Category: Eastern Europe
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Friday, October 06, 2017
Eastern Europe Is Becoming a Target for Capital from All Around the World / Economics / Eastern Europe
By: John_Mauldin
Eastern Europe has showed some impressive growth rates over the past decade.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, September 23, 2016
Here’s Why Eastern Europe Is Doomed / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: John_Mauldin
BY LILI BAYER : The EU is falling apart. Europe’s exporters face a crisis. Its southern economies are troubled. Germany has economic challenges of its own. But as Europe’s crises deepen, something else will become more important.
The erosion of the Schengen zone could hurt Eastern members’ ties with the West. Their economic and social stability depend on access to the EU. This includes funding, investments, trade, and labor markets. So the East is sensitive to economic changes in Western Europe and the continued fracturing of the bloc.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Bulgaria: Liquidate KTB, Now / Economics / Eastern Europe
By: Steve_H_Hanke
The long-awaited audit of the Corporate Commercial Bank’s (KTB’s) assets has been released by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB). In its wake, a debate has arisen about the future of the KTB: Should it be recapitalized? And if KTB is recapitalized, should the Bulgarian or the European authorities be responsible? However, it is clear from the results of the audit that, once the obscurity of the technocratic arguments is stripped away, there can be no debate. KTB should be liquidated as soon as possible, and whatever proceeds can be obtained in liquidation should be used to reimburse guarantees to depositors paid from the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund (BDIF).
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, October 04, 2014
Bulgaria’s October 5th Elections: A Flashback at the Economic Records / ElectionOracle / Eastern Europe
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Bulgarians will go to the polls on October 5th to elect new members of its parliament and thus a new government. Before casting their votes, voters should reflect on the economic records of Bulgaria’s governments since 1995.
Every country aims to lower inflation, unemployment, and lending rates, while increasing gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Through a simple sum of the former three rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth, I constructed a misery index for each of Bulgaria’s six governments since 1995 (see the accompanying table).
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 07, 2014
Downing of Malaysia Flight 17 Sinister Pretext for War with Russia / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Mike_Whitney
The Obama administration has failed to produce any hard evidence that pro-Russia separatists were responsible for the downing of Malaysia Flight 17. The administration’s theory– that the jetliner was downed by a surface-to-air missile launched from rebel territory in east Ukraine– is not supported by radar data, satellite imagery, eyewitness testimony or forensic evidence. In fact, there is no factual basis for the hypothesis at all. It’s merely politically-motivated speculation that’s been repeated endlessly in the media to shape public opinion. The preponderance of evidence suggests a different scenario altogether, that is, that MH17 was shot down by Ukrainian fighters in an effort to frame the pro-Russia separatists and demonize Russia by implication. This is precisely why the MH17 story has vanished from all the major media for the last three weeks. It’s because the bloody fingerprints point to Obama’s puppet-government in Kiev.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Ukraine II - Why Moldova Urgently Matters / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: STRATFOR
Robert D. Kaplan writes: "NATO's Article 5 offers little protection against Vladimir Putin's Russia," Iulian Fota, Romania's presidential national security adviser, told me on a recent visit to Bucharest. "Article 5 protects Romania and other Eastern European countries against a military invasion. But it does not protect them against subversion," that is, intelligence activities, the running of criminal networks, the buying-up of banks and other strategic assets, and indirect control of media organs to undermine public opinion. Moreover, Article 5 does not protect Eastern Europe against reliance on Russian energy. As Romanian President Traian Basescu told me, Romania is a somewhat energy-rich island surrounded by a Gazprom empire.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
European Borderlands: The View Beyond Ukraine / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: STRATFOR
I traveled between Poland and Azerbaijan during a rare period when the forces that shape Europe appear to be in flux, and most of the countries I visited are re-evaluating their positions. The overwhelming sense was anxiety. Observers from countries such as Poland make little effort to hide it. Those from places such as Turkey, which is larger and not directly in the line of fire, look at Ukraine as an undercurrent rather than the dominant theme. But from Poland to Azerbaijan, I heard two questions: Are the Russians on the move? And what can these countries do to protect themselves?Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Europe Borderlands: First Moves in Romania / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: STRATFOR
I arrived in Bucharest, Romania, the day after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will be here in a few weeks. The talk in Bucharest, not only among the leadership but also among the public, is about Ukraine. Concerns are palpable, and they are not only about the Russians. They are also about NATO, the European Union, the United States and whether they will all support Romania if it resists Russia. The other side of the equation, of course, is whether Romania will do the things it must do in order to make outside support effective. Biden left Romania with a sense that the United States is in the game. But this is not a region that trusts easily. The first step was easy. The rest become harder.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Russia Borderlands: Room for Maneuvering in Hungary / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: STRATFOR
I am writing this from Budapest, the city in which I was born. I went to the United States so young that all my memories of Hungary were acquired later in life or through my family, whose memories bridged both world wars and the Cold War, all with their attendant horrors. My own deepest memory of Hungary comes from my parents' living room in the Bronx. My older sister was married in November 1956. There was an uprising against the Soviets at the same time, and many of our family members were still there. After the wedding, we returned home and saw the early newspapers and reports on television. My parents discovered that some of the heaviest fighting between the revolutionaries and Soviets had taken place on the street where my aunts lived. A joyous marriage, followed by another catastrophe -- the contrast between America and Hungary. That night, my father asked no one in particular, "Does it ever end?" The answer is no, not here. Which is why I am back in Budapest.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Ukraine Falling to Economic Warfare and Its Own Missteps / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: OilPrice_Com
As protests in Ukraine's eastern region turned violent on Sunday leading to the death of a Ukrainian security officer in a shootout with pro-Russian militia, Kiev threatens military action while Moscow flexes its geo-economic warfare muscles. Pro-Russian militia groups have seized government buildings and police headquarters in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk and Slovyanks--where the shoot-out took place--and despite a Monday morning ultimatum by the Ukrainian government, these groups have shown no sign of giving in.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Ukraine Crisis – Military Flash Drive Thinking / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Andrew_McKillop
Infinite Caution or Disk Drive Memory Lapse?
