Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from January, 2008
Latvia: Law Firm's Name Change Attempt
Can you imagine a law firm with a name like this: “Viss mainījies skaļi klusēja migla virs pļavām aiz upes un jenotiņš to sajuta tik skaidri ka aizrāvās elpa un nosvīda uz ceļgaliem rātni uzliktās ķepiņas.” Latvian authorities cannot, either, according to Latvian Abroad.
Poland: New Government's Problems
The beatroot reports: “‘Civic Platform are clueless.’ That’s what many are saying of Poland’s still fledgling government. It must be the shortest political honeymoon in history.”
Slovenia: Janša, Janša, Janša
Adventures in Wheelville writes about “the new (and rather mysterious) art group Janša, Janša, Janša, a group of artists who'd recently changed their names to that of the Prime Minister for reasons which they would not divulge to the public.”
Serbia: Belgrade's Past
Belgrade 2.0 muses on Belgrade's past and posts some old videos.
Ukraine: Tymoshenko's Ideologies
Ukrainiana is somewhat confused about Yulia Tymoshenko's position: “Here we go again, cruising the ideological avenues of the world: from solidarism to Thatcherism; from pondering membership in the Socialist International to praising Sarkozy; from advocating aggressive privatization to promoting the idea of mild government-subsidized mortgage rates. How does it all...
Serbia: Novak Djokovic Wins Australian Open
Novak Djokovic became Serbia's first Grand Slam singles champion, winning the Australian Open on Sunday. According to many people in Serbia, this year's tournament should have been renamed into Serbian Open - because three Serbian players made it into the finals. Sinisa Boljanovic translates a blog post by one happy Serbian fan.
Macedonia: Nikola Gruevski
A Fistful of Euros writes about “the Balkans’ most popular head of government” – Nikola Gruevski of Macedonia.
Israel: Relations with the Germans and Poles
Imshin, from Israel, discusses the relationship between Israelis and Germans and Poles in this post.
Poland, Ukraine: Border Crisis
Leopolis writes about the crisis at Poland's eastern border: “Traffic has come to a standstill on the Polish-Ukrainian border. Polish customs officers are on strike for the sixth day, demanding pay increases.”
Russia: “Top 5 Russia Blogs”
Siberian Light highlights “the most influential, the most interesting and sometimes the most controversial Russia blogs out there” – “in no particular order.”
Russia: Cost of Living
Sean's Russia Blog writes about different people's ideas of what the cost of living in Moscow is.
Russia: Kasyanov and Invalid Signatures
Mark MacKinnon writes about Mikhail Kasyanov's failed attempt to run for president and provides “an incomplete list of the invalid signatures phenomenon in post-Soviet elections.”
Ukraine: More on Lutsenko vs Chernovetsky
Ukrainiana writes about what looks like an escalation of the conflict between Ukraine's interior minister and Kyiv's mayor.
Ukraine: Charity
MoldovAnn writes about charity work done by missionaries and volunteers in Kyiv.
Russia: Vladimir Vysotsky
Leopolis posts a YouTube video of Vladimir Vysotsky and links to his songs’ translations.
Ukraine: NATO
Foreign Notes writes about Ukraine's parliamentary mess caused by NATO's Membership Action Plan.
Azerbaijan: Ethnic Novelist
Window on Eurasia says that a book by ethnic Azerbaijani author Eduard Bagirov is causing a stir as a best seller throughout the Russian Federation. In particular, notes the blog, Bagirov's books generally examines the “extraordinary difficulties Azerbaijanis and other non-Russians living in the Russian capital now face in trying...
Russia: Vladimir Vysotsky
Sean's Russia Blog writes on what would have been Vladimir Vysotsky's 70th birthday. Windows to Russia! provides links to translations of Vysotsky's songs. YouTube user filatovv posts a special anniversary tribute playlist of videos of Vysotsky performing in Montenegro in 1974. A 1981 video of people lining up at Vagankovskoye...
Serbia: Australian Open Finalists
Belgrade 2.0 writes poignantly and at length about “a fairytale ending; two Serbian tennis players in the finals of the Australian Open.”
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Srebrenica Child Victims
Srebrenica Genocide Blog republishes a list of child victims of the Srebrenica massacre issued by Bosnia & Herzegovina's Federal Commission for Missing Persons.
Ukraine: Tymoshenko and Bohatyryova
Dan McMinn returns to Ukraine and resumes blogging at Orange Ukraine; one of his first posts is on two Ukrainian women politicians: Yulia Tymoshenko and Raisa Bohatyryova.