The Estonian Secret Services: Established Despite KGB Interference

On 19 September 2008, Estonian Defence Ministry adviser Hermann Simm and his wife travelled to a small town near Tallinn to pick up a three-kilogram cake that Simm had ordered for his mother-in-law’s birthday from a local shopping centre. When they came out of the shop carrying their purchases, neither noticed the black Volkswagen minibus - or the ambulance positioned just around the corner, there in case Estonia’s most wanted traitor should put up resistance, have a heart attack or take a capsule of poison.

Beware the Referendum in the Hands of a Tyrant

This short insight into the history of direct democracy might serve all those Ukrainian democrats who want to prevent the plebiscitairian and bonapartistic scenarios

Does a “Sorry” Make Sense?

Apologising for past events in history has become an explosive issue around the world. Should statesmen take personal responsibility for events that happened long before they were born?

Inactivity Leads to Hell

The first quarter of this year has some remarkable dates. The way people, the media and politicians treat them is an interesting indicator of a society’s moral and political state.

How Europe Got to Know About Kopanky

With coal deposits everywhere in the small town of Snizhne, kopanka owners bribe for licenses and fake signatures - all to start mining coal right in someone's garden or under the local cemetery

The Toothless Hag

The notion that a foreigner would want to learn Ukrainian is beyond the comprehension of the majority of Kyiv residents. Why waste your time? Why stop to such a level? After all, don’t you see that she’s a toothless hag!?!

I have heard so many promises from Yanukovych over the past years that have turned out to be doublespeak

Hanne Severinsen, PACE co-Rapporteur in 1995-2008, tells The Ukrainian Week about her opinion of the EU-Ukraine summit outcome

I would be very surprised if Ukraine managed to accomplish all the tasks 100%

Amanda Paul, Policy Analyst and Programme Executive at the European Policy Centre, talks to The Ukrainian Week about the results of the February 25 Ukraine-EU summit in Brussels

Help Put Human Traffickers Out of Work

Ukraine has traditionally been a country of origin and transit, but lately it is increasingly a destination country for trafficked men, women and children.

Does Russian Democracy End Where the Gas Pipeline Begins?

And excellent orator and Ukrainophile, Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov claims that Ukraine's gas transit system is not that important as an element of the state's independence and energy security. He seems to forget, though, that it secures not only the transit but also the delivery of natural gas across Ukraine and has underground storage facilities that can be used to store imported gas, as well as that extracted domestically