Eastern Europe

'Berlin Wall's Lessons For Today'

In an op-ed for "USA Today," Jeffrey Gedmin discusses RFE and the role of free media in societies living under repressive regimes. More

Visiting U.S. Diplomat Pledges Support For Moldova

A high-ranking U.S. diplomat visiting Chisinau said the White House supports Moldova's democratic process and will stand by it as it makes its foreign policy choices, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. More

Youth Activists In Belarus Stage 'Orange' Action

Youth activists in Minsk have held a so-called "orange" protest against the government of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports. More

Russia's Putin Wants New Year Without Gas 'Shocks'

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on November 19 that existing gas deals with Ukraine were a guarantee of stable energy supplies to Europe and he hoped for a New Year without any gas "shocks." More

Ukraine’s Tymoshenko Pledges To Fulfill Gas Transit Deal

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko today told Russia's Vladimir Putin that Ukraine would scrupulously fulfill its obligations on the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe. More

Romania To Ease Entry For Some 1 Million Moldovans

Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat says that up to 1.2 million Moldovans -- or more than one-quarter of the population -- will be able to travel easily to EU-member Romania due to an agreement he signed in Bucharest last week, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. More

Ukraine Asks Kremlin To Amend Gas Agreement

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has urged Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to change an agreement on supplies of Russian natural gas whose terms he said were too onerous for the Ukrainian economy. More

Swine Flu Continues To Spread In Moldova

Moldovan health officials say the number of confirmed swine flu cases has risen to nearly 900, with 250 new cases recorded over the weekend, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. More

Russia Says It Wants To Join WTO Soon

Russia has confirmed it wants to join the World Trade Organization and said members of its customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus would seek to join as separate entities. More

'Pragmatic' EU Keeps Belarus Sanctions Suspended

The European Union continues what officials in Brussels describe as a "pragmatic" policy of keeping in place a travel ban on top Belarusian officials -- but not enforcing it, as long as Minsk continues to respond to the bloc's overtures. More

'Life Not Hell Anymore'

Adam Michnik, the editor in chief of Poland's "Gazeta Wyborcza" and a leading member of the Polish democratic opposition from 1968 to 1989, was in Prague this week to attend a conference marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. He spoke to Irina Lagunina of RFE/RL's Russian Service about Russia, the West, and the post-Soviet letdown felt in the former Eastern bloc countries. More