Latest Articles about Europe's East
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
OSCE YEAR-END CONFERENCE FAILS TO ADOPT KEY DOCUMENTS ON SECURITY
The OSCE's year-end conference on December 5-6 foundered over Russia's defiance on two sets of issues: First, Moldova and related issues of implementing the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty and Russia's 1999 Istanbul Commitments on troop withdrawal from Moldova and Georgia. And, second, Russian-prescribed... MORE
MOLDOVAN EXPERTS BLAST RUSSIA-OSCE MILITARY PLAN
In the run-up to the OSCE's year-end conference, which began yesterday, December 5, the organization's Moldova Mission made public on November 29 in Chisinau the hitherto secret package of force-reduction and confidence-building measures that Russia and the OSCE have jointly authored and proposed to the... MORE
EUROPEAN UNION DEPLOYS FIRST BORDER MONITORING MISSION
The European Union's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, and EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner joined the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Moldova, Borys Tarasyuk and Andrei Stratan, to inaugurate the EU's Border Assistance Mission (BAM) for... MORE
AMENDMENTS PROPOSED TO CRIMINAL CODE IN BELARUS
The Lukashenka government in Belarus has taken several steps to ensure that there are no unexpected setbacks in the 2006 presidential election campaign. On November 23, the president proposed several amendments to the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure that, if accepted into law,... MORE
ORANGE COALITION CRUMBLES AHEAD OF POLLS
The Orange Revolution team that swept Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko into power a year ago enters the 2006 parliamentary election campaign -- officially underway since November 26 -- divided into several small teams. Most of them will be competing for the same pro-reform, pro-Western electorate.... MORE