Latest Articles about Europe
KYIV REOPENING THE DOOR TO ROSUKRENERGO
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and some government authorities seem again to endorse the deeply damaging gas deals signed on January 4 and February 2 with Gazprom's shadowy offshoot RosUkrEnergo. Yushchenko had ignored widespread criticism of those agreements, until unpublicized U.S. and EU intercessions persuaded him... MORE
ROSUKRENERGO SNEAKING BACK INTO UKRAINE
Pending the March 26 parliamentary elections, official Kyiv has shelved the deeply damaging gas deals it signed on January 4 and February 2 with Gazprom and its offshoot RosUkrEnergo. President Viktor Yushchenko and those close associates who confused him into advocating for these deals seemed... MORE
UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES CAMPAIGN FOR RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
The Russian language issue has been employed in the run-up to the March 26 Ukrainian parliamentary election probably more actively than in any past poll. Unlike in previous elections, where marginal groups and low-key candidates played the Russian-language card, now such heavyweights as the frontrunner... MORE
RUSSIA HINTING IT MAY ESCALATE TRANSNISTRIA STANDOFF
A Kremlin-dispatched interagency delegation has completed a three-day visit to Transnistria, hinting that it would recommend strong Russian countermeasures against the international trading regime just introduced by Ukraine and Moldova on their common border with Western encouragement (see EDM, March 8, 9). Officials who coordinate... MORE
The Madrid Attacks: Results of Investigations Two Years Later
On Thursday, March 11, 2004, 10 rucksacks packed with explosives detonated in and around Madrid, causing the death of 191 people and injuring 1,800 more. Two days later, the police had detained the first suspects, and within three weeks had broken up the nucleus of... MORE
MOSCOW AGAINST INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ORDER IN TRANSNISTRIA
Russia is reacting aggressively against the introduction of a lawful, internationally approved trading regime on an international border not its own. This fact bears direct relevance to Moscow's bid for admission to the World Trade Organization. In Washington on March 7, Russian Minister Sergei Lavrov... MORE
UKRAINE STEPS IN TO CLOSE EUROPE’S BIGGEST BLACK HOLE
Ukraine has finally begun cooperating with Moldova and the European Union against rampant unlawful trade across the Transnistria sector of the Ukraine-Moldova border. That 450-kilometer sector, Europe's largest "black hole," forms a major source of the secessionist authorities' income and power as well as a... MORE
BELARUS ELECTION CAMPAIGN TURNS VIOLENT
Belarusian authorities have made some concessions to the opposition during the presidential election campaign, but they have also used violence and provocations to ensure that there are no surprises on March 19. The violence began on February 17, registration day for presidential candidates. A scuffle... MORE
MOLDOVAN EX-DEFENSE MINISTER’S TRIAL BOOMERANGS
It was about Napoleon's execution of the Duke d'Enghien, a leader in foreign-supported conspiracies in France, that Talleyrand delivered the comment: "It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake." Moldova's recent sentencing of former defense minister Valeriu Pasat, a leading figure in Russian-supported... MORE
Italy: The Threat to the General Elections
The upcoming general elections in Italy, scheduled for April 9, present a perfect opportunity for Islamic militants to disrupt the Italian political process and destabilize a key U.S. ally by staging a massive terrorist attack. On January 24, the director of Italy's Military Intelligence and... MORE