Last week President Viktor Yushchenko took steps to re-affirm Ukraine's desire for Euro-Atlantic integration. "Ukraine is a European country. I will never accept the idea that it is not," he told London's Royal Institute for International Affairs on October 17 (UPI, October 17). Western governments... MORE

Gyorgy Frunda, chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe's (CEPA) Parliamentary Assembly, paid a get-acquainted visit to Latvia on October 17-19 and caused political uproar in the country. Frunda, who is also one of the leaders of the Hungarian minority's party in... MORE

On October 18, the Lithuanian government decided unanimously to begin negotiations with TNK-BP regarding the sale of a majority stake in Lithuania's oil-refining and oil-transport sector, the last major remaining asset of Yukos. The government's decision follows Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas' unexpected October 11 statement... MORE

President Viktor Yushchenko has declared that the political crisis in Ukraine is over. The turmoil began on September 5 with allegations of corruption within his inner circle (Channel 5 TV, October 6). Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, a close ally of Yushchenko’s, added that there are... MORE

U.S. authorities have detained a prominent representative of Ukraine's old regime, former Sumy Region governor Volodymyr Shcherban, in Florida. Like disgraced former prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko in New York six years ago, Shcherban was detained on an immigration violation. Lazarenko had applied for political asylum.... MORE

Lithuania has completed a three-week investigation into the Russian Su-27 fighter jet's September 15 intrusion and crash in the country (see EDM, September 20, 27). The plane, flying tail in a seven-plane squadron en route from Russia's Leningrad Region to Kaliningrad Region over the Baltic... MORE

Last week Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko appealed to the nation in an effort to reverse the dwindling popular trust in his government and to save the parliamentary election campaign for his party. Over four days Yushchenko gave an extensive interview to four TV channels, addressed... MORE

On October 5 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) issued a resolution requesting that the Ukrainian authorities deal with different aspects of the investigation into the murder of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze (assembly.coe.int). However, the Ukrainian authorities will not honor that request. The... MORE