Word: kremlin
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Russia has been the regional master for centuries and there are few signs that it is ready to stop interfering. After unsuccessfully backing Yanukovych in the 2004 election, the Kremlin repeatedly slammed Yushchenko for his attempts to join NATO and his support of Georgia during its 2008 war with Russia. Twice Moscow has turned off the gas to Ukraine amid payment disputes, as it repeatedly tried to throw a wrench in Ukraine's Western integration...
Both Tymoshenko and Yanukovych have promised to repair relations with Moscow, but that won't necessarily signal a return to the Kremlin's fold. Tymoshenko, whose support base is in the pro-European west, has pledged to steer Ukraine into the European Union within five years, while Yanukovych has recast himself as a moderate who also wants to forge closer ties with the E.U. Tymoshenko has presented a clearer agenda toward a European future and says Yanukovych will take the country back to the "Stone Age," but critics question whether she can push through unpopular but sorely needed reforms...
...Belarus, which has been having its own quarrel with Moscow over oil prices, threatening European energy supplies once again. But three weeks into the current standoff, there's been a twist: Kazakhstan, another former Soviet republic, stepped in last week to offer Belarus its own oil. Now the Kremlin's most reliable tool for controlling its neighbors - energy blackmail - is at risk of blowing up in its face...
...despite the tough position Lukashenko staked out, analysts believed that Russia would get its way in the end, as Belarus' economy and security are still deeply dependent on Russia despite improved relations with the West. Lukashenko admitted as much last month when he said that severing ties with the Kremlin - as Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has done - would bring about his "political death." (See pictures of Vladimir Putin's patriotic youth camp...
Vodka's origins are murky, but the favored legend traces its arrival in the country to Genoese merchants who traveled to Moscow in the 14th century and met with Prince Dmitry Ivanovich. Monks in the Kremlin's Chudov Monastery began distilling the first Russian spirits some time in the 15th century. Ivan the Terrible served vodka to his oprichniki - the special police force that carried out his violent and, well, terrible orders. To facilitate their drunken revelry, Ivan opened kabaks, or taverns, that served vodka and other alcohol (no food). By 1648, with Russians developing a strong taste for drink...