R U S S I A:
Bye Bye Boris
Mel Huang
The resignation of Russian President Boris Yeltsin on 31 December surprised many people throughout the world. What came as less of a surprise, however, was the host of misleading and misguided analyses of his resignation from the international press.

H U N G A R Y:
Crown Fever
Paul Nemes
Hungary's new Millennium Law has caused a stir amongst the opposition parties. A potent symbol in Hungarian history, some are now worried that the new position of the crown could lead to the country becoming a royal republic.

U K R A I N E:
Ukraine 1999:
On the threshold of change?
Sarah Whitmore
After a tumultuous year largely dominated by presidential elections, the end of 1999 didn't bring much hope of calmer waters for Ukraine in 2000. The EU's cold shoulder toward Ukraine's membership hopes at Helsinki in mid-December and last week's departure of Russian President Boris Yeltsin promise to test President Kuchma's fine balancing act between Russia and the West well into 2000. Both events warrant a look back at Ukraine's 1999.

C o n f e r e n c e    T a l k

CONFERENCE REVIEW:
Joint Conference on Corruption
Budapest, Hungary, 29 October to 6 November 1999
Michael J Kopanic Jr
At the beginning of November, a conference took place in Budapest at which academics and politicians from various disciplines attempted to wrap their heads around the phenomenon of corruption - examining both historical precedents and contemporary manifestations. Michael J Kopanic Jr was there and shares some highlights.

L e t t e r s   to   C E R

DEAR CER: Hardly Evil Randy Mott Vaknin and Smolens's cynicism of the West's intentions in Central Europe misses the mark. Sure the West wants to do business here, but is that so evil? Western aid and the process of European integration have their flaws, but they are still helping the people of Central Europe, not exploiting them.

Theme of the week: Crime and Corruption When the police states fell apart, crime soared. No surprise there. But the scale and diversity of crime and corruption in the past decade has been astounding.

CER's Regular Columnists:

ČULÍK'S CZECH REPUBLIC:
Fiasco at Czech Public Service Television
Jan Čulík
All the criticism of the lack of hard hitting, informed questioning and the lack of investigative ethos in the news and current affairs programmes on Czech (public service) Television seemed to be justified when the current thirty-year old Chief Executive of Czech TV, Jakub Puchalský, suddenly resigned on 15 December 1999.

MIORITA:
The Yuletide Collapse
Catherine Lovatt
Romania's Prime Minister was dismissed in and extraordinary and allegedly unconstitutional manner over the Christmas season. This manoeuvre could, though, only serve to destabilise the country at a critical time as it tries to establish some measure of economic prosperity.

AMBER COAST:
History Greets the New Year on the Baltic
Mel Huang
As Latvia and Lithuania entered the new year, both countries faced difficult dilemmas stemming from history. The visit of a prominent Holocaust victim and the discovery of one of the most notorious alleged perpetrators of Nazi crimes demanded a revisiting of the two countries' painful wartime occupation.

BALKAN ENCOUNTER:
The Rip van Winkle Institutions
Sam Vaknin
The West long assumed that under the upper echelons of corrupt Communist leaders, there was a mass of ordinary honest people who would propel the former Socialist countries through transition. With transition's failures, it is now becoming clear just how much Communism was a collaborative effect that transcended notions of the oppressors and the oppressed.

Kinoeye
FORGOTTEN CLASSICS:
Science Fiction of the Domestic
Iakov Protazanov's Aelita
Andrew J Horton
Protazanov's extravaganza is often labelled the first Soviet science-fiction film, and modern audiences often perceive it as being Communist propaganda. The reality is rather different, however, and if anything Aelita argues against the concerns of science fiction. Furthermore, its implicit message is decidedly anti-revolutionary.