Latest Articles about Europe's East
GAZPROM HALTS GAS SUPPLIES TO MOLDOVA
On January 1, Russia's Gazprom imposed a total halt on gas deliveries to Moldova. The management in Moscow issued an internal order to its dispatchers on Ukraine's territory to reduce the supplies to Moldova to "zero level" (Moldpres, January 2). Gazprom has not officially announced... MORE
YUSHCHENKO CHALLENGES CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
On January 1, 2006, Ukraine began its transformation from a semi-presidential republic into a parliamentary democracy. The reform is in line with the constitutional amendments that the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) passed at the height of the Orange Revolution in late 2004. This was a compromise... MORE
OWNERSHIP OF UKRAINE’S TRANSIT SYSTEM — MAIN STAKE IN THE GAS DISPUTE WITH RUSSIA
The barely hidden stake has now surfaced in full view in the Russia-Ukraine confrontation over gas prices and transit. The main stake is ownership of Ukraine's transit pipelines that carry Russian gas to Europe. Moscow appears willing to accommodate Kyiv on the gas price if... MORE
TYMOSHENKO FACES RIVAL CLAIM TO BE ANTI-YUSHCHENKO ORANGE FACTION
The youth group Pora (It's Time), which played an important role in Ukraine's Orange Revolution in November-December 2004, is set to contest the March 2006 parliamentary elections in an alliance with the Reforms and Order (RiP) party (pora.org.ua). The once united Orange coalition will now... MORE
OSCE-RUSSIA MILITARY PLAN FOR MOLDOVA CRITICIZED IN VIENNA
Moldova remains at the top of the European security agenda in the aftermath of the OSCE's year-end ministerial conference. On December 8 at OSCE headquarters in Vienna, Russian special envoy Valery Nesterushkin, the OSCE Moldova Mission's American chief William Hill, and that Mission's Military Consultant,... MORE
BELARUS FACING SEVERE DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS
The image of Belarus propagated for domestic consumption by the authorities is one of relative prosperity, civil peace, and stability. However, that image is increasingly belied by the evident failure to take adequate measures to offset a looming demographic crisis. According to some analysts, the... MORE
TYMOSHENKO COMES UP WITH ELECTION STRATEGY
Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has formed an electoral bloc on the basis of her Fatherland party for next year's parliamentary polls. Tymoshenko apparently believes that her own high popularity should be enough for a good performance in the election -- there are no... MORE
KREMLIN HAS UPPER HAND IN GAS NEGOTIATIONS WITH UKRAINE
President Vladimir Putin's December 8 televised argument for tripling the price of Russian gas to Ukraine, in cash only, as of 2006 (see EDM, December 9) in effect rejected President Viktor Yushchenko's plea by telephone the previous day for moving slowly to market terms over... MORE
DOES UKRAINE REALLY HAVE COUNTER LEVERS FOR GAS SUPPLIES?
As tensions increase on all sides of the Ukrainian gas delivery dispute, each player must review its strategic assets. Kyiv may have at least three forms of counter-leverage at its disposal to prevent bankruptcy or the need to surrender partial control of its transit pipeline... MORE
SECURITY GUARD MELNYCHENKO RETURNS TO UKRAINE
Mykola Melnychenko, the presidential guard who was involved in bugging President Leonid Kuchma's office between 1998 and 2000, returned to Ukraine on November 29. Exactly five years earlier Melnychenko fled Ukraine to Poland and then Prague, where he lived until obtaining political asylum in the... MORE