Latest Articles about Europe
INDEPENDENCE DAY MARCH TURNS VIOLENT IN MINSK
Independence Day commemoration took place in Minsk last Saturday, March 25, despite the lack of permission from the authorities. Riot police under Special Forces chief Colonel Dzmitry Pawlichenka used tear gas and mock grenades to disperse the crowd. Mass arrests resulted later in the day,... MORE
RUSSIA-WEST STANDOFF IN TRANSNISTRIA: OVERALL POST-SOVIET ORDER AT STAKE
Russia has chosen Transnistria as the scene of an unprecedented, head-on confrontation with the European Union. Moscow wants to force a reversal of the border and trade regulations corresponding to international law and norms that were introduced on March 3 to close Europe's largest black... MORE
BELARUS: END GAME
Five days after the presidential election of March 19, protesters continued a vigil on October Square. The authorities arrested more than 250 people between March 20 and 22, and administered beatings to many others, and in the early hours of March 24, hundreds of riot... MORE
UKRAINE BREAKING RANKS WITH EUROPE AND MOLDOVA ON TRANSNISTRIA
Ukraine's March 3 decision to cooperate with the European Union and Moldova on Transnistria is proving short-lived. On that day, at the EU's insistence, Ukraine began enforcing a new border and customs regime agreed with Moldova on the Transnistrian sector of the Ukraine-Moldova border, thus... MORE
OFFICIAL MINSK IS PREPARING FOR A COUP
The Belarusian authorities have exacerbated the tension surrounding the 2006 presidential election campaign by declaring that the opposition plans an uprising on Sunday, March 19. KGB chief Stsyapan Sukharenka has warned that any demonstrations will be regarded as acts of terrorism. Participants could theoretically be... MORE
BIDDING FOR YUKOS ASSETS IN LITHUANIA
The bidding is officially on for the Yukos company's last remaining major asset -- the Mazeikiai oil refinery and associated enterprises in Lithuania. Those enterprises, including the Butinge oil loading maritime terminal and Birzai supply pipeline, together form the largest business entity in Lithuania. On... MORE
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