This weekend's announcement that Vladimir Putin will stand for the Russian presidency next year is a clear defeat both for Russia's liberals and for the EU's policy of tacitly supporting Medvedev. What will Putin's third term mean for relations between Moscow and Brussels?

After a deep recession, an impressive recovery and years of fractious relations with its Russian-speaking minority, Latvia might be on the brink of breaking free from the problems that have dogged its politics since independence. The country's elections last week might have gone largely unnoticed in the outside world, but they could trigger a mini-revolution. 

Albania is politically paralysed by a stand-off between prime minister and opposition. The EU must act decisively to prevent the country becoming a small enclave dominated by illiberal politics and bureaucratic dysfunctionality.

On 24th August 1991, Ukraine declared itself independent. Andrew Wilson, who was in Kiev learning Ukrainian at the time, assesses where the country stands two decades on.

With Russia's next presidential election scheduled for next March, the important question for Europe is not "More Medvedev or Putin 2.0?" It is whether its giant Eastern neighbour can modernise, and avert the threat of  “Brezhnevisation” – political stagnation without economic reform.