Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was nominated on April 14 as the candidate of the pro-presidential camp for the October 31 presidential election in Ukraine. The nomination came six days after a parliamentary vote on constitutional changes failed. Opinion polls show Yanukovych to have overtaken Communist... MORE

Whether by strategic design with Russia, by bureaucratic drift or a combination thereof, Western diplomats are rushing a pseudo-settlement of the Trans-Dniester problem that would, if implemented in the next few months, turn Moldova into a Russian satellite and ensure a Communist landslide in upcoming... MORE

On May 25, Lithuania's Constitutional Court ruled that an ex-president who has been removed from that office through impeachment may not run again for the presidency. By closing this legal loophole, the ruling ends the presidential career of Rolandas Paksas, 48, who was a candidate... MORE

Valeriy Mishura, Communist parliamentary deputy and head of the Temporary Investigative Parliamentary Commission, has issued his first report to Parliament on the implications of foreign financing of NGOs (Ukrayinska Pravda, May 21). The Commission has always understood its remit to investigate only Western funding of... MORE

Former U.S. President George Bush was the latest in a long line of senior U.S. policy-makers to visit Ukraine on May 20-21. The visit should be understood as part of the on-going election campaign in Ukraine. This visit was Bush's first since July 1991 when... MORE

Tatyana Zhdanoka, a leftist opponent of Latvian national statehood, is the candidate of the largest Russian political bloc in Latvia in European Parliament elections. She is frontrunner for that seat, campaigning amidst unprecedented political activity by Russian radical groups in Latvia. Zhdanoka is a veteran... MORE

On May 19, Oleksandr Todiychuk resigned as president of Ukraine's national oil transit company UkrTransNafta. Todiychuk's resignation follows a decision by President Leonid Kuchma to abolish the office of plenipotentiary for the Eurasian Oil Transport Corridor (EAOTC), which Todiychuk held concurrently with the UkrTransNafta post.... MORE

Yesterday, the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) debated the issue of a continued Ukrainian military contingent in Iraq, the fourth largest in the 33-member U.S.-led Coalition. Reports were heard by Minister of Defense Yevhen Marchuk, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Volodymyr Yelchenko, First Deputy Chairman of... MORE

BelTransGaz, the Belarusan state gas company whose pipelines carry Russian gas to Europe, is being targeted by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom monopoly for cheap takeover. Turning up the political pressure, the Russian side released on May 19 the transcript of a meeting held two days earlier... MORE

First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Oleksandr Chalyj, Ukraine's last remaining government lobbyist for Euro-Atlantic integration, resigned on May 15 (Ukrayinska Pravda, May 15). This came only days before the annual Ukraine-EU Cooperation Council meeting on May 18. Since the removal of pro-Western Foreign Minister... MORE