bne
Tue, 6th Mar -- All the brouhaha that is going to fill the newspapers for the next few months is froth to the main result of these elections: several cats have been let out of their respective bags and the Kremlin has no way of stuffing them back in.

Charles Robertson of Renaissance Capital
Tue, 6th Mar -- Either via stronger democracy or via strong political leadership, Russia could succeed in reducing corruption. If President Putin, and (presumably) Prime Minister Medvedev, can make progress on this front, it would significantly surprise sceptical investors.

Natalia Orlova of Alfa Bank
Fri, 2nd Mar -- If a second round is necessary, Putin could lean more toward an economic dirigisme, including putting privatisation on hold, increasing the tax burden and becoming less generous in social spending.

bne
Mon, 27th Feb -- Russian media are reporting that Ukrainian and Russian security services have foiled an assassination plot to kill Putin shortly after the presidential election due this weekend. If this plot is a PR stunt, then it bodes ill for Russia that the Kremlin prefers to fight its elections using fear rather than policy and persuasion.

Jesse Sherman of Renaissance Asset Managers
Wed, 22nd Feb -- Emerging European companies over the past few years have benefited from strong commodity prices, delivered positive free cash flow, shored up their balance sheets and raised dividend payouts.

Tim Gosling in Prague
Wed, 15th Feb -- When Hungarian flag carrier Malev was grounded in February, it became the fourth European airline to meet such a fate in 2012. The Visegrad region's remaining national carriers - Polish LOT Airlines and CSA Czech Airlines - are now facing an urgent search for investors at a time when those investors are hunting for bargains.

Bogdan Preda in Bucharest
Wed, 8th Feb -- The resignation of Romania's PM and his cabinet had been long planned by the president in order to give the new premier-elect, Ungureanu, time to sharpen up the image of the Democratic-Liberal Party ahead of this autumn's elections.

bne
Tue, 7th Feb -- Vladimir Putin is a changed man. Only a few months ago the Russian prime minister walked into the VTB Capital conference with an arrogant swagger that slapped you in the face. On February 2, a "New Putin" arrived to speak at the Troika Dialog Moscow Forum - a humbler man, who fumbled through a speech and subsequent discussion.

bne
Mon, 6th Feb -- Lost amid all the excitement and headlines about the Czech Republic's biggest ever tender is the simple question of whether the project to build two new nuclear reactors actually makes economic sense. Some would argue not - and have produced numbers to back that up.

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.

bne
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.