Blogging the democratic revolution
Terry Rogers posts an interview with Yury Yekhanurov, chairman of the parliamentary committee on industry and entrepreneurship, about developing small and medium sized businesses. ???????Will small business develop in the current police state system? My neighbors, who work at a market, have to pay kickbacks to the police and the tax people, on top of…
Georgia has been trying to get Russian military bases out for a while now, but it seems as if the situation may get worse: After a two-year interruption and ten years of futile talks, another round of Russian-Georgian negotiations on the withdrawal of Russian troops was held in vain on February 10-11 in Tbilisi. The…
I promise I will never use such extensive alliteration again. David McDuff posts an interview translated into English with Zbigniew Religa, a professor who looks to be a promising candidate in this summer’s presidential election in Poland. He says he admires Wilson, and being the scholarly sort, he gives off that same impression. He has…
Carlo Stagnaro suggests that the European Union is ignoring Putin’s abuses because he signed on to the Kyoto Protocol. I’d like to add that signing on to Kyoto itself is a kind of abuse. I’m not sure if Putin will ignore it or not, but it makes the perfect excuse to put into place anti-free…
Check out this chart of aid going to CIS countries. Poor Belarus — quite literally.
Eurasianet offers one of the first recent interviews by new Georgia PM, Zurab Noghaideli. On another note, President Saakashvili gave his state of the nation address: Declaring Georgia “a proper state,” President Mikheil Saakashvili delivered his annual state of the nation speech to parliament on February 10. The upbeat speech was the Georgian leader????????s first…
I wrote my senator, John McCain, about this around a month ago. Here are the results: The United States promised to cancel the Jackson-Vanik amendment for Ukraine, give Ukraine market economy status, and support Ukraine????????s entry into the WTO, a U.S. congressional delegation including Hillary Clinton and John McCain assured Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko…
Donetsk is a highly Russian region in eastern Ukraine that was the home of whatever opposition Yanukovich could muster toward Yushchenko’s ascendency. Today, Yuschenko went over there to open dialogue about the corrupt mining industry and spur reforms to further the economy. Terry Rogers has the transcript. Here is the story.
Aussiegirl posts a writeup by BonnieBlueFlag, who has been informed that Yushchenko is coming to America and will be partying it up with the political and media elite. Well, I have an excellent source (Cindy Adams, NYP), who tells us today that Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine, is planning a March visit to the U.S….
When it comes to communists, at least they live up to their beliefs by working together: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Thursday it was troubled by Russian plans to sell Venezuela arms that U.S. officials suggest could be used to aid leftist guerrillas in Latin America. The arms pact announced last year…
David McDuff is reporting: Feb 02 – Estonian European MP Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the first Vice-Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, together with four colleagues nominated Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and the Ukrainian people for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. Their letter to the Nobel Foundation says that the orange revolution in Ukraine…
Check this out! Not only is the redesign cool, but now there are many new features. You can create an account at Maidan which will allow you to post comments. But that’s not all… it also allows you to create a blog. While that may not be useful to those of us who already have…
Aussiegirl is reflecting on Putin post-9/11 and how he has fallen back into his old KGB ways. On November 15, 2001, President Putin visited the United States and was feted at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. He was riding high in the saddle at the time. It looked like Russia was entering the free…
Andy has posted, much to my adoration, his Russia news roundup for the week. Check it out!
Discoshaman is back with another Ukraine update for today. New government policies, evil party disintegration, and the possiblity of a PORA political party. Interesting indeed!
Dan McMinn from Orange Ukraine weighs in with his thoughts on the cabinet appointments, especially the none-Our Ukraine ones.
Sergei Blagov writes on the possibly of colder relations with Russia after Zhvania’s death. Russian analysts and media outlets believe the death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania could have significant repercussions for bilateral relations between Russia and Georgia, as well as for stability within Georgia itself. Official statements out of the Kremlin since Zhvania????????s…
Maidan is reporting staunch French opposition to the inclusion of Ukraine to the EU, despite approval by others. Poland, Germany, and France, with Lithuanian participation, are conducting intensive discussions, having received something more than cooperation within the framework of neighbourhood policy from the European Union. As reported by ProEuropa, based upon the Polish Gazeta.Pl., “the…
In a marathon-length press conference on February 3, Kremlin political consultant Gleb Pavlovsky laid certain Russian markers in Eurasia ahead of the George W. Bush-Vladimir Putin summit and, by the same token, seized the moment to announce a major redefinition of Russia’s policy in the “post-Soviet space.” Russia has revealed details on its new three-point…
I just noticed that the ZUBR website has available for download Gene Sharp’s “From Dictatorship to Democracy.” How cool! I love free stuff.
The Sunday Times has an article that details how Lukashenko is tightening his grip following Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. Via: Siberian Light. Andy notes that things are not about to get easier, now that Lukashenko is taking over the KGB.
Just when you think you’ve run into an information dead end, Neeka pops out all sorts of background, stories, interviews, and connections. It looks like the death of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania is definitely not being heeded as coincidental on that side of the world. UPDATE: And it looks like a prominent community activist is…
David McDuff posts an interview dealing with the culture clashes of eastern Europe and “Old Europe.” Here’s the excerpt: The notion that Ukraine or its new president-elect are now the darlings of the EU is almost laughable. The EU would have completely ignored this crisis had it not been for the new accession states–Poland and…
Aussiegirl found this article reporting another suspicious death in Georgia: GEORGIA was yesterday plunged into crisis after it was revealed a political associate of dead prime minister Zurab Zhvania had apparently committed suicide. There were fears of a return to the old Soviet ways of dispensing with political foes by alleged accident or suicide after…