· June, 2007

Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from June, 2007

Ukraine: Lviv Coffee and Food

  29 June 2007

Olechko prepares to spend August in Lviv: in this post, she writes about the newly-discovered local coffee houses and restaurants.

Serbia: Bad TV

  29 June 2007

Time to do something about the state Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS): Anegdote is considering the options.

Russia: Sochi-2014?

  29 June 2007

Inside Krasnodar is “waiting with baited breath” for the July 4 announcement of the winner of the 2014 Winter Olympics bid: “Apparently the city of Sochi is also gearing-up for the announcement by declaring the 4th and 5th of July as holidays and preparing to have a free concert with...

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Miroslav Lajcak

  29 June 2007

Balkanizer posts a lengthy and detailed post on the legacy of the outgoing High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina: “[…] an unrefined and unedited thinking about the departure of the old High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina (Christian Schwarz-Schilling) and the arrival of new HR – Slovakian diplomat Miroslav Lajcak.”

Ukraine: A Spanish Embassy Ordeal

  29 June 2007

In an ideal world, there'd be no need for travelers to waste their time and money obtaining visas: buying a plane ticket and booking a hotel room would suffice. Tanya Kremen, a Ukrainian journalist, studies Spanish but feels that a plane ticket to Latin America costs too much. So she decided to go to Spain. She had a valid visa - unlike the two of her friends who wanted to go along. What follows is the story of their frustrating visit to the Spanish Embassy in Kyiv, posted by Tanya on her blog at Korrespondent.net.

Russia: Attic Repairs

  28 June 2007

Ruminations on Russia explains what the oligarchs’ flight from Russia may have to do with the delayed repairs of an attic at one apartment building in Moscow.

Ukraine: Kyiv Traffic Jam

  28 June 2007

Olechko gets stuck in traffic in Kyiv and discusses possible reasons for the jam with her cab driver: “[…] end of year graduation, Rada’s last meeting for the year, end of business quarter, beginning of four-day weekend!”

Croatia: Marko Perković Thompson

  28 June 2007

Illyrian Gazette and Balkan Baby write about the controversial Croatian singer Marko Perković Thompson and his recent concert in Zagreb. In the same post, Balkan Baby also writes about Tito's birthplace and football.

Russia, Belarus: Blaming Putin and Lukashenko

  28 June 2007

Adam Goodman of Being Had admits that life is tough in Belarus and Russia, but disagrees with La Russophobe‘s perspective: “[…] I refuse to believe, just as I have since I started writing about Belarus, that it is appropriate to place the blame solely on Lukashenka or Putin.”

Poland, Germany: “Stepmother of Europe”

  28 June 2007

Publius Pundit quotes from a BBC piece on the Polish-German relations and reproduces the controversial cover of the Polish weekly Wprost, featuring a computer-generated image of German Chancellor Angela Merkel breastfeeding Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and President Lech Kaczynski.

Central & Eastern Europe: Political Parties

  28 June 2007

Dr Sean's Diary fails to come up with “two or three examples of parties in CEE that might plausibly resemble the ‘radical right wing populists’ (as opposed to old-style neo-fascist or integral-national extreme right)”: “Plenty of successors to blood and soil national traditions, now somewhat tamed by post-1989 realities of...

About our Eastern & Central Europe coverage

Filip Stojanovski
Filip Stojanovski is the Central Europe editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.

Daria Dergacheva
Daria Dergacheva is the Eastern Europe editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.