Pressed by international creditors and its own insolvency, Greece is selling off DEPA/DESFA, the state-controlled natural gas company. While Russian Gazprom looks set to acquire DEPA (Public Gas Corporation, the gas procurement and dominant distribution company), the little-known Russian company Sintez is bidding for DESFA... MORE

Insolvent Greece is auctioning off its state assets, both as a matter of necessity and as a condition imposed by international creditors for bailing out the country. The state-controlled natural gas company, DEPA/DESFA, is by far the most valuable asset in the Greek privatization package.Russian... MORE

Justas Paleckis, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Belarus, issued his Draft Recommendation to the Council, the Commission, and the European External Action Service (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-506.234+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN). The document reiterates “the need for the unconditional and immediate release and rehabilitation of the political and civic rights of all... MORE

The Nabucco Committee’s meeting (see accompanying article) on May 21 in Bucharest has provided perhaps the final opportunity for comprehensively assessing the Nabucco-West project’s comparative advantages as a route for Azerbaijani gas to Europe. Prior even to the Committee meeting, the Nabucco participant governments had... MORE

On May 29, in Baku, addressing the final session of the Azerbaijani-American Forum’s “Vision for the future,” former United States Senator Richard Lugar underscored that the Nabucco-West gas pipeline project could considerably ameliorate the energy security of vulnerable countries in Central and Southeastern Europe, including... MORE

Ukraine has been moving closer to both an association and free trade deal with the European Union, as well as observer status in the Russian-led Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Neither of the two statuses promises full integration. Because of this, Kyiv believes... MORE

All too often, the more significant pieces of news from Belarus are not the ones that are discussed most frequently and voluminously. The second half of May has been no exception. For example, on May 18, the official news agency Belta briefly reported on an... MORE

Moldova’s move from one-party Communist rule to coalition government has led straight to conflict for control of state institutions among the coalition’s parties. That conflict has destroyed the governing Alliance for European Integration (AEI). The distribution of power among the three parties of the defunct... MORE

The downfall of Moldova’s governing Alliance for European Integration (AEI), and the earlier collapse of Ukraine’s Orange coalition, are comparable processes in their origins and their consequences. There is also one major difference. In Moldova, a pro-Europe team fit to govern under prime-minister-designate Iurie Leanca... MORE

On April 26, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev opened the third ministerial meeting of the so-called Istanbul process, an international initiative for reconstructing and stabilizing Afghanistan in view of the International Security Assistance Force’s (ISAF) forthcoming departure from this country. Speaking before the delegates of the... MORE