Free Republic

Minsk. December 15. KAZINFORM. Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine start talks on January 1, 2005, on the whole package of documents, needed for the formation of Common Economic Space (CES), Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Sauat Mynbayev told journalists on Wednesday. Summing up the results of the 18th meeting of the high-level group for the formation of CES, held in Minsk on Wednesday, he reminded that the package included some 90 documents, reports Itar-Tass. According to his information, the draft versions of all the documents with the exception of three have been prepared for the negotiations. Twenty nine priority documents, on...

"Russian democracy ends on the border with Ukraine" is an oft-repeated maxim among the Ukrainian political elite. It was reputedly coined by Volodymyr Vynnychenko, one of the leaders of the 1918 Ukrainian national revolution, after Lenin sent the Red Army to reconquer Ukraine after the fall of the Tsarist Russian empire. In recent years, Russia has sought to revive its historical influence over Ukraine. This is closely related to the emergence of a new Russian imperial idea, which roughly coincides with the election of Vladimir Putin as president in 2000. Prior to Putin's accession, talk of Russian interference in the...

Russian bid to return to super-power status is the truly big story behind Ukraine’s rigged election. At the moment Russia is a European also-ran, a one-time giant with deteriorating clout. However, Russia, plus Ukraine, plus Belarus, plus Khazakstan is a geo-strategic formula for a global power re-born. This isn’t a new discovery. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, U.S. analysts concluded that the communist leadership would spin off the Baltic and Caucaus Soviet Union. At the same time, however, they would try to keep or link the core empire strength: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan (RUBK —...