US media including all major newspapers reported that American military planners considered using US Air Force planes, possibly under Nato insignia to drop “non lethal supplies”, including food rations to outnumbered and under-equipped Ukrainian troops facing superior Russian forces across the eastern border. But Pentagon chiefs settled instead for a less-conspicuous operation: They chose road haulage from Germany of meals-ready-to-eat, or MREs, and other “non lethal supplies” in commercial trucks with no military insignia. US defense officials disclosed that non-food items included night-vision goggles, fuel, tyres and body armor, adding that Kiev's government has asked the US for small arms and ammunition, including 5,000 5.56mm M16 assault rifles.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Donetsk Crimea 2.0 - Russia Ukraine Invasion and Annexation Before End of May 2014 / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Czar Putin having finished digesting Crimea being a mere entree of the main meal ahead that could ultimately seek to devour as much as 50% of Ukraine's original land mass, whilst the mainstream media's attention remains diverted by the likes of the irrelevant Oscar Pistorius court case, another expenses fiddling MP or the search for Flight MH370. However Putin's dark totalitarian forces have been quietly busy preparing the facts on the ground for a re-run of a Crimea style theft of territory enabling Russia to rip several more pounds of flesh off of Ukraine's body.
Monday, April 07, 2014
Ukraine Accuses Russia Of Economic Aggression / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Andrew_McKillop
Gas is Getting Expensive
Quoted by 'Eurasia Review' and other media, April 7, Ukraine's SBU internal security force said it had detained 15 persons it called plotters who it said possessed a large cache of weapons and explosives and were attempting to overthrow pro-Kiev forces in the Russian-speaking east of the country, near the town of Luhansk. In Donetsk, a group of protesters estimated at about 2000 persons barricaded themselves inside the regional administration building and threatened to set up a “people’s council”, demanding a referendum like the one organized in Crimea, on whether the region should join Russia.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
What If the Crimeans Changed Their Minds? / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Michael_S_Rozeff
It’s easier to raise questions than it is to answer them. My brief answers are merely indicative of a direction an answer might take, but I’d expect many possible more elaborate answers.
If tomorrow the Crimeans changed their minds and decided to join Ukraine, would Russia’s owners and operators let them?
Friday, March 21, 2014
Birth of a New Ukrainian Nation? / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: OilPrice_Com
Interview with Robert Bensh
Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula is now Russia's. It was done with an impressively organized non-violent military operation, and supported by the foregone conclusion of a referendum on independence from Ukraine. One Ukrainian soldier was reportedly killed on 18 March, after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the treaty to annex the Crimea and troops moved to take over a Ukrainian military facility in Simferopol. The US has imposed largely symbolic sanctions on Russian officials who have no American assets to freeze and would be fine foregoing trips to the US, but the game is over.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Ukraine's Increasing Polarization and the Western Challenge / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: STRATFOR
Eugene Chausovsky writes: Just days before the Ukrainian crisis broke out, I took an overnight train to Kiev from Sevastopol in Crimea. Three mechanics in their 30s on their way to jobs in Estonia shared my compartment. All ethnic Russians born and raised in Sevastopol, they have made the trip to the Baltic states for the past eight years for seasonal work at Baltic Sea shipyards. Our ride together, accompanied by obligatory rounds of vodka, presented the opportunity for an in-depth discussion of Ukraine's political crisis. The ensuing conversation was perhaps more enlightening than talks of similar length with Ukrainian political, economic or security officials.
Friday, March 07, 2014
Ukraine Imbroglio Tightens. Putin and Obama talk. Olga Bogomolets Speaks / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Michael_T_Bucci
The situation remains "highly precarious, the slightest miscalculation could see it spiral out of control" - UK Prime Minister David Cameron
Each day of the Ukrainian imbroglio further tightens the seat belt. US President Barack Obama urged diplomacy in an hour long telephone call with Russia's President Putin, who said the Ukraine crisis should not damage relations. MPs in Crimea have asked Moscow to allow the southern Ukrainian region to become part of the Russian Federation. Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk held a press conference at EU headquarters in Brussels and The Telegraph (UK) found Olga Bogomolets who said she had not told Mr Paet that policemen and protesters had been killed in the same manner.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, March 06, 2014
Ukraine and the Paet-Ashton leak. Only Olga Bogomolets knows - if you can find her / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Michael_T_Bucci
I woke to find an email from a gentleman in UK who alerted me to an important breaking story/video from Russia that had been uploaded to YouTube. It showed how propaganda is a two-way street.
F R O M R U S S I A
The story/video appeared Wednesday, March 5 reporting the release of a taped conversation between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
Ukraine Crisis - Three Views / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: John_Mauldin
All eyes are on Ukraine as the drama continues to unfold. Today, for an early Outside the Box, I’m going to offer three sources on Ukraine. The first is a note that I got from the head of emerging-market trading at one of the world’s largest hedge funds. This is what he sent out last week, ahead of any real action:
Friday, February 28, 2014
Did Natural Gas Debt Trigger the Ukraine Crisis? / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Andrew_McKillop
Defending Moscow's December 18, 2013 agreement to provide Ukraine with an aid package estimated at about $15 billion, and cheaper natural gas through discounts and “gas debt forgiveness” estimated as able to save Ukraine $7 bn in one year, Vladimir Putin said the decision to invest $15 bn in 'brotherly slavic' Ukraine, and grant the gas discount was “pragmatic and based on economic facts”.