Latest Articles about Europe
UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE A PRIORITY FOR YUSHCHENKO
The language card is being played in Ukraine again, which often happens when elections loom. On February 22 Ukraine’s parliament, which is dominated by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions (PRU), decided to vote by the end of July on a bill that grants... MORE
MOLDOVA REFUSES MASS CONFERRAL OF ROMANIAN CITIZENSHIP
In a series of statements on March 3 through 7, Moldova reacted furiously to Romania’s ongoing attempts to confer Romanian citizenship to Moldova’s residents en masse. With Romania’s accession to the European Union effective January 1, Bucharest believes that a large part of Moldova’s population... MORE
MORE SETBACKS FOR RULE OF LAW IN UKRAINE
On March 4, 2005, former Ukrainian interior minister Yuriy Kravchenko was found dead with two bullet wounds to the head. The official verdict was suicide. Two years on, Kravchenko’s family has launched a private investigation claiming that two self-inflicted gunshots to the head would be... MORE
CORRUPTION PROBES IN UKRAINE: TABLES TURNED
As leadership has changed at Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, many former officials who fled Ukraine amid accusations of corruption after the Orange Revolution have nothing to fear. Criminal cases against them are being closed one by one. The Orange leaders cry foul, saying that this means... MORE
MILINKEVICH: A CONSOLIDATOR NOT A DICTATOR
As the proposed date for the Second Congress of the United Democratic Forces (UDF) of Belarus approaches (March 17), leaders of the Belarusian opposition are engaged in an animated debate on the future of the organization and whether its leadership should be elected on a... MORE
French Authorities Dismantle Network of Fighters Bound for Iraq
In the early hours of February 14, the anti-terrorism directorate of the French national police arrested 11 French citizens, including four women, on suspicion that they were part of a network recruiting volunteers to go to Iraq to fight the U.S.-led coalition. On February 17,... MORE
QUESTIONABLE RATIONALES FOR THE BOHORODCHANY-UZHHOROD GAS PIPELINE PROJECT
The Ukrainian government is stepping up its efforts to form a consortium with Gazprom to construct a gas transit pipeline in Ukraine from Bohorodchany to Uzhhorod. The 230-kilometer line, with a projected annual capacity of up to 20 billion cubic meters, would provide an additional... MORE
SLOVAK DETOUR WOULD DEFEAT ODESSA-BRODY OIL TRANSPORT PROJECT
Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s government seems to have abandoned a project to extend the Odessa-Brody pipeline into Poland for pumping Caspian oil outside Russian control. Instead, Yanukovych is negotiating with the government of Slovakia on a plan to transport both Caspian and Russian oil... MORE
OFFICIAL CHISINAU SEEKS RECOGNITION OF MOLDOVAN ETHNICITY AND MINORITY IN ROMANIA
Conflicting views on national and linguistic identity and history, marring official Bucharest-Chisinau relations, have now led Chisinau to transfer the dispute onto Romania’s turf. Responding to Bucharest’s insistence that Moldovans in the Republic of Moldova are ethnically and linguistically Romanians, official Chisinau has now begun... MORE
YUSHCHENKO’S, TYMOSHENKO’S BLOCS PROCLAIM UNITY, SET GOALS
The pro-presidential Our Ukraine bloc (NU) and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYT) have signed an accord proclaiming a unified opposition. It is aimed against the majority coalition in parliament, which was formed last summer by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, the Socialists, and... MORE