Graham Stack in Moscow
Wed, 16th May -- Pundits began writing off Dmitry Medvedev's future, and worrying about the fortunes of his professed liberal reform agenda for Russia, as soon as he agreed to step down as president to allow Vladimir Putin to return. However, media reports suggest the new prime minister is due to cram the cabinet full of allies, whilst conservative statist figures are to be shown the door.

Julia Reed in Moscow
Wed, 16th May -- It's Moscow's answer to Wall Street's Zuccotti park: Muscovites are camping out at Chisti Prudy park in what they are calling "Occupy Abai", the latest stage in the standoff between the Kremlin and the nascent protest movement.

Graham Stack in Kyiv
Tue, 15th May -- Whilst Greece is at the centre of a storm depressing stock markets across the globe, the Ukrainian bourse has fallen harder and faster this month than its peer in Athens following a collapse on May 14. Analysts suggest that low liquidity is exasperating the effect of global and regional triggers.

Tim Gosling in Prague
Tue, 15th May -- Just a couple of weeks after it hammered another nail into Nabucco's coffin by announcing it's ready to unload its stake in the grand European gas pipeline project, Hungarian energy firm Mol is looking at a cut price entry into rival southern energy corridor project South East European Pipeline (SEEP), according to reports on May 14.

Mike Collier in Riga
Wed, 16th May -- Demographic trends across the CEE region suggest that like the other dominant resource of developed economies - oil - the time to worry about shortages at both ends of the supply chain is already here, and nowhere provides a better example of the looming crisis than Latvia.

Tim Gosling in Prague
Mon, 14th May -- PGNiG is proposing to merge its five exploration service units and list them on the Warsaw Stock Exchange as it seeks to raise cash to fund its shale gas push. The plan also suggests the state-controlled firm is keen to prevent foreign investors from having too great an influence in the country's development of its unconventional gas reserves.

Sherelle Jacobs in Cologne
Mon, 14th May -- "Economics, politics and personalities are often inseparable," an American businessman-turned-state-governor once said. Entanglements between these three forces have seemed even more pronounced than usual in the stand-off between the German and Ukrainian governments over the latter's treatment of its former PM Tymoshenko.

Sergei Kuznetsov in Minsk
Fri, 11th May -- Belarus is ready to embark on the process of selling the country's state-run banks, starting with Paritetbank, the smallest of the four state-owned lenders, the governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, Nadezhda Ermakova, tells bne.

Bogdan Turek in Warsaw
Fri, 11th May -- Union membership may be on the wane in Poland, once famed for its Solidarity union that was instrumental in the toppling of communism. But this summer's Euro 2012 football championships are providing a useful backdrop for labour protests against the government's attempt to restructure the pension system and other reforms.

Viktor Nossek of Renaissance Asset Managers
Fri, 11th May -- With the years of out-of-control inflation finally behind Russia and oil prices at levels that are pushing up real incomes, Russians are saving more and more. Since 2007, ruble deposits have been growing at an annualized rate of 25% on average as households grew more confident in sticking with such accounts.

Tim Gosling in Prague
Thu, 10th May -- Struggling to find the cash to fund its ambitious bid to expand the country's nuclear power capacity, Czech power group CEZ said on May 9 that it will launch a tender to select a strategic partner to help it with the €8bn project to build two new units at the Temelin nuclear plant. The announcement will have bidders on the construction contract scrambling.

Alfa Bank
Thu, 10th May -- The Russian parliament has confirmed Dmitry Medvedev as the new prime minister, but the composition of the cabinet is not expected to be announced until May 14. We expect this announcement to be crucial to offset the negative implications of the recent protest activity, which is a risk for Russia's investment case.