April 13, 2007
by Nosemonkey
4 Comments
Boris Berezovsky – the exiled multi-millionaire Russian businessman and opponent of the Kremlin whom “poison spy” (i.e. ex-FSB man) Alexander Litvinenko was allegedly ordered to assassinate, prompting his investigations into Putin’s Russia that ended in serious allegations and, presumably, his … Continue reading
April 3, 2007
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
It’s not just in Ukraine that things are happening. All around Europe’s eastern fringe, people seem to have become a tad unsettled by the onset of Spring. In fact, the most stable country on Europe’s eastern edge seems to be … Continue reading
March 10, 2007
by Nosemonkey
5 Comments
1) A handy short explanation of why I’ve been writing about the EU constitution here a lot recently. 2) A new bilingual blog aggregator type thing from new(ish) French news channel France 24, designed to provide an insight into the … Continue reading
February 21, 2007
by Nosemonkey
2 Comments
With Russia, like the US, in a two year electoral cycle (Parliamentary elections this year, Presidential next), I thought it was about time to beef up the Russia/CIS blogroll a bit, so have added a new section. Loads of good … Continue reading
February 18, 2007
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
Bit of breaking news – a bomb’s gone off in a MacDonalds in St. Petersburg about an hour or so ago. Now I’m not much of a one for conspiracy theories, but this all sounds rather familiar… 1994 – Russian … Continue reading
February 16, 2007
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
Busy again today, so have a gander at Siberian Light’s first in a planned series of interviews with Russia-focussed bloggers – this time with the entertainingly exasperation and rage-fuelled La Russophobe. Edit: Self-congratulation has now gone on request – apparently … Continue reading
February 13, 2007
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
OK, so what have I missed while I’ve been busy? The Centre For European Reform blog has been discussing the failure of the EU constitution and the need for a new kind of “pro-Europeanism”, in relation to that “Europe’s Story” … Continue reading
February 12, 2007
by Nosemonkey
3 Comments
And a slightly new look for the blog to boot – largely because a) the back-end code with the old template was a bit dodgy in places and b) I needed to work out how Wordpress works a bit more … Continue reading
January 13, 2007
by Nosemonkey
Comments Off on A weekend European roundup
The Economist’s Edward Lucas’s [tag]central Europe[/tag]an diary is well worth a read: “it is odd that Poland gets so much mockery. There is a kind of snobbish disdain for Europe’s east rooted very deeply in the British psyche. Before writing … Continue reading
January 10, 2007
by Nosemonkey
Comments Off on More on the EU and gas
Via La Russophobe, new(ish) blog Opinionist.com has more on [tag]Europe,/tag]’s dependence on [tag]Russian gas[/tag], noting that “[tag]Russia[/tag] has an almost perfect monopoly over Europe – [tag]EU[/tag] members and former-Soviet nations – as the sole provider of [tag]Natural Gas[/tag].” If that … Continue reading
January 9, 2007
by Nosemonkey
1 Comment
Because our nutty neighbours [tag]Russia[/tag] and [tag]Belarus[/tag] are playing up again, energy disputes are in the spotlight once again. If the [tag]EU[/tag]’s largest economy’s being hit, guess what? Yep – a major overhaul of EU [tag]energy policy[/tag] is on the … Continue reading
January 1, 2007
by Nosemonkey
5 Comments
A New Year, and the [tag]Eurozone[/tag] expands to 13 members (with [tag]Slovenia[/tag] joining), and the [tag]EU[/tag] itself to 27 (with [tag]Bulgaria[/tag] and [tag]Romania[/tag]). Over at Fistful Tobias has a quick overview, noting “that the countries’ accession has caused almost no … Continue reading
December 22, 2006
by Nosemonkey
Comments Off on Turkmenbashi death follow-up
Following yesterday’s welcome news of the death of a dotty dictator, lots of people have begun to realise that the potential for this to be very important news indeed is really rather high. This from the Washington Post neatly explains … Continue reading
December 21, 2006
by Nosemonkey
3 Comments
2006 – a good year for dead dictators, first Pinochet, now Saparmurat Niyazov, self-styled “Turkmenbashi” and president for life of Turkmenistan. He’s the one who renamed the months and days of the week after his friends and family,ordered an ice … Continue reading