Ukraine’s next parliamentary election will take place in 2012. During this period the Viktor Yanukovych administration will attempt a precarious balancing act to satisfy the West. At the same time, the administration will try to put in place a managed democracy to facilitate Yanukovych’s re-election... MORE

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Serhy Tyhypko, a former banker who came third in the 2010 presidential elections, has sacrificed his party’s future for his personal ambitions. His liberal party, Strong Ukraine (SU), will be merged with the ruling Party of Regions (PRU) ahead of the... MORE

Russia and Belarus will stage a joint military exercise, Union Shield 2011, on September 16 to September 22 with low-key participation by Ukraine. On August 22, Army-General Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of the Russian General Staff took the unusual step of stressing that the exercise... MORE

The EU is sending contradictory signals toward its Eastern Neighborhood, which indicates it has not learnt its lessons from dealing with Belarus. The EU continues to talk tough about not dealing with Minsk, because of its political prisoners, while refusing to use this same term... MORE

As winter approaches, the Ukraine-Russia gas price talks have been deadlocked, increasing the likelihood of a repetition of the “gas wars” of 2006 and 2009. Ukrainian officials pledged to avoid this but the situation is serious, with both sides firmly standing their ground. Ukraine repeatedly... MORE

The Soviet abuse of psychiatry for political purposes isolated thousands of political and religious prisoners in psychiatric hospitals. Some of these practices continued in post-Soviet countries such as Russia and Uzbekistan, but have only been reported in Ukraine since 2010 – the year in which... MORE

Kyiv has flatly rejected foreign criticism of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s August 5 arrest for contempt of court. While the West was told that the executive cannot interfere with court decisions, Russia was reminded ad nauseam that the 2009 gas contract for which Tymoshenko... MORE

The arrest of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko on August 5 derails Ukraine’s integration into Europe at the same time as its relations with Russia are poor (video of arrest here: https://www.pravda.com.ua/photo-video/2011/08/5/6454611/).The disunited opposition has rallied to Tymoshenko’s side with Arseniy Yatseniuk’s Front for Change issuing... MORE

Moscow is piling the heat on Minsk and Kyiv to subordinate their economies, notably their energy sectors, to Russia and with that accept Russia’s political tutelage. In both cases, Moscow is using the instruments of its gas and its customs union (EurAsEc). EurAsEc has lent... MORE

Ukraine has launched the first stage of a long-planned project to upgrade its pipelines, which carry Russian gas to Europe. As the cash-strapped national oil and gas behemoth, Naftohaz Ukrainy, has no money for an upgrade costing billions of dollars, Ukraine will rely on assistance... MORE