Latest Articles about Europe's East
OUR UKRAINE, PARTY OF REGIONS LOOK FOR COALITION ALLIES, MAY FIND EACH OTHER
Just a year ago, the idea of a union between president-elect Viktor Yushchenko and his arch-rival Viktor Yanukovych, defeated and disgraced by vote-rigging accusations, would have been bizarre. But current realities make quite possible a coalition between Yushchenko's Our Ukraine and Yanukovych's Party of Regions... MORE
ENERGY DILEMMA FOR BELARUS
On January 24, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Constantine Palace near St Petersburg prior to a session of the Russian-Belarusian Supreme State Council. Lukashenka remarked that the integration process between the two states had taken on an irreversible... MORE
MOSCOW, KYIV DISRUPTING NEGOTIATIONS ON TRANSNISTRIA
On January 26-27, negotiations on the Transnistria conflict in the enlarged format of 5+2 (Russia, Ukraine, OSCE, Moldova, and the Tiraspol authorities as full participants, plus the United States and European Union as observers) concluded the third failed round of talks in the three months... MORE
YUSHCHENKO’S REFERENDUM THREATS RING HOLLOW
President Viktor Yushchenko used the dual anniversary of Ukraine's unification into an independent state in 1919 and his own inauguration in January 2005 to provide concrete suggestions to escape the political crisis resulting from parliament's January 10 vote of no confidence in his government (see... MORE
SCAREMONGERING AND SCARED PEOPLE: THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN CONTINUES IN BELARUS
The campaign to collect signatures for the remaining seven candidates in the Belarusian election (Alyaksandr Voytovich has dropped out of the contest) is in full swing. Each candidate needs to gather at least 100,000 signatures of support to be eligible for the March 19 vote.... MORE
UKRAINE SEEKS CONTROL OF RUSSIAN NAVAL FACILITIES ON ITS SOIL
Ukrainian state authorities seized the Yalta lighthouse on January 13 from Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and a Ukrainian student organization is picketing the Russian radar station in Henychesk around the clock since January 15 with tacit approval from Kyiv authorities. The Ukrainian government wants Russia... MORE
“BANDITS TO PRISON:” OLD GUARD USE GAS TO TAKE REVENGE IN UKRAINE ELECTIONS
Following the Parliament of Ukraine's no confidence vote against the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, (see EDM, January 11), it is still unclear who will be emerge as frontrunners in coming elections—Yushchenko, or the Orange (Yulia Tymoshenko) and blue (Viktor Yanukovych) opposition. The ratings... MORE
RUSSIA-MOLDOVA GAS ARMISTICE: A PRECEDENT FOR OTHERS?
On January 16 in Moscow, Gazprom and Moldova agreed on the terms of a temporary resumption of gas supplies. The agreement, signed by Gazprom president Aleksei Miller and Moldovan First Deputy Prime Minister Zenaida Greceanai, is only valid for the first quarter of 2006. Gazprom... MORE
PUTIN-YUSHCHENKO JOINT DECLARATION ON MOLDOVA CRITICIZED BY ROMANIA
With a delay caused by the extended winter holidays, Romania has reacted critically to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's joint declaration on how to resolve the Transnistria conflict. Romania's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, has commented in an interview... MORE
YUSHCHENKO SWEARS BY RUSSIAN GAS DEAL WHILE YEKHANUROV SPILLS THE BEANS
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is risking his political credibility by blindly defending the Russian-Ukrainian gas deal despite severe criticism of it by Western and Ukrainian experts and a majority of the Ukrainian parliament. Rather than addressing the agreement on its merits, Yushchenko ignores Western critics... MORE