RFE/RL BELARUS, UKRAINE, AND MOLDOVA REPORT
05.02.2013
A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova. CHECK OUT OUR LATEST WEEKLY QUIZ ON NEW U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY! For more stories on Eastern Europe, please visit and bookmark our Eastern Europe page . |
BELARUS
 Belarusian Report Blasts West For Rights Violations Belarusian authorities have compiled a report illustrating what they describe as an alarming deterioration of human rights in the Western world. Minsk says the report, the first of its kind, intends to show that rights abuses are not limited to developing nations. More  Outraged Belarusians Link Up In 'Chained Solidarity' Yet another form of dissent has sprung up in that fount of creative protest, Belarus, to express frustration with official retaliation against both an imprisoned rights campaigner and his supporters. More  HRW Warns Of Challenges To Democracy In its annual report, the U.S.-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) evaluates the human-rights situation in more than 90 countries and warns of the challenges to democracy many of them face. More  Belarusian Activist Fined For Photos With Jailed Rights Defender Another activist in Belarus has been fined for being photographed holding photos of a jailed human rights defender. More  Afghan Rise In Press-Freedom Index Afghanistan has climbed 22 places in this year's Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders "thanks to the fact that no journalists are in prison" there. More  Ukrainian Teen's 'Monster' Sighting Leads To Unique Undersea Video A Ukrainian teenager has pointed scientists half a world away to a unique bit of their own underwater footage that shows one of the sea's biggest predators in action nearly a kilometer under the surface. More A court in Kyiv has sentenced a former police general to life in prison for the murder of investigative reporter Heorhiy Gongadze. More  Zhirinovsky Pelted With Sour Cabbage In Kyiv A woman threw sour cabbage at the Russian nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky at a news conference in Kyiv. More  Russia Demands $7 Billion From Ukraine A spokeswoman for Ukraine's state oil and gas company, Naftohaz, told journalists on January 28 that Russia's Gazprom has demanded that Kyiv pay $7 billion for using less gas than promised. More  Femen Sends 'SOS Signal' To Davos Topless activists of the Ukrainian feminist movement Femen set off red smoke flares outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this week, according to a video and statement issued by the group on January 26. More  Women Catch Up With Men On Smoking Death Risks A new study says women smoking in the United States today are far more likely to die as a result of their tobacco use than they were in the 1960s. More  Kyiv Could 'Face Default' In 2013 Former Ukrainian Economy Minister Volodymr Lanovyi says the Ukrainian government faces a real danger that it could default on its foreign loans in 2013. More  Soviet Tourism Posters Of The 1930s Intourist, the Soviet travel agency, was established in 1929 to attract foreign visitors to the U.S.S.R. Using the classic elements of early communist graphic design, Intourist managed to entice tens of thousands of foreigners (many from the United States) to special tourist sites set up for them in the Soviet Union. More  Kyiv Turns To 'Unconventional' Natural Gas To Wean Itself From Gazprom Ukraine's prime minister said last week that Kyiv will sign a $10 billion shale-gas deal with oil major Royal Dutch Shell on January 24. That deal -- and a similar one that is in the works with Chevron -- is part of Kyiv's stepped-up strategy to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas. More  Explainer: How Would Possible British Exit Affect EU Foreign Policy? RFE/RL's Brussels correspondent, Rikard Jozwiak, looks at how a possible "Brexit" -- or even a looser relationship between Britain and the EU -- might affect the bloc's enlargement and foreign policy. More |
