Latest Articles about Europe's East
CAN THE UKRAINIAN COALITION HOLD TOGETHER?
The ruling coalition of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Bloc (BYT) and President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine, People’s Self-Defense (NUNS), is on the verge of breaking apart. Yushchenko’s team not only criticizes Tymoshenko’s economic policy but also publicly accuses her of fostering corruption. Tymoshenko, for her... MORE
HAS THE TRANSNISTRIA CONFLICT GONE FROM DEAD END TO WRONG TURN?
Negotiations between Chisinau and Tiraspol toward resolving the conflict in Transnistria have restarted after a pause of almost seven years. Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin met “Transnistria’s president” Igor Smirnov on secessionist-controlled territory on April 11. With Voronin fixated on resolving the conflict in 2008 while... MORE
UKRAINIANS DIFFER ON NATO SUMMIT RESULTS
Both President Viktor Yushchenko and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych have claimed that the April 2 to 4 Bucharest NATO summit’s decision on Ukraine was a “victory.” It was a victory for Yushchenko, because NATO members promised that Ukraine would definitely be... MORE
BELARUS IS BACK TO A POLICY OF CONFRONTATION
Three recent events in Belarus have apparently returned the country to the repressive atmosphere of the late 1990s and thrown into doubt the prospects for any significant democratic changes under the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The actions suggest a government under intense pressure but bereft... MORE
IS THE PARTY OF REGIONS SLIDING INTO CRISIS?
The Party of Regions (Regions) should be riding high in Ukrainian polls as opposition parties traditionally have golden opportunities to increase their popularity. Instead, Regions and its leader and former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych have been declining in popularity and are in a crisis. On... MORE
NATO MAKES POLITICAL COMMITMENT TO UKRAINIAN, GEORGIAN MEMBERSHIP
At its Bucharest summit, NATO postponed a decision on approving Membership Action Plans (MAPs) for Ukraine and Georgia; but it gave the two countries much more than immediate MAPs. The Alliance committed itself clearly--albeit without a deadline--to the political and strategic goal of Ukrainian and... MORE
TWO NEW PARTIES TO COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER AND TYMOSHENKO
A new pro-presidential party has been set up in Ukraine, and another one is about to be established. The two parties aim to replace Our Ukraine (NU), which President Viktor Yushchenko designed in 2005 as the main right-of-center party unifying all democratic pro-Western forces. No... MORE
MORTGAGING UKRAINE’S FUTURE SECURITY TO PAST STEREOTYPES ABOUT NATO?
Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev is citing low popular support for NATO membership in Ukraine as his argument against NATO approval of a Ukrainian Membership Action Plan (MAP) at NATO’s April 2-4 summit (Interfax, Financial Times, March 26). This thesis is common to the Russian and... MORE
SBU ACCUSED OF PLAYING POLITICAL GAMES IN KHARKIV
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has become embroiled in a new scandal. The main opposition force, the Party of Regions (PRU), has accused the SBU of playing political games after SBU servicemen carried out a controversial search at the Kharkiv City Council. Although the... MORE
HISTORIANS DEBATE 1918 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN BELARUS
On March 25, opposition demonstrators marked the 90th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the Belarusian National (People’s) Republic (BNR). The crowd was estimated at several thousand and refused to be confined to the officially sanctioned route from the National Academy of Sciences to... MORE