Nikola Krastev

Also by Nikola Krastev

• February 07, 2006

  U.S. Senators Call For Implemention Of Reforms

  The United Nations has been rocked in recent years by a series of scandals that have sparked widespread calls for it to institute reforms.

• December 29, 2005

  Weak Controls On Oil Revenues Concern Monitors

  An international auditing board is expressing serious concerns regarding the accounting practices and control of Iraq's current system for oil trade.

• December 18, 2005

  Survey Says World Generally More Free In 2005

  Freedom House calls 2005 one of the most successful years since it began measuring world freedom three decades ago. But it adds that one in three people lives in a country that is "not free."

• December 06, 2005

  Afghanistan: Theater Brings Images Of Afghan Life To U.S. Audiences

  Anisa Wahab and Mahmoud Salimi, members of Kabul's Exile Theater, on 2 December in New York (RFE/RL) The first Afghan-American joint theater project continued its international tour with recent well-received performances in New York City. "Beyond The Mirror," which has already enjoyed successful runs in Tokyo and Baltimore, is a collaboration between the Kabul-based Exile Theater and New York's Bond Street Theatre. The production is a journey through the past three decades of war and occupation in Afghanistan. Through myths and memories, family histories and personal accounts, dance and music, and film montages, "Beyond the Mirror" weaves a portrait of a country that is both desperate and hopeful.

• November 24, 2005

  Masses Of The Opiate

  There are harbingers of more trouble ahead for antidrug efforts in Afghanistan and the region, despite the good news.

• October 26, 2005

  Syria: U.S., France Mull UN Sanctions Following Hariri Report

  Syrian pro-government demonstrators on 24 October (AFP) UN Security Council permanent members France and the United States have threatened Syria with possible sanctions if it fails to detain government officials suspected of involvement in the February assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The warning came hours after a UN Security Council briefing by UN investigator Detlev Mehlis, who said Syria is not cooperating with his commission. Damascus denies any involvement in the assassination and says the accusations are politically motivated.

• October 24, 2005

  World: Experts Envision A Future Beyond Oil

  Record-high oil prices this year drained the growth potential of many major world economies. But how to end the global reliance on oil? Experts gathered on 21 October in New York to discuss ways to move beyond government dictates to find technological and business-driven solutions to oil dependence.

• October 10, 2005

  Afghanistan: After Three Years Of Reconstruction, Government Says Country Is Back In Business

  A small business operator in Kabul The Afghan government is holding a series of promotional seminars throughout the United States in an effort to woo U.S. investors with promises of efficient business registration, favorable taxation, improved security, and opportunities for investment in the food, tourism, and textile industries. After three years of reconstruction, the government says, Afghanistan is back in business. It says the economy has been growing at an average annual rate of 20 percent and that growth is forecast to remain strong over the next decade. The main selling points are the country's central location and the determination of the current government to establish a better investment climate than those in neighboring Central Asian states. RFE/RL attended a recent Afghan investment seminar in New York and filed this report.

• October 07, 2005

  World: Global War On Terror Faces Government With Unique Enemy (Part 4)

  The global war on terror has presented Western governments with an enemy unlike those of the past. If the Cold War faced Western armed forces and intelligence forces with a foe backed by vast state resources, the war on terror faces them with an enemy operating in small bands and which needs relatively little financing. A number of prominent antiterrorism experts gathered recently in New York to consider the unique aspects of the war on terror and to describe the enemy they face. RFE/RL New York correspondent Nikola Krastev was there and files this report in the fourth and last part of our four-part series on the war on terror.

• October 07, 2005

  Azerbaijan: U.S. Indicts Three On Oil-Related Bribery Charges

  Viktor Kozeny's maneuvers in the early '90s earned him the nickname the "Pirate of Prague" U.S. authorities have indicted three men on bribery charges over a scheme to gain a share of Azerbaijan's oil industry. Czech-born Viktor Kozeny was arrested on 5 October in the Bahamas, and two American defendants surrendered to the FBI in New York the next day. The three face multiple charges, including money laundering and fraud in a scheme prosecutors call "a brazen attempt to steal the wealth of a sovereign nation."

• September 29, 2005

  UN: Report Indicates Growth Of Foreign Investment In Southeast Europe, CIS

  A new United Nations report shows that 19 countries in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have seen four consecutive years of growth in foreign direct investment (FDI). Foreign investment in 2004 reached an all-time high of $35 billion. Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Romania, and Russia account for 81 percent of the region's FDI, with much of the CIS investment going into the oil and gas industries. The report says the investment rise is likely to continue, with southeast Europe and Ukraine seeing the largest growth.

• September 10, 2005

  U.S.: Four Years After 9/11, A Father Tries To Keep Son’s Memory Alive (Part 2)

  New York, 10 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- It's four years since 9/11 but for Herb Ouida, the years have done little to dull the pain. His voice still trembles when he recalls the day he lost his son, Todd, in the World Trade Center. Both had been at work in the North Tower -- Herb on the 77th floor and Todd on the 105th, where he was a foreign-currency-options trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. When the first passenger jet slammed into the tower, Herb somehow made it out but Todd was trapped. Herb hasn't seen his son since the morning they set out for work together. But he refuses to live in the past. When Todd was a child, he suffered severely from a panic disorder that forced him to leave school for three years of treatment in a therapy clinic. Today, Herb, who is of Arabic origin, has given up his old job as executive vice president of the World Trade Centers Association to set up the Todd Ouida Children's Foundation, created both to celebrate his son's tragically truncated life and to provide financial support for psychological services for other children who suffer from panic disorder but are from poorer families. In this second part of our three-part series on 9/11, RFE/RL speaks to Herb Ouida, and begins by asking him how he and his wife have learned to cope with the memory of that day.

