EAP Think Bridge - № 2018-03 - New government of Belarus, first steps (PIC Promotion of the Intercultural Cooperation, 2018)
The traditional political calm of August in the Eastern Partnership was broken by Belarus. Firstly, with a wave of loud arrests of journalists and searches in media outlets, and later - with an unexpected reformatting of the government. How these two events are interconnected and how are they related to the upcoming elections is in the focus of this issue. Other than that, the month turned out to be rather calm for the countries of the region. Human rights issues remained on the agenda - opposition activist Ilgar Mammadov was released in Azerbaijan, and a number of illegally convicted Ukrainian citizens remain in Russian prisons and carry on their hunger strike. The top event in the Eastern Partnership foreign policy was the first ever visit of the German Chancellor to the South Caucasus. There, Angela Merkel made several statements that are important not only for Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, but also for the region as a whole. In addition, the focus of this issue is the integration of the digital markets of the Eastern Partnership countries into a single European space. Maksym Koryavets writes on Ukrainian experience in the harmonization of digital markets and recommendations that may be useful for the whole region. //// CONTENT: Armenia: Heightened political tension in Armenia // Azerbaijan: Demonstrative release of activist // Belarus: New government and pressure on mass media // Georgia's future in NATO and EU // Moldova: 27 years of Independence or Quo Vadis Moldova? // Ukraine: The final countdown in the struggle to save the Ukrainian prisoners of the Kremlin // Analytica: New government of Belarus: first steps // Harmonization of digital markets of Ukraine and EU: a bumpy road to innovative future