Armenia is pressing ahead with its ambitious plans to build a new nuclear power station to replace the aging Soviet-era facility at Metsamor slated for decommissioning by 2017. The Armenian government has commissioned an Australian engineering company to manage the project. However, the key question of who will provide the funding needed for the plant's construction remains unanswered. READ MORE

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

President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus participated and made a speech in the second working session of the European Council. READ MORE

As I influence international policy to some extent I strive to participate in the creation of free and secure world for all nations, including my people by all means. Grounding on these principles, I comment on serious international problems hoping for positive result. In this article I’d like to dwell on Ukrainian issue, which is a serious problem to my view. READ MORE

This is more of a political than a legal issue to gain international support for Ukraine’s denunciation of the crimes of the USSR, particularly Stalinism. There are unlikely to be any legal repercussions. President Viktor Yushchenko has in effect radicalised the issue of the 1933 artificial famine first raised by President Leonid Kuchma. The raising of the famine issue domestically and internationally and the denunciation of Stalinism have been important in consolidating Ukraine as a democracy, in the same manner as post-war Germany in its denunciation of Nazism. In contrast, Russia under Vladimir Putin has sought to rehabilitate Stalin. READ MORE

Geopolitical Games in Southern Caucasus. READ MORE

Lately, the relations between Minsk and Kiev have intensified evidently. It is considered that they are stimulated by the EU program “Eastern Partnership” launched on May 7th and in the end of the project of “Union state”, marked by a scandalous statement of Russian Vice Prime-Minister and the Minister of Finance Aleksey Kudrin about oncoming collapse of Belarusian economy made on May 28th in Minsk. The following harsh and negative reaction of Aleksander Lukashenko guided Minsk to search for new various schemes with other states. And primarily with such neighbors as Ukraine and Lithuania on bilateral and multilateral grounds. READ MORE

Last time we talked to David Kramer in November 2007. Then he was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, responsible for Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus affairs, and later an Assistant Secretary of State. READ MORE

Russia has an ongoing fear of being encircled and slowly pushed back by the West, making it difficult for other nations to have valuable relations with Moscow. Should the West even pursue a partnership with such a paranoid regime, even though the alternative is very unpleasant? READ MORE

Lithuanian press review. READ MORE