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The fall issue of 2012, marking the first anniversary of New Eastern Europe, provides a special focus on some of the many complicated issues and relationships surrounding energy in Eastern Europe. The opening articles glimpse into the games being played in the region such as Russia’s move to focus on oil exports to China, Lithuania’s nuclear power ambitions, Ukraine’s internal tug-of-war with natural gas and the water struggles between the states of Central Asia. 

Also, after six months since being re-elected to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin and the politics in Russia continue to be an area in need of closer examination. Jadwiga Rogoża provides a detailed picture of those who Putin surrounds himself with as well as an analysis of the evolution of the Kremlin’s political vision. While Luke Harding discusses his time as a foreign correspondent in Moscow and the intimidation tactics used by the Russians against him and his family. And yet for those of us who like to believe in the overwhelming role of the KGB, Eugeniusz Smolar advises that we take a little more balanced look, as he discusses the new book by Edward Lucas of the Economist. 

This proves once again that we can’t say “boring” when it comes to Central and Eastern Europe.  In a provocative piece, Ukrainian journalist Vitaly Pornikov argues that the end of the post-Soviet system has already begun. And Paweł Świeboda, seeing in Ukraine Europe’s zone of oblivion, points to the disappointment in Brussels and that “losing Ukraine” would mean a true fiasco of the key Polish diplomatic project. British historian Kelly Hignett puts the Bulgarian underworld in the spotlight, while Jozef Banáš discusses his transition from politician and diplomat to one of Slovakia’s bestselling authors.

The history section includes the very unique story of Andriy Chaban; an average Ukrainian who, in his elder years, reveals fascinating details of his life during the Second World War where he served in three different armies and later imprisoned in the Soviet Gulag.

The review section wraps up the issue with reviews of Madeleine Albright’s new book Prague Winter and Orlando Figes’s Send Me Word as well as an exhibition on Nostalgia for East Germany and Ballet and St. Petersburg.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Opinion and Analysis

Alexandr Yakuba Oil Goes East
Linas Jegelevicius Nuclear Power Politics
Paweł Kost The Great Improvisation
Anna Cieślewska and Elwira Wysocka Water Wars
Eugeniusz Smolar Edward Lucas Strikes Back
Jadwiga Rogoża All the President’s Men
Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska Russia’s Limited Compliance
Vitaly Portnikov The Post-Soviet Collapse
Paweł Świeboda A Zone of Oblivion
Ian Hansen Avoiding a Lonely Stroll
Kelly Hignett The Wild, Wild East
Eoin Micheál McNamara Failing to Defrost the Frozen Conflicts

Interviews

A conversation with Luke Harding Strange Details: Love, loathing and the FSB
A conversation with Slovak novelist Jozef Banáš A Cosmopolitan and a European

Reports

Anna Łabuszewska First Lady Once Again
Horia-Victor Lefter Shades of Belarus

History

Andriy Chaban Beyond Fronts and Nations
Robert Kostro Vilnius: Conflict and Reconciliation

People, Ideas, Inspirations

Piotr Kosiewski Through the Lens
Mayhill Fowler A Soviet Ukrainian Star: Bohdan Stupka 1941-2012

Books and Reviews

Filip Mazurczak Memoir of a Slavic Soul
On Madeleine Albright’s Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War

William Schreiber A Federalist in Moldova
On William H. Hill’s Russia, the Near Abroad and the West: Lessons from the Moldova-Transnistria Confl ict

Annabelle Chapman From Moscow to the Gulag: A History Lesson in Love
On Orlando Figes’ Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag

Gwen Jones Coming to Terms with the Past
On Paul Lendvai’s Hungary: Between Democracy and Authoritarianism

Iwona Reichardt Hello Honni! Goodbye Lenin!
On the exhibition GDR. Stories from a vanished country, Krakow, Poland

Karolina Słowik Russian Stars Shine in Saint Petersburg.
On the XII International Mariinsky Ballet Festival and the XX Stars of the White Nights Music Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia