The Economic Great Game for Peace in Eastern Europe
Whatever new geopolitical order emerges between the EU, Ukraine, and Russia, will rest on a joint understanding about the economic relationship between the three. …read more Source: Carnegie Endowment for International...
New Centre-Right Government in Finland
Finland is directly affected by two of the biggest crises in the history of European integration: the troubles of the euro and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The new Finnish government, formed by the liberal Centre Party, the populist Finns Party and the conservative National Coalition Party, faces major economic, foreign policy and security...
Financial Defaults May Loom for North Caucasian Republics
Russian news agencies reported in early June that Novgorod Oblast in central Russia had become the country’s first region to default on its financial obligations. An official from the Novgorod financial department told RBK news agency that the region failed to make a payment of $33 million to the Russian state bank VTB (Rbc.ru, June 9). VTB...
Putin’s Economic Forum: Delays, Obfuscations and Irrelevance
The annual St. Petersburg economic forum used to be a major gathering of investors and stakeholders, who would anticipate President Vladimir Putin’s keynote speech every year for hints about where to find the richest dividends in the Russian economy. This year, however, the traditional pomp was reduced and the potential margins of profit...
Scandal in the Ukrainian Security Service: Last Breath of the Old Political System?
On June 18, 248 Ukrainian lawmakers—out of the 422 present in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament)—approved President Petro Poroshenko’s request to fire Valentyn Nalyvaychenko as head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) amid rising public criticism and top officials’ growing recriminations over the government’s inability to...
Saakashvili Grapples With Daunting Odds in Ukraine’s Odesa
Three weeks ago, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed Georgia’s former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, as governor of Ukraine’s Odesa province, with a dual mission: to jump-start reforms based on his experience in reforming Georgia, and to consolidate Ukrainian control in a territory potentially targeted by Russia....
2015 OSCE Annual Security Review Conference in Vienna explores current security challenges and OSCE’s role in addressing them
VIENNA, 22 June 2015 – The 2015 Annual Security Review Conference organized by the OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office will take place on 23-25 June 2015 in Vienna with participants discussing current security challenges throughout the OSCE area. One of the special sessions will be devoted to the debate on ensuring security and stability in the OSCE...
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Dačić appoints new Special Representative in Ukraine
BELGRADE, 22 June 2015– The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić today appointed Ambassador Martin Sajdik (Austria) as his new Special Representative in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group. He follows Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini (Switzerland) who, having fulfilled this assignment for one year,...
Kremlin Aide Warns U.S. Against Arms Deployment, Slovak Schools Slammed Over Roma Policies
Plus, Tajikistan moves to silence renegade special forces commander, and the UN blasts Hungary’s anti-immigrant billboards. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 19:30 (Kyiv time), 18 June 2015
This report is provided for the media and the general public. The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations. Luhansk region remained tense, with the SMM observing shelling in several areas. The area around...
