Word: konstantin
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...brick streets of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, the meeting last week was embarrassingly overdue. The Political Consultative Committee, made up of Communist Party leaders from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Rumania and the Soviet Union, had been expected to gather in January. But Mikhail Gorbachev's predecessor, Konstantin Chernenko, was too ill to travel then, and indeed died only a few weeks later. By contrast, Gorbachev impressed his Warsaw Pact comrades with the vitality and ease of command he has demonstrated in the Soviet Union. When the two days of secret talks at the foot of Mount Vitosha...
...company, agreed to a $500 million price hike. Ukraine gets more than 75% of its natural gas from Turkmenistan and Russia, and many Ukrainians saw the hand of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who opposed Yushchenko's election, in the sudden price increase. "The empire strikes back," says political analyst Konstantin Bondarenko, "but Putin does it by proxy to show Ukraine its place." The Kremlin had no comment. Yushchenko, who's expected to be sworn in later this month, has also avoided the issue, but he did reiterate his pledge to create a modern free-market economy, even as Ukrainians...
...path to power has been nothing short of stunning, but heading a loose opposition coalition and ruling a riven nation are very different jobs. Konstantin Bondarenko, director of Kiev's Institute of National Strategy and one of Ukraine's most prominent political analysts, already expresses doubts about Yushchenko's team, which he says is squabbling openly. One important crony, Yuliya Tymoshenko, made her millions in energy and has been accused by both the Russian and Ukrainian authorities of bribery and embezzlement. (Tymoshenko says the allegations are political smears.) She is sniping at Petro Poroshenko, who made his millions...
...Going Down RUSSIA Not even a bailout offer from a consortium led by ex-Yukos official Konstantin Kagalovsky could reverse a slide in the oil giant's stock. As court bailiffs threatened to sell its core asset, Yuganskneftegaz, to recoup $3.4 billion in back taxes, the prospect of bankruptcy loomed too large...
...shield that would render Moscow's nuclear missiles "impotent and obsolete." Whether or not the U.S. could build such a Star Wars shield was less important than the Soviets' knowledge that they themselves never could. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) quickly became an obsession of the Soviet leadership. Konstantin Chernenko and Mikhail Gorbachev tried to derail it through propaganda and arms control. But Reagan steadfastly refused to give...