Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to purchase Leonid Brezhnev's residence in the Crimea have collapsed. USSR Dacha No.1, "Hlitsyniya," is among the Ukrainian properties excluded from privatization. Nevertheless, Putin attempted to acquire it from Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma as a token of gratitude for supporting... MORE

Two weeks after Ukrayinska pravda (April 14) published an expose on Roman Zvarych, the Minister of Justice finally admitted in the Ukrainian Weekly (May 1) that he did not have the academic credentials that he claimed. Zvarych admitted that he had misled the Ukrainian Weekly... MORE

According to recent polls, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has greatly benefited from the Orange Revolution and the ensuing popular optimism. She and her Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc are very popular now, three months after she became prime minister and a year ahead of the next... MORE

In mid-April, the Supreme Court of Belarus ordered the closure of the Independent Institute of Social-Economic and Political Research. The institute's Russian-language acronym is NISEPI, though it is better known outside Belarus as NISEPS or IISEPS (Narodnaya volya, April 16). Its director, the respected sociologist... MORE

At the April 20-21 summit of NATO foreign ministers in Vilnius, Ukraine was invited to begin an Intensified Dialogue on Membership. The Intensified Dialogue is commonly viewed as the precursor to being invited to enter the Membership Action Plan (MAP) process, a stage that is... MORE

Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Petro Poroshenko's conflict-resolution plan for Transnistria nearly derailed the GUAM summit in Chisinau (see EDM, April 25, 26, 27) and appeared to change the approach previously taken by Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Transnistria issue.... MORE

While Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko cancelled her visit to Russia this month, Defense Minister Anatoliy Grytsenko and National Security and Defense Council Secretary Petro Poroshenko did make it to Moscow (Ukrayinska pravda, April 23). Despite the exchange of diplomatic pleasantries, Ukraine is attempting to... MORE

On April 20 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka met senior Russian defense officials in Minsk in order to examine mutual security threats and consider ways to deepen bilateral military cooperation. Lukashenka told Sergei Ivanov, Russian Defense Minister, and General Yuri Baluyevsky, Russian Chief of the General... MORE

The meeting of heads of state of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova -- the GUAM group of countries -- in Chisinau on April 22 reverberated beyond the GUAM region. Presidents of other countries -- in this case, NATO and European Union members Lithuania and Romania... MORE