Bridge on the Dnieper
Ukraine is in the news again, this time for its panicked response to a flu epidemic that has claimed over three hundred lives. In many countries, this would simply be a matter of public health, but in Ukraine, where politics is polarized by culture and region, an epidemic is another excuse for partisan wrangling. President Viktor Yushchenko is engaged in an escalating verbal battle with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a onetime ally now angling for his job. A presidential election is scheduled for January 17. READ MORE
PM Tymoshenko Says “Ukraine's Future Is With Europe”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was officially nominated as candidate for president, told supporters that Kiev could build neighborly relations with Moscow, but its future lay with Europe. READ MORE
EU: Energy Security Is In The Pipeline
After years of dithering, and despite Moscow's threats, agreement has been finalised for a project to bring non-Russian gas to Europe. READ MORE
Russia's New Ukrainian Disinformation Campaign
Disinformation, or the planting of false information to deceive or smear an enemy, is now being regularly used by both government and non-governmental players in Russia and Ukraine in the fierce battles for control of power and assets in these countries. During the January 2009 "gas war" between Ukraine and Russia, the Russian leadership accused Ukraine of preventing Russian gas from reaching customers in the E.U. READ MORE
The Great Pipeline Opera
Inside the European pipeline fantasy that became a real-life gas war with Russia.
When Joschka Fischer's lucrative new job as the "political communications advisor" to a consortium of European energy companies was leaked to a German business publication this summer, there was one comment that stood out. "Welcome to the club," said Gerhard Schröder, an even more highly paid advocate for the other side in Europe's increasingly politicized energy war.
Schröder's remark was short, snide -- and very much to the point. For eight years, the two men had led Germany together, with Schröder ruling as its center-left chancellor and Fischer as his foreign minister. Their long-running partnership had survived a particularly complicated era in post-Cold War Europe, and publicly Fischer had always been supportive, even telling Der Spiegel that Schröder "will go down in the history books as a great chancellor." READ MORE
Russia and Ukraine in Intensifying Standoff
A year after its war with Georgia, Russia is engaging in an increasingly hostile standoff with another pro-Western neighbor, Ukraine. READ MORE
Georgia quits ex-Soviet “commonwealth”
One year after its short war with Russia, Georgia on Tuesday (18 August) became the first country to withdraw from the grouping of former Soviet republics, in a sign of rebellion met with disdain from Moscow. READ MORE
Experts: Medvedev’s Statement Is the Attempt to Influence Presidential Elections In Ukraine
Ukrainian political analysts commented on the statement of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who accused current Ukrainian Government of leading anti-Russia course and announced the decision to postpone the coming of new Russian Ambassador to Ukraine. READ MORE
Orthodox ‘Summit’ In Istanbul
A three-day visit by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to Istanbul is more than just his first official trip abroad as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church or than his first visit to the Patriarch of Constantinople, also known as Ecumenical Patriarch. READ MORE
Central European leaders call for unity in the face of crisis
Central European leaders from 14 countries have called for more regional cooperation in the wake of the global economic crisis and for a better distribution of energy resources. READ MORE
