Eastern approaches

THE Russian-made Abrau-Dyurso champagne has been drunk, the Kremlin Regiment has marched in formation, the streets of Moscow have been cleared of protestors and Vladimir Putin is again president of Russia. It is an office Mr Putin first took 12 years ago: at the time, the 9/11 attacks had not yet happened, the Tate Modern in London had not opened, Bashar al-Assad had not taken over power in Syria, and America's Supreme Court had not ruled on Bush v Gore. 

Continue reading "Vlad's back" »

A GROWING number of EU leaders are threatening to boycott the Euro 2012 football championship in Ukraine over the government's treatment of imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko

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POLAND has celebrated "Flag Day" on May 2nd since 2004. Asked what it means, most Poles shrug. Some say it is a jingoistic gimmick to plug the gap between Labour Day, on May 1st, and the May 3rd anniversary of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's 1791 written constitution, the first in Europe.

But ask Polish veterans of the second world war, particularly those that served on the eastern front, and they will remind you of a neglected story. For in Berlin on May 2nd 1945, Polish troops clambered up Berlin's iconic victory column, the Siegessäule, to hoist their colours at the end of the battle for the German capital. Hitler's corpse lay a few hundred metres away.

Continue reading "Hoisted aloft" »

LESS than three months after it took office, Romania's government has fallen. The centre-right administration, led by Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, a former foreign-intelligence chief, lost a no-confidence vote filed by the left-wing opposition. When the motion was originally filed few thought the government was in danger. But in recent weeks it has been weakened by a series of defections.

"Today there was justice," said Victor Ponta, leader of the centre-left Social-Liberal Union (USL), after securing 235 votes in favour of his motion, four more than he needed.

Continue reading "Another one bites the dust" »

Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters.

Poles might be forgiven for assuming this is a description of the creatures normally kept behind glass at the urząd miasta (city hall) and the multitude of other offices that dominate ordinary life in Poland.

Continue reading "The Vogons of the east" »

THE squabbling parties of the Czech centre-right are detested by the voters and distrust each other. But they prefer to stay in power than face the consequences. Earlier today the prime minister, Petr Nečas, said he had cobbled together a majority in the 200-member parliament, ending, for now, the prospect of early elections, which the opposition ČSSD Social Democrats would almost certainly have won. 

The wobble followed a split in a junior coalition partner, Public Affairs (known as VV from its Czech name Věci veřejné).

Continue reading "Wobbled but not toppled" »

THE title is ponderous but the idea is exciting. On April 16th Poland launched the first seminar in a series entitled "The European Dialogue on Modernisation with Belarusian Society". This is a new European Union initiative to try to engage business and other non-government elements to ponder what Belarus might look like if Aleksandr Lukashenko [Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Belarusian] left power or (even less likely) saw the light of liberalism and agreed to radical change.

The timing was fortunate.

Continue reading "Released but not defrosted" »