During the Cold War, Romania confused all of us. Long after brutality in other communist countries declined, Romania remained a state that employed levels of violence best compared to North Korea today. Nicolae Ceausescu, referred to by admirers as the Genius of the Carpathians, ruled Romania with a ruthless irrationality. Government policies left the country cold and dark, and everyday items readily available just a few kilometers south in Bulgaria were rarities in Romania. At the same time -- and this was the paradox -- Romania was hostile and uncooperative with the Soviets. Bucharest refused to submit to Moscow, and this did not compute for many of us. Resistance to Soviet power, in our minds, meant liberalization, like what we saw in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. But not in Romania; Romania played a different game. READ MORE

Developing countries intend to suggest the world community a new format of response towards global challenges. In the end of June 2013 Kazakhstan, which has launched an interactive platform G-Global, intends to sound the recommendations for the leaders of the Great 20. They were developed under the results of the VI Astana Economic Forum (AEF) and the World Anti-Crisis Conference (WACC) with the participation of the representatives from 132 countries of the world. READ MORE