Latest Articles about Europe's East

YUSHCHENKO LAYS OUT HIS CONDITIONS FOR ACCEPTING YANUKOVYCH

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who is reluctant to approve the parliamentary majority’s choice for prime minister -- his 2004 presidential election rival Viktor Yanukovych -- has decided to explain his reluctance to the nation. Yushchenko has made public a set of conditions, making it clear... MORE

UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT, CABINET IN LIMBO

No cabinet is emerging in Ukraine to replace the outgoing one of Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov. Meanwhile, President Viktor Yushchenko may disband parliament at any time and call new elections. This uncertainty is apparently Yushchenko’s conscious choice, as he delays the appointment of a new... MORE

VERDICT HANDED DOWN ON BELARUSIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

On July 13 a Minsk court sentenced former presidential candidate Alexander Kazulin to five and one-half years of confinement. The verdict, while unwarranted and harsh, also raises some questions about the outlook of the Lukashenka regime. Why was Kazulin singled out for such treatment at... MORE

TABLES TURNED IN UKRAINE

Long-time opponents of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko allied with defectors from his camp to outplay him in a bid to secure control over the government. The Orange coalition, which was announced on June 20, barely survived two weeks; instead a coalition built around the Party... MORE

YUSHCHENKO’S ENERGY TEAM CONSIDERS CEDING TRANSIT PIPELINES TO GAZPROM

President Viktor Yushchenko’s associates in charge of Ukraine’s energy system are negotiating to cede control over the country’s gas transit pipelines to Gazprom. Although national control over the transit pipelines is generally deemed a major safeguard to Ukraine’s security and independence, and most political forces... MORE

PARTY OF REGIONS BLOCKS PARLIAMENT

Ukraine still has no new cabinet in place, and the parliament elected in March still has not started work either. On July 4 President Viktor Yushchenko described this situation as a “parliamentary crisis.” It took months to form the majority in parliament required by the... MORE

ORANGE TWO GOVERNMENT CAN MEET THE TRANSNISTRIA CHALLENGE

Minister of Foreign Affairs Borys Tarasyuk’s June 26-27 visit to Moldova was the first visit abroad by a senior Ukrainian official since the formation of the parliamentary coalition and designation of a prime minister in the person of Yulia Tymoshenko (June 22). His discussions with... MORE

ORANGE REVOLUTION PARTIES RE-ESTABLISH GOVERNMENT COALITION

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine bloc, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and the Socialist Party (SPU) have agreed to revive the Orange Revolution government coalition that existed until September 2005, when Yushchenko fired Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The news of an accord among the three... MORE

INTEGRATION, RHETORIC, AND THE FUTURE OF BELARUS

As the United States and Belarus continue their war of words, accompanied by freezing the actual or imagined assets of each other's leading government figures, Minsk played host to a series of summits. At the same time, Belarus and Russia carried out the largest-ever joint... MORE

TURKMEN GAS PRICE HIKE: IMPLICATIONS FOR UKRAINE

Turkmenistan's proposal to raise the price of gas it sells to Gazprom, from $65 per 1,000 cubic meters at present to $100 in the second half of 2006, holds potentially momentous implications for Ukraine. It can help emancipate Ukraine from the RosUkrEnergo gas deal that... MORE