Ivan Tchakarov of Renaissance Capital
Wed, 1st Feb -- Renaissance Capital chief economist Ivan Tchakarov met with opposition leader and famous blogger Alexey Navalny, and gives his personal impressions on someone who could end up as the next Russian president.

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Tue, 31st Jan -- The Chinese celebrated the start of the "Year of the Water Dragon" on January 23, which suitably suggests we are in for a year of fiery courage or a bit of a damp squib, depending on which element prevails.

Sandy Gill in Sofia
Fri, 27th Jan -- With shale gas a controversial topic in and beyond Europe, Bulgaria has made up its mind rather abruptly which side of the argument it's on - at least for now. So why an outright ban? Politics rather than statesmanship is the answer.

John Casey of HSBC
Thu, 26th Jan -- While the economic picture remains gloomy in Europe, international trade is a key driver of Europe's success story in the future.

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Mon, 16th Jan -- There are four burning questions to be answered in 2012. The first and most important is: will Prime Minister Vladimir Putin allow a second round in the March presidential election?

Roland Nash of Verno Capital
Fri, 13th Jan -- 2012 is shaping up to be a year of change in Russia. Both the economic and the political models that have underpinned the country for a decade have stopped working. Inside, we lay out our top-10 trends to watch for 2012.

Plamen Monovski, CIO of Renaissance Asset Managers
Tue, 20th Dec -- We hope you enjoy this special edition of Renaissance Asset Manager's "Friday RAM" report, which peers, tongue-in-cheek, into some unexpected occurrences in 2012. It mixes the wacky with the serious, the probable with the impossible, leaving it to you, the Reader, to spot which one is which.

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Tue, 13th Dec -- The white ribbons that the protestors were sporting is an appropriate colour, as this revolution won't have the colour of the street battles in Minsk or Wall Street; it will be fought online and in speeches couched in the terms of moderation and insistence. But the ball is in the Kremlin's court now.

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Mon, 12th Dec -- Much like travelling westwards on the rundown railway network in much of the former Yugoslavia, the political journey of the region towards the EU is proving to be a long, frustrating and exhausting one. But at least the Croatian passengers have finally made it all the way to Bruxelles-Central/Brussel-Centraal.

Timothy Ash of RBS
Mon, 5th Dec -- Exit polls following parliamentary elections held in Russia this weekend shows the ruling United Russia (UR) party of Vladimir Putin has suffered a humiliating defeat, with the party seeing its share of the vote drop from over 64% in the 2007 election to between 46% and 48%.

Stephen Jennings of Renaissance Capital
Mon, 5th Dec -- The outlook for the global economy has rarely been more uncertain, but this crisis is different in one dramatic way to previous boom-busts; the outcome should result in a radically different global economic order.

Markus Jaeger of DB Research
Thu, 1st Dec -- None of the BRIC can at present aspire to major reserve currency status given global forex reserves worth $10 trillion. Only the Chinese renminbi yuan has the potential to become a major, albeit not the dominant, reserve currency by 2030.