Archive for the 'Black Sea region' Category :

Ukraine: End of Orange Revolution, start of Stabilisation

Posted by AriRusila on 10/02/10

“We can say goodbye to our democracy, our independence and our sovereignty” (outgoing President Yushchenko predicts a future with either Ms Tymoshenko or Mr Yanukovych as President)
“I’m quite happy because whoever is chosen today will be hated tomorrow by the majority of the country.” (Andrey Kurkov)

Ukraine’s Russian-leaning opposition leader, Viktor Yanukovych is on course to [...]

Ukraine: Choosing a New Way

Posted by AriRusila on 17/01/10

“When we get Russian gas, the problem is not the supplier, but the fact that 80 percent of the pipeline is located in the Ukraine. We should look for independence not from Russia, but from such transit schemes,” (Gerhard Schroeder)

Just after 2004 Orange Revolution Ukraine took course towards Nato and EU, the new leadership [...]

EU foreign policy in relation to EC selections

Posted by AriRusila on 28/11/09

First, a few quotes that relate to selection of EU’s top officials:

Turkey is not a part of Europe and will never be part of Europe. (Mr Van Rompuy)

If the point of the Lisbon Treaty was to create a more prominent face for Europe, the result on Thursday was the opposite. It appeared to [...]

The Nabucco-South Stream race intensifies

Posted by AriRusila on 15/11/09

The race between the two EU’s eastern gas pipelines is going on while next winter can again show some supply problems via Ukraine. South Stream got latest boost on 11th November 2009 as Russia’s Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and Slovenian Economy Minister Matej Lahovnik signed an agreement on the passage of the South [...]

HDI 2009 - Balkans & Black Sea regions

Posted by AriRusila on 10/10/09

Each year since 1990 the Human Development Report by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published the human development index (HDI) which looks beyond GDP to a broader definition of well-being. The index is not in any sense a comprehensive measure of human development, however HDI gives some valuable information about some dimensions of global [...]

Global Peace Rank - Balkans & Black Sea

Posted by AriRusila on 18/06/09

The results of the Global Peace Index for 2009 suggest that the world has become slightly less peaceful in the past year, which appears to reflect the intensification of violent conflict in some countries and the effects of both the rapidly rising food and fuel prices early in 2008 and the dramatic global economic downturn [...]

Is it Time to Bury Nabucco?

Posted by AriRusila on 22/05/09

Latest developments during last weeks related the EU’s policy of diversifying Europes’s energy supplies give a clear indication that EU’s pipedream – Nabucco – is vanishing while the rival Russia’s South Stream gets a boost both on the ground and updated aims. European Commission has tried enhance Nabucco already some nine year with modest or [...]

EU’s big choice – Nabucco or South Stream?

Posted by AriRusila on 15/05/09

Despite the efforts to save energy a strong scenario for near future is that the quantity of gas needed in EU region will remain same as today if not bigger. sources of gas are widely known the essential question is how the gas is arriving to European markets. Environmental and technical aspects can be handled [...]

Russia’s new Security and Energy Initiatives

Posted by AriRusila on 26/04/09

Two new proposals related to European security and energy cooperation was made last week by Russia. During official state visit in Finland Russia’s President Dimitry Medvedev gave a key note speech in Helsinki on April 20th outlining a “new European security structure”. Same day Russia made public goals and principles of new framework for energy [...]

Twitter revolution – no coup d’etat but big drama anyway

Posted by AriRusila on 20/04/09

Twitter revolution did not change government in Moldova but created big drama instead including a couple of conspiracy theories and “fast-track” mini enlargement of EU with one million new EU citizens while same time Moldova possibly losing a quarter its citizens. So a relatively small improvised demonstration can lead its (mis)use for possible purposeful utilization [...]

AriRusila’s BalkanPerspective rss

Welcome to AriRusila’s BalkanPerspective - a personal perspective on events in western Balkans. Topics of interest: Serbia, Kosovo province, EU enlargement, ICO/EUSR, Eulex, UN peacekeeping operations, western Balkans, crisis management more.



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