Azerbaijan Prepares for Polls
Azerbaijan’s presidential election is set for tomorrow, and despite a newly invigorated but still fractured opposition, it appears that Ilham Aliyev will retain the presidency for another term....
View ArticleAzerbaijan’s Malfunctioning Election App Draws Snickers from Supporters of...
Displaying the keen insight that has made him a legend in foreign policy spheres in his own newsroom, Max Fisher of the Washington Post has a piece up about an election app commissioned by Azerbaijan’s...
View ArticleEuropean Parliaments Agree: Azerbaijan’s Elections Were “Free, Fair and...
Azerbaijan held its fifth presidential election on Wednesday, an election the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Parliament described in a joint statement as “free,...
View ArticleAzerbaijan’s Westward Drive
With last week’s presidential elections completed, which Europe’s parliaments declared “free, fair, and transparent,” it is safe to say that Azerbaijan’s political development has advanced at a high...
View ArticlePetition to Remove Pro-Soviet Memorial Strains Ties Between Riga and Moscow
Some times, one needs to say nice things about Russia. A petition is currently making the rounds in Latvia to dismantle a World War II memorial that commemorates the Soviet “liberators” who brutally...
View ArticleUkraine to Seek Restitution of $500 Million from Lazarenko and Tymoshenko
Ukraine’s Ministry of Revenues and Duties is seeking $500 million that former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko are believed to have spirited out of the country...
View ArticleLithuania Struggles with Emigration — A Harbinger of Eastern Europe’s Future
A persistent and underreported problem in the former Soviet Union — except in Russia, where it breaks into the news infrequently — is the story of slow depopulation. This is a story told in anecdotes...
View ArticleRussia to Moldova: Nice Little Country You Have There, Shame If It Froze to...
Continuing the pressure on the Eastern Partnership nations who will meet with the European Union in Vilnius this month to discuss trade and closer ties, Russia has unsubtly let Moldova know that any...
View ArticleRussia’s Last Imperial Bid Crumbling?
As the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius approaches, this site will be specially focused on those nations who are making significant steps in their turn toward Europe, and away from a...
View ArticleEurope Has Failed Ukraine
(Written with the concurrence of the undersigned.) Ukraine has announced that it has no choice but to suspend the planned signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union. This is a win for...
View ArticleWhither Georgia?
Over the last decade, Georgia has brought itself to a crossroads that its recent initialing of an Association Agreement with the European Union has not resolved. Indeed, it has heightened the nature of...
View ArticleA Programming Note
Many of you have raised concerns about reaching the site of late and of content appearing and disappearing. We have experienced the same problems here, which appear to be caused by attacks on our site...
View ArticleAzerbaijan’s Democratic Norms and the Future of European Energy
At long last, Europe will be able to move forward with cleaner energy, independent of Russia’s autarchy, to power its industrial base and its homes through the coming decades. The Southern Energy...
View Article2013′s Year of Upheaval
2013 was the year so many assumptions about the former Soviet Union either died or went on life support. Almost all of the bad news revolved around the European Union. The Eastern Partnership crumbled...
View ArticleEurope Needs a New Eastern Partnership Strategy
We have discussed before the dangers of Europe’s pre-November 2013 path, but they are worth recounting: Russia’s sphere of power grows as more and more former Soviet Republics, through their own...
View ArticleJews and the Former Communist Bloc
A reasonable way to categorize a nation’s or political movement’s health is by assuming an inverse level of sanity to the level of anti-Semitism present at any given time. It is therefore unsurprising...
View ArticleThe Slow Plod to War
Tension continues to mount along the line of occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, as Armenian forces test Azerbaijan’s readiness for battle and Baku and Yerevan prepare for war. Good news though: A meeting of...
View ArticleMoldova 2014: A Do-Over
It is not too much to say that Europe badly bungled its handling of Ukraine. When Kyiv went through a break-neck round of legislation to meet the requirements Brussels had set in advance of an...
View ArticleMoldova Discovers the Perils of Being Europe’s Darling
Always quick to recognize as if new decades-old trends, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has a piece on Moldova’s autonomous region of Gagauzia and its concerns that growing ties with the European Union...
View ArticlePoland Steps into the Gap of Western Absence
It is often said that Poland is America’s greatest ally, and America Poland’s worst. Poland has apparently realized this truth. Poland is going ahead with its own missile defense system, after the...
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