Relations between Moscow and Kyiv have been unexpectedly rocky in recent years. However, as Russia entered its latest election cycle, the Kremlin’s attention drifted away from Ukraine. While there was little doubt that Vladimir Putin would return to power, the president-to-be had to contend with the sudden awakening of parts of the Russian electorate. Now [...]
Two years ago, on February 25, Viktor Yanukovych was inaugurated as the fourth president of Ukraine, as the nation of 46 million was struggling with both authoritarian and, many believe, colonial legacies. Earlier that month, he had narrowly won the second round of the elections, 49 to 46 percent, against the incumbent prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. In real figures, however, he got almost half a million [...]
Economic recovery remains at the top of the agenda of the government of Mariano Rajoy. It has already agreed a set of new austerity measures aimed at reducing the public deficit and wining back the confidence of investors and European partners in the Spanish economy. It also plans to introduce further reforms of the banking sector and labour [...]
Posted in Economy and Finance, Europe, Featured, Politics in the World 
Tags: European Union, finance, Spain 
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A good six months before the actual presidential election, it was virtually certain that Vladimir Putin would return to the presidency. Such is the strange “democracy” of Russia. The announcement was followed by Putin’s call to create a Eurasian Union. The plan, unveiled in a newspaper article on October 4, is to achieve EU-style economic [...]
The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, the clear front-runner in the upcoming presidential elections, has been presenting his electoral agenda in the press and in public speeches in recent weeks. He offered a vision of the state analogous to the model seen in his second term in office as president: a strong government, state domination [...]
The EU summit on the 30th January 2012 endorsed the treaty on stability, co-ordination and governance in the economic and monetary union and produced one rather unexpected twist: the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Nečas, refused to sign up to the treaty. This has left the country – at least for the time [...]
Posted in Europe, Featured, Politics in the World Tags: European Union, The Czech Republic 1 Comment »
The outcome of the Brussels summit on December 8th and 9th is a disaster for the UK and also threatens the integrity of the single market. For more than 50 years, a fundamental principle of Britain’s foreign policy has been to be present when EU bodies take decisions, so that it can influence the outcome. [...]
Posted in Europe, Featured, Politics in the World Tags: Britain, European Union, the euro zone debt crisis No Comments »