• September 09, 2005

  U.S.: Volunteers Provide Shelter To Homeless Victims (Part 4)

  The devastation wrought across the U.S. Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding of New Orleans is a story of hundreds of thousands of personal tragedies. At the same time, the disaster raises the question of how a country with as many resources as the United States failed to better anticipate and cope with the scale of destruction. Yet there are also encouraging tales of courage and perseverance amid the suffering. That includes efforts by volunteers to shelter and rescue victims and help them prepare to go home again. RFE/RL visits a shelter in Baton Rouge in the fourth installment of our five-part series on the hurricane.

• September 09, 2005

  U.S.: Only The Stench Drives Survivors From New Orleans (Part 3)

  Michelle Joe’s New Orleans home was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but it was the stench of the city’s chemical- and corpse-ridden waters that finally drove her family from the legendary city. Homeless and without work, they are surviving on insurance cash and government handouts -- and sheltering in a trailer park north of New Orleans. Joe is grateful to the park’s owner, Roy Estay, but has lost hope of going home soon -- and despairs at how her family can possibly begin to rebuild their lives. RFE/RL looks at their ordeal in part three of a five-part series on Hurricane Katrina.

• September 03, 2005

  UN: High Ranked United Nations Official Is Arraigned On Money Laundering Charge

  Vladimir Kuznetsov, a Russian citizen and a former chairman of the United Nations budget advisory committee, was arraigned yesterday in New York on a charge of money laundering conspiracy. Kuznetsov was stripped of his UN diplomatic immunity on 1 September and arrested by the FBI. According to the indictment, from 2000 to about June 2005 Kuznetsov laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in criminal proceeds obtained by a co-conspirator who served as a procurement officer at the United Nations. The indictment names the officer only as a “CC-1” but further details leave the strong impression that the officer in question is Alexander Yakovlev, another UN official, also a Russian citizen, who was indicted on bribery charges and pleaded guilty less than a month ago.

• August 26, 2005

  Kazakhstan: Implications For President Appear To Be Waning As Bribery Case Drags On

  President Nazarbaev is unlikely to face charges The so-called Kazakhgate criminal case has been moving at a snail's pace through the U.S. federal court system in New York. The indictment alleges that U.S. citizen James Giffen, a former consultant to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, funneled up to $84 million in illicit payments to Nazarbaev and former Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbaev in exchange for lucrative concessions to Western oil companies. The investigation and the indictment have been a source of major embarrassment for Kazakhstan, a country considered a strategic U.S. ally in Central Asia. But in light of a third consecutive trial postponement, some experts believe Kazakhgate is gradually losing steam.

• August 05, 2005

  Central Asia: UN Comments On Resettlement Of Uzbek Refugees

  The UN’s refugee Agency – the UNHCR -- says that the permanent resettlement of Uzbek refugees who fled from the May violence in eastern Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan and who are now temporarily in Romania could take just two months. That is much less time than the six months originally expected for their relocation process.

• July 31, 2005

  UN Urges Kyrgyz Not To Return Uzbek Refugees

  Uzbek refugees in Osh before the UN-backed transfer to Romania United Nations, 30 July 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The United Nations' top human rights official has appealed to Kyrgyzstan not to hand over to Tashkent refugees who fled after Uzbek troops crushed an uprising in the east of the country in mid-May, suggesting they could face torture if they are repatriated.

• July 28, 2005

  Russia/U.S.: Bolshoi Ballet Presents Younger Troupe, Vigorous Repertoire

  Bolshoi Ballet troupe Wrapping up the first leg of its month-long U.S. tour, Russia's Bolshoi Ballet has mostly drawn rave reviews in the U.S. media. For thousands of ballet aficionados in the United States, the Bolshoi has held a special place in American dance history ever since the troupe's first U.S. tour in 1959. The Bolshoi, now led by the young and innovative choreographer Aleksei Ratmanskii, is performing in four U.S. cities after a five-year hiatus. Along with the classics such as "Don Quixote" and "Spartacus," the troupe is staging experimental works like "The Bright Stream," a Dmitrii Shostakovich ballet denounced by Stalin in 1935.

• July 08, 2005

  Bosnia-Herzegovina: Coming To Grips With The UN's Failure At Srebrenica

  As part of the United Nations commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica, a group of panelists discussed in New York yesterday the chain of grave mistakes that led to the worst mass killings in Europe since the end of the World War II. Ignorance, slow action, and erroneous political calculations, the panelists said, gave Bosnian Serb paramilitary forces in July 1995 the opportunity to slay over 7,000 Muslim men and boys after they took over the town designated by the UN Security Council as a "safe area." The massacre in Srebrenica is widely considered a major fiasco in UN peacekeeping efforts.

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