The OSCE’s year-end conference spotlighted the ineffectiveness of the “Minsk Group’s” co-chairs – Russia, the United States, and France – to mediate a solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. The OSCE is the only international forum officially authorized to mediate a solution to this conflict. The... MORE

November 2011 witnessed interesting developments in Belarus: the announcement of the formation of a territorial army by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and a new advisory body called the Council for the Development of an Informational Society (CDIS), run by an existing Operative-Analytical Center and headed by... MORE

On December 8, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed the law on parliamentary elections, which parliament passed on November 17. The new law should allow the ruling Party of Regions to win the election scheduled for October 2012, despite its declining popularity. The elections law raises... MORE

On November 23, Ales Belyatsky, a Belarusian human rights activist, was sentenced to four years and six months in prison after being convicted of failing to pay taxes of over 567,000 Euros ($764,000) transferred by unidentified individuals to his accounts in Lithuania and Poland. He... MORE

On December 6-7 in Vilnius, the OSCE’s year-end ministerial conference dramatized this organization’s vulnerability to sabotage by the Kremlin. That vulnerability is inherent in the OSCE’s own structure and modus operandi, which enable Russia to exercise discretionary veto powers under this organization’s consensus rules.Lithuania, holder... MORE

Corruption and corporate raiding are growing at an alarming rate in Ukraine since Viktor Yanukovych came to power. The country dropped 18 places this year in Transparency International’s annual rankings, now standing below Russia and Azerbaijan (both 143) and in 152nd place alongside Congo, the... MORE

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has detained a fire inspector for soliciting a $44,000 bribe from a company which was involved in the construction of a new stadium for the Euro-2012 soccer championship in Kyiv (www.ssu.gov.ua, November 24). Just two days later, State Employment Service... MORE

On December 1 and 2, respectively, Lithuania’s and Estonia’s ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) refuted the Russian MFA’s latest claims that the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) had voluntarily joined the Soviet Union in 1940. Moscow’s claims in this regard are hardly new;... MORE

On November 8, Segodnya ran the headline: “Within the authorities there is a ‘silent coup’ taking place.” Segodnya was referring to the consolidation of “The Family” loyal to President Viktor Yanukovych. The capital assets of “The Family” are estimated to be $130 million, and 64th... MORE

In December 2007, Moscow killed the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) officially, declaring a unilateral “moratorium” (suspension) of indefinite duration on Russia’s compliance with the CFE treaty and the accompanying Flank Document. Moscow’s official decision capped years of undeclared and unacknowledged breaches, including... MORE