Vostok Cable Editor, Josh Black, looks back on an eventful year in the CEE and CIS space. Looking back at twelve months’ worth of events is a decidedly human impulse, yet the need to categorise by calendar years is a futile exercise. The last year carried on where 2012 left off, and leaves no neat … Continue reading
Following yesterday’s article which described Russia as ‘a giant with feet of clay’ in its efforts to promote integration in the CIS, Paul Hansbury responds with some reflections on Russia’s deal with Ukraine. Yesterday Vladimir Sarkisyants argued that Russia’s trade deal with Ukraine is an example of the former’s vulnerability. I agree with this argument. … Continue reading
Vladimir Sarkisyants examines the Russo-Ukrainian trade deal and asks whether Russia is making a rod for its own back with the creation of a Eurasian trade bloc to rival the EU. On 17 December, Russia threw a ‘lifeline’ to the embattled Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. The ongoing social unrest in Kiev notwithstanding, Yanukovych’s efforts to … Continue reading
Paul Hansbury explores the political and cultural differences which have seen Ukrainians protest vehemently against an interruption in talks with the EU, and Belarusians apparently passive. Recently the Belarusian news agency BelaPAN asked Mogilev residents whether they would take part if there was a Belarusian ‘EuroMaidan’. The repeated answer was ‘No,’ with the exception of … Continue reading
As Ukraine signs a deal with Russia reducing its gas import price by a third, Nikolay Manov explores previous conflicts over gas supplies, and their impact on the latter’s hopes of a future with the European Union. It has been argued by Michael Ross and others that natural resources hinder state-building and democratic development, increasing … Continue reading
Turkmenistan is a country not many people know a great deal about. Unabashedly authoritarian, it has one of the most repressive regimes in the world, yet doesn’t attract as much attention as geostrategic threats like Iran and North Korea, or European Belarus. In this post, Molly McParland goes behind the last remaining vestiges of the … Continue reading
Born a peasant, she fought with the partisans, lived as a glamorous First Lady, only to wither away lonely. Leandra Bias profiles Jovanka Broz, Tito’s widow, who has died at 88 after three decades of isolation. “With her one last major figure of former Yugoslavia has departed – the First Lady everyone simply addressed by … Continue reading
