Ukraine has taken one step back from looming default as an agreement was reached to start direct talks with Kyiv’s biggest private creditors. This is despite a setback with Russia, which has refused to discuss the restructuring of a loan issued in 2013 as a... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. Politician Renato Usatii is a native of Moldova but is a product of the Vladimir Putin era in Russia. Born in 1978, near Balti, of indeterminate ethnicity and more fluent in... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. The local elections, just held country-wide in Moldova (see Part One in EDM, July 1), confirm an incipient tendency toward political-territorial fragmentation of the country’s heartland, the right-bank of the Nistru River. This creeping trend became noticeable with... MORE

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office (Genprocuratura) announced it was investigating the legality of the independence of the Baltic States—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—which were recognized by the State Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in September 1991. In late June, the Genprocuratura announced... MORE

Moldova would not be the country of procedural democracy it is, were it not to suffer from the syndrome of permanent elections, dictated by government crises and calendar dates in combination. Moldova held country-wide local elections in two rounds, June 14 and June 28, under... MORE

Given the centrality of energy to the Russian economy and the withering impact of continuing low energy prices and sanctions, Russia has ample reason to promote energy deals with anyone it can find. The annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has historically served as a... MORE

Belarus’s survival and further development in a tough neighborhood is conditioned by the economy, a sense of nationalism, and geopolitical maneuvering between the major centers of power, Russia and the collective West. According to Yury Drakakhrust of Tut.by and Radio Liberty, the new geopolitical situation... MORE

On June 15, during the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, where important deals for arms supplies are often agreed, Georgia signed its first ever large contract with France on supplies of defense military equipment (Civil Georgia, June 16). The description of the equipment is... MORE

A Russian publication has alleged that the “Stop Feeding the Caucasus!” slogan, which is popular among ethnic Russians, was invented by Vladimir Putin’s enemies to undermine his authority and ultimately destroy him politically. This is an unusual attempt to construct a collective identity of all... MORE

Following the June 22 decision by the European Union to extend its sanctions on Russia for another six months, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev soberly declared two days later that the country’s faltering economy would force the government in Moscow to make some difficult choices... MORE