On September 7, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka announced that a referendum would be held on whether he may run for a third term in office on October 17, the date of the parliamentary elections. Though many analysts had predicted such a decision, its timing was... MORE

In late August, the Belarusian authorities brought a new criminal case against Mikhail Marynich, an opposition leader who has been held in a KGB detention center since April 26. Marynich had been Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, but he was removed from his position, ostensibly... MORE

On September 8, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Dan Geoana declined an invitation to visit Ukraine to discuss recent bilateral problems. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Markian Lubkivskyi reiterated Ukraine's interest in dialogue with Romania. But how sincere is the Ukrainian side in its stated desire for... MORE

Is a Georgian-style democratic revolution possible in Ukraine? While clearly refuting any similarities between Georgians and Ukrainians, the authorities are also increasingly nervous. A U.S. STRATFOR intelligence commentary that predicted Ukraine was approaching a Georgian-style revolution was widely discussed in the pro-presidential Ukrainian media. The... MORE

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Ukraine in mid August to discuss Ukraine's military contingent in Iraq. Since August 2003, Ukraine has had 1,576 troops in Iraq deployed 130 km south of Baghdad in the Polish-run sector. An additional 146 troops are to be... MORE

On August 21 and 27, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin announced that his government would no longer negotiate with Trans-Dniester's de facto rulers, and he criticized the "mediators" [Russia, Ukraine, OSCE] for condoning Tiraspol's repressive actions. The assault on the last few remaining Latin-script schools in... MORE

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), whose application for a Belarusian visa was rejected in late August, has declared that the world community will help the people of Belarus to overthrow the regime of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. McCain emphasized that a regime change did not imply... MORE

Ukraine celebrated the 13th anniversary of its independence from the USSR on August 24. The occasion is now regularly marked by a Soviet-style military parade and lengthy speeches elaborating national "accomplishments." Kyiv was draped with Soviet-style posters and billboards quoting President Leonid Kuchma and famous... MORE

A new scandal is unfolding in Ukraine that is likely to add to the growing realization that this year's Ukrainian presidential elections cannot be described as free and fair. On August 3 the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (www.ihf-hr.org) appealed to Ukrainian authorities "to... MORE

Senior U.S. State Department officials have reiterated their threat that if Ukraine's elections in October are not free and fair, then Ukraine has no chance of being invited to join NATO (Ukrayinska pravda, August 9). Media freedom during the elections, the officials emphasized, is an... MORE