On January 20, Estonia 's President Arnold Ruutel used a radio address from Moscow to tell his country that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to support an official Russian repudiation of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. If so, the move could suddenly ease the atmosphere of... MORE

The Russian government's ongoing seizure of the private Yukos oil company threatens to extend into Lithuania . There, a Yukos subsidiary is the majority-owner and operator of the oil-processing and oil-transport industry, Lithuania 's largest industrial asset. The country seeks to prevent, or limit the... MORE

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka has accused Russia of failing to fulfill its agreement on prices for gas delivered from Russia to Belarus and has threatened to retaliate by amending the prices for the transit of Russian gas through Belarusian territory. The dispute has once again... MORE

While Ukraine 's president-elect Viktor Yushchenko deliberates about whom to choose for prime minister (see EDM, January 10), differences within his motley team are threatening to break it up from within. With Yushchenko's victory, the very broad coalition backing him, consisting of nationalists, market liberals,... MORE

On January 10, President Leonid Kuchma held a meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq. Eight Ukrainian troops died when a bomb they were defusing went off accidentally on January 9. Another seven Ukrainian troops were injured. Ukraine has the fourth-largest military contingent in... MORE

On January 11-12, the U.S. State Department added an unnecessary complication to Ukrainian President-elect Viktor Yushchenko's internal political challenges. Questioning Ukraine's political decision to withdraw its 1,600 troops from Iraq, the Department's deputy spokesman Adam Ereli in Washington and U.S. Ambassador John Herbst in Kyiv... MORE

On January 12, Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga announced that she would be attending the VE-Day 60th anniversary summit to be held in May in Moscow. The issue is deeply controversial in the three Baltic states, and Vike-Freiberga's announcement scuttles the November 2004 agreement by the... MORE

On January 10, Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC) officially declared opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko to be Ukraine's third president. The final vote count stood at 51.99% for Yushchenko compared to Viktor Yanukovych's 44.20%. Thirteen CEC members voted in favor of the ruling while two abstained.... MORE

On December 31, Lithuania shut down the first of two Soviet-era nuclear reactors at the Ignalina nuclear power plant and began the decommissioning process. The European Union required the closure of Unit One by December 2004 and of Unit Two by December 2009, as part... MORE

Viktor Yushchenko, who was elected Ukraine's president on December 26, has promised to come up with a candidate for prime minister this week. The candidate will need to be approved by parliament. This will be the first test of Yushchenko's ability to negotiate with the... MORE