The International Monetary Fund's board this week signed off on a $17 billion bailout for Ukraine with its economy weakened by months of upheaval and a stand-off with Russia.

• May 2, 2014

by Dr. Radu Dudau, director of the Energy Policy Group Bucharest (EGF Information Partner)

Romania’s most important foreign energy policy project, the Nabucco gas pipeline, collapsed in June 2013 as the rivaling TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) won the bidding for transporting Azerbaijani gas to the EU. Hence, the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) will link the Caspian Basin to Southern Italy via Turkey, Greece, Albania, and the Adriatic Sea. Shah Deniz consortium’s choice was predominantly commercial, yet it came to the detriment of Eastern Europe’s strategic necessities. But, although left with no large scale international project, Romania keeps significant options to improve its energy security on the medium term. This paper reviews Romania’s prospective new sources –internal and external – of primary energy. READ MORE

• May 2, 2014

Japan will conduct a military exercise this month to practice defending an island, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday, underscoring concern about East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China.

• May 1, 2014

Russia staged a huge May Day parade on Moscow's Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era on Thursday, with workers holding banners proclaiming support for President Vladimir Putin after the seizure of territory from neighboring Ukraine.

• May 1, 2014

Pro-Russian rebels shot down two Ukrainian helicopters on Friday, killing two crew, as troops tightened their siege of separatist-held Slaviansk and Moscow accused Kiev of launching a "criminal" assault that wrecked hopes of peace

• May 1, 2014

Issue # 14
04/21/2014
Over the last week, pro-Russian activists in the east of Ukraine continued armed seizures of buildings. In particular, the separatists stormed and seized the city police department in Horlivka (Donetsk Region), with several injured reported. The protesters put up a Russian flag on the building. READ MORE

• May 1, 2014

Holding drills on Ukraine's border and sending bombers to the edge of NATO airspace, Russia's newly reformed military is in just the kind of regional confrontation it was redesigned for, experts say.

• April 30, 2014

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed the United States and European Union on Tuesday for imposing sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis, saying they were the work of weak politicians in the West "attempting to blame others."

• April 30, 2014