Latest Articles about Europe
NEW BROOM AT U.S.-LED OSCE MISSION IN MOLDOVA
A new American chief has just taken over at the OSCE’s Mission in Moldova, scene of a “frozen conflict” orchestrated by Russia on what has now become the border of NATO and the EU. From 1993 to date, the OSCE has attempted in vain to... MORE
UKRAINE: BACK TO STRATEGIC SQUARE ONE
Cohabitation of the Party of Regions with a minority Orange faction and a Regions-dominated government would seem to mark a shift in Ukraine’s foreign policy paradigm: from the Euro-Atlantic orientation proclaimed by the short-lived Orange Revolution, back to the Kuchma era (1994-2004) “two vectors” paradigm... MORE
CHANGES PROPOSED TO BELARUSIAN LANGUAGE
The newspaper Belarusy i rynok recently ran a series of articles on education, devoted first to the new school year, but second to proposed changes to orthography and punctuation in the Belarusian language. These new rules are anticipated to move from draft to law in... MORE
WILL YUSHCHENKO’S PARTY SPLIT?
President Viktor Yushchenko’s camp in parliament, as well as the party whose honorary chairman he is -- People’s Union-Our Ukraine (NSNU) -- may split. Not all of Yushchenko’s supporters have put up with the idea of co-habitation with, let alone participation in, the government of... MORE
The London Plot: A Tactical Victory in an Eroding Strategic Environment
On August 10, the British police and security services scored an impressive tactical counter-terrorism victory with the arrest of 24 British subjects—most of Pakistani ethnicity or origin—who had planned to destroy 10 airliners in flight over the Atlantic Ocean. The arrests capped what has been... MORE
YANUKOVYCH COLD-SHOULDERED ON FIRST VISIT TO RUSSIA
Ukraine’s new prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, paid his first visit abroad in that capacity on August 15-16 to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in Sochi. The visit’s results are inconclusive, but Russia’s message to Ukraine seems clear: Economic favors are ruled out for the time... MORE
UKRAINE’S NEW GOVERNMENT OUTLINES ITS ENERGY POLICY
Ukraine is approaching the heating season and agricultural autumn sowing season amid uncertainty over the price of gas, runaway prices on oil products and motor fuel, and with the state oil and gas company Naftohaz Ukrainy indebted to an extent that looks like insolvency. Prime... MORE
YANUKOVYCH DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM CRIMEA’S RADICAL SLAVS
Russian will not become an official language; Ukraine will not be federalized; the state will protect Crimea’s indigenous Muslim population -- Crimean Tatars -- but illegal land grabs made in their name will not be tolerated. These were the messages that Viktor Yanukovych brought to... MORE
BELARUS CREATES NEW SCANDAL WITH LATVIA
On July 25 the Belarusian militia searched the apartment of the Second Secretary of the Latvian Embassy, Reimo Smits, ostensibly as part of a campaign to uncover the distribution of pornographic materials in the Savetski district of Minsk. The incident sparked a diplomatic scandal that... MORE
DONETSK TEAM’S HEGEMONY IN UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT MAY BACKFIRE
The Donetsk interest group is clearly the hegemonic factor in Ukraine’s newly installed coalition government under Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. It seems quite possible that Washington and Brussels can “do business” politically and perhaps to some extent even strategically with this group. Certainly, the government’s... MORE