Dick Cheney in Azerbaijan 3 months ago –
And we support the people of Azerbaijan in their efforts, often in the face of great challenges, to strengthen democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights, and to build a prosperous, modern, independent country that can serve as a pillar of moderation and stability [...]

The Wall Street Journal (subs. req’d) is reporting that Ukraine is to settle the $2 billion debt to Gazprom via loans to the public gas company Naftogaz from two state-owned banks.  As Edward explained a few days ago, the gas debt is one of the open wounds of the economic crisis in Ukraine, with many [...]

One of the top three faces that define Russia. By popular vote. Fair enough, I suppose:
The Kremlin in the Putin era has often sought to maintain as much sway over the portrayal of history as over the governing of the country. In seeking to restore Russia’s standing, Mr. Putin and other officials have stoked a [...]

Very, very worrying news from India and Pakistan. I especially don’t like all the stuff about school textbooks.
On Friday, India warned its citizens to stay away from Pakistan, claiming that they were in danger from agencies “that operate outside the law and civilian control”. Yesterday’s newspaper reports reflected increasingly frenzied war speculation. “Pak army on [...]

Cool, Europeana, the EU cultural online library, is back up again, albeit still in a test phase. On its launch in November the site was swamped with hits and crashed. Great tool if you are feeling a little escapist.
Update (hat tip Brusselsblogger): Please check out Kosmopolito’s post on Europeana.
Europeana could have developed into a true [...]

Oh yes, there is a difference of around 15 percentage points between the cost of insuring bonds against default in the countries they are respectively responsible for. But then, even in the more favoured case investors are demanding a premium which amounts to an astonishing 31 percent of the amount of debt protected.

Well, one good turn deserves another. So if, like Paul Krugman (and me, I think, though I hadn’t gotten as far as thinking through all the implications of what was happening when I posted the original piece) you take the view the Ukraine industrial output chart I put up yesterday is the smoking gun [...]

“In Ukraine, the evidence is still that policymakers do not quite understand the seriousness of the challenges they face,”. Timothy Ash, analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
“There is a burgeoning economic crisis in the European periphery,” Krugman said on the ABC network Dec. 14. “The money has dried up. That’s the new center, [...]

Well, it seems I’m not the only one who thinks that the IMF have made a bad decision over Latvia, since this year’s economics Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman seems to agree. From his New York Times blog:
I’ve been saying this for a couple of weeks, but Edward Hugh has the goods.
Hugh puts his finger, [...]

Only one thing is really clear about the Germany economy at the present time, and that is that it is shrinking rapidly. In fact it contracted far more than most analysts and observers expected in the third quarter (although I, for one, was not especially surprised), entering what now appears to be its worst recession [...]