According to the president, the real decline in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) began in August. Aggregate production in September saw a decline from 10.9 per cent (August on August 2007) to 5.5 per cent (compared to September 2007).

It is pointless to debate about who was behind Yatsenyuk’s dismissal – Yushchenko or his alter-ego Baloha: if Yushchenko had not profited from his confidant, he would have long sacrificed him.

Barack Obama's election may have prompted celebrations from Chicago to Nairobi. But in Tbilisi, it was disappointment that carried the day, with many Georgians ruefully contemplating what John McCain's defeat would mean for them.

This article does not assess the behavior of major Ukrainian political forces and their leaders as much has been and will be written about that. My point is that these all-versus-all political games obscure important economic problems which tend to aggravate underlying conditions of political instability.

On 2 October 2008, thanks to long preparatory work, negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers, Yuliya Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin took place after all, and were fairly successful.

A Gallup Poll found a strong majority of Ukrainians (65%) saying their leadership is taking the country in the wrong direction and only about one in six (16%) expressing confidence in their national government.

This week all those involved in the current stage of the permanent Ukrainian political crisis played a kind of make-believe game. Inside Ukraine the President made believe a coup d’etat and in Europe he made believe “a normal democratic process.”

The lecture by Steven Pifer, Visiting Fellow of the Brookings Institution, on Russia's interests and influence in modern world and the ways for the U.S. government to reach the point in this key bilateral relationship.

Interview with Volodymyr Ohryzko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

"NATO has always taken Russia into account when considering the modalities of enlargement, the timing of it and the likely consequences of it. But it has never granted Russia a veto over this process or a role to play in it," James Sherr. 

Days before the NATO summit in Bucharest began, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili rolled out a new peace initiative for breakaway Abkhazia.

Kyiv actually dreamed of being invited to join the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. Yet it was not the alliance’s fault that it did not happen once again, despite numerous favorable conditions.

Last autumn, the Kachinski brothers - Lech and Jaroslaw - started writing a new page of Polish history as soon as the rightists won the parliamentary and presidential elections.

DMITRY VYDRIN, VADIM KARASYOV, IGOR BURAKOVSKY

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has elected a new Speaker, Volodymyr Lytvyn. But an amorphous majority is created instead of the new coalition. Moreover, this majority cannot be regarded as the ‘orange’ coalition.

VITALY BALA

The potential Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc and the Party of Regions alliance can be created formally or informally. Regardless of the alliance format, this would be the best scenario because then the presidential campaign would be free of stark confrontations.

ALEKSANDR RAHR

On 2-3 December 2008, Brussels will host the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of NATO member states. On the agenda of the meeting there will be the issue of granting  the NATO Membership Action Plan to Georgia and Ukraine.

YURY YAKIMENKO

A parliamentary majority should be formed in order to elect a new speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This majority could become a new coalition.

VADIM KARASYOV, MIKHAIL POGREBINSKY, VITALY PORTNIKOV

There is a question about the situation after the elections. But why should it change? If the elections outcome is about the same as in the last elections (the public opinion polls show that), the Party of Regions and Our Ukraine will not have the majority to build a coalition. 

VITALY BALA

Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc and Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko herself have reacted negatively to President Viktor Yushchenko’s decision to dissolve the Verkhovha Rada and to hold early parliamentary elections.

ALEKSANDR RAHR

The USA, where the presidential election campaign goes full swing, tries to take the toughest possible line with Russia. In many respects that is why some American government officials seek to support Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili.

VADIM KARASYOV

We should not discuss the theology issues and the relations within the Orthodox Church. We should discuss the celebration of the 1,020th anniversary of the acceptance of Christianity by Rus where there was a complicated political intrigue.

VITALY PORTNIKOV

The holding of “Sea Breeze” military exercises and Ukraine’s joining NATO should be regarded as two different processes. Some people want to unite them, but Kyiv has not applied for the NATO membership yet. Ukraine has not received the NATO Membership Action Plan and, apparently, will not recieve it in December.

For centuries, Ukraine's Cossacks were able to play off the superpowers of their time. Some would argue that the survival of the Ukrainian nation depended on a 'flexible' foreign policy. Unfortunately, the result of this policy was a culture of persistent internal division that eventually led to Russian domination.

A report recently released by U.S. intelligence agencies predicts that American influence on the global stage will diminish over the next 15 years, as the rise of powers such as China, India and other third-world giants creates a more multi-polar planet. So where does Ukraine fit into this scenario?

The 2008 U.S. presidential-election campaign has been watched with much anticipation, both at home and abroad. There’s a woman vice president on the Republican ticket, and an African-American being fielded by the Democrats for the nation’s top job. Whichever party wins, history will be made.

Ukraine is going to hold its fifth general elections in as many years, but don't expect the upcoming parliamentary vote to stabilize the country's chaotic political arena any time soon. Ever since President Viktor Yushchenko was elected on a pro-Western platform back in 2005, the seats of power in the former Soviet republic have been contested in a no-holds-barred dogfight that is desperate to the point of absurdity. 

In Transcarpathia, near the Ukrainian village of Delovoe, there are three geodetic signs indicating the geographic center of the European subcontinent. The first sign was put up in 1887 under Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. The second one was set up by the members of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The third one was put up in the first years of Ukraine’s independence after the Soviet Union had collapsed.

Georgia has resolutely condemned Russia’s actions in Chechnya. Russia has severely criticized NATO actions towards Serbia. Later on the Georgian authorities tried to do the same thing in South Ossetia as the Russian authorities had done in Chechnya. Moscow decided to treat Georgia in the same way as NATO had treated Serbia.

Remember the shell game, in which the unsuspecting player is challenged to follow a little ball with his eyes as it rolls from under one shell to the next with lightning speed? When the game operator finally stops, the player is asked to guess which shell the ball lies under in order to win a prize. However, in most cases, the operator has already managed to slip the ball into his own hands, thereby making any guess by the player a losing one.

Last weekend saw the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to Moscow, where she met with Vladimir Putin for the first time since he went from being Russia’s president to heading his country’s government. During the joint press conference both premiers chose their words carefully, demonstrating the sensitivity of current Russian-Ukrainian relations.

If NATO can bring Ukrainians rule of law and a decent living standard, it would already have justified its expansion. But judging by the way other Western reforms have been perverted in Ukraine, one couldn’t be blamed for having serious doubts. Probably with more candidness, Mr. Yushchenko pointed out that Ukraine can join any international organization that it likes.

The crusade to raise the Ukrainian language heads and shoulders above Russian continues apace in Kyiv and other parts of the country, but as with most crusades, it’s not clear what the end goal is. Ukraine’s State Cinema Service recently announced that all films made in Ukraine must be in Ukrainian starting in July. All foreign films shown in Ukraine are already required to be dubbed or subtitled in Ukrainian.

The issue of whether Ukraine should join NATO has returned to the public agenda, sparking off heated debates between supporters and opponents of the country’s bid. In the past, such polemics have usually meant proponents of Euro-Atlantic unity coming under attack by pro-Russian factions in the run up to an important election or a NATO-sponsored military exercise on home soil.