I’ve had a number of people here in Romania as well as from the Republic of Moldova ask me if the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is going to spread and possibly affect them, especially as some of the local media has been drumming up the threat of an armed conflict. I’ll tell you right now what I told them: you have nothing to worry about. … Continue reading Game, Set and Match
I spent several hours yesterday and this morning in the disagreeable task of digging through the career of Victoria Nuland after the western media reported on a YouTube video of an intercepted telephone call in which Nuland and American Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey “Geoff” Pyatt are heard discussing their plans for the future of Ukraine’s government. You can read a fairly comprehensive transcript of that … Continue reading With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Living in Romania you’d never know there was a country next door called “Ukraine” that covers half of this country’s borders. Unless there’s a fistfight in the parliament* you almost never hear about what’s going on there. Lately though Ukraine’s been in the news because of the ongoing protests, boiled down in black and white as the “evil” pro-Russia government of Viktor Yanukovich versus the … Continue reading The people have spoken
If you’re like me then there’s nothing more fun than browsing through lengthy European Union documents on taxation on a Sunday morning. But yes, that’s what I was doing, all because of a report in Gandul (link in Romanian) about how this country’s excise taxes are spent. In short, Romania collects about 1.5 billion lei (or about 350 million Euros) per year on excise taxes … Continue reading Rotten to the Core
All Things Romania 