant or misleading. For a country that does not have... MORE

Moldova will hold parliamentary elections on April 5, and its new parliament will elect the new president and confirm a new government. Incumbent President Vladimir Voronin's second, final term of office expires in April. The transition process ahead will severely test the country's weak political... MORE

The efforts of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's government to tighten control over the banking sector have failed. In order to qualify for loans from the IMF, the government has had to cancel its orders for the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to buy government bonds... MORE

NATO and European Union (EU) membership for Romania was meant to consign to history its penchant for territorial claims and its poor record on national minority rights, but this was not to be. Ukraine, the non-NATO member with the greatest level of cooperation with NATO,... MORE

To date, there has been little other than optimistic prognoses from Belarusian government circles about the state of the economy. Unlike the situation in neighboring states, Belarus is not facing recession, and economic growth continues. Moreover, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has assured citizens of government protection,... MORE

The Ukrainian parliament on March 6 approved President Viktor Yushchenko's nomination for Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) chief, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko. Yushchenko's choice was backed by 230 votes in the 450-seat unicameral body. Nalyvaychenko was supported by a coalition of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc (BYT),... MORE

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

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

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

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