Molly Corso in Tbilisi
Mon, 7th May -- The Georgian government is moving the country's parliament over 200 kilometres from the capital Tbilisi. Officially, the new location is a bid to support development in the country's poor regions; critics charge the move is just the latest effort to stymie the types of protests that led to the Rose Revolution in 2003.

Clare Nuttall in Belgrade
Sun, 6th May -- Armenia's parliamentary election campaign ended with a bang May 4, when gas-filled balloons exploded at the ruling Republican Party of Armenia's final rally in Yerevan, injuring 114. The incident, two days before Armenians go to vote, was a dramatic ending to what has been the country's most open and vibrant campaign to date.

Clare Nuttall in Belgrade
Fri, 4th May -- Ahead of Serbia's presidential and parliamentary elections May 6, the Progressive Party is ahead of President Tadic's Democratic Party, while the margin between Tadic and Progressive leader Nikolic in the presidential race is too close to call. But the elections will likely be just the precurser to a second-round presidential vote and coalition talks.

Graham Stack in Kyiv
Fri, 4th May -- In 2011, UK shell company Highway Investment Processing became a household name for corruption in Ukraine when it sold an offshore drilling rig to a state oil company for nearly double the original purchase price. But bne can reveal this was not the first suspicious deal Highway was involved in.

David O'Byrne in Istanbul
Fri, 4th May -- In the normal state of affairs, the failure of a third successive attempt at privatising a state company would be regarded as an indication the company is unsaleable. Yet in the case of Turkey's Baskent Dogalgaz, the lesson of the failure of a third attempted privatisation on April 27 is somewhat less explicit.

Anna Kravchenko in Moscow
Fri, 4th May -- Chinese sales of cars to Russia are booming, but major problems need to be addressed if the Middle Kingdom's cars will continue to enjoy that success.

bne
Thu, 3rd May -- Driven by the government's continued commitment to fiscal discipline, Latvia finally recovered its investment grade credit rating from the last major agency, Standard & Poor's, on May 2.

Graham Stack in Kyiv
Thu, 3rd May -- Jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's hunger strike could escalate into an international crisis as she fights major new charges being brought against her, while the country prepares to host the Euro 2012 football championships in June.

Andrew MacDowall in Belgrade
Thu, 3rd May -- The surprise collapse of Romania's government on April 27 has ushered in a new period of political uncertainty that could even mark the beginning of the end for President Traian Basescu.

Liam Halligan of Prosperity Capital Management
Wed, 2nd May -- Mainstream opinion has it that "capital is quitting Russia by the bucket-load". The reality is, though, that there are many ways to interpret these numbers and, on balance, the outflow data overwhelmingly point to financial and commercial phenomena, which reflect Russia's growing economic strength.

bne
Wed, 2nd May -- Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, the winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, opened a museum April 28. Ensconced in Istanbul's Cukurcuma neighbourhood, which is known for artists, expats and antique shops, the museum celebrates the past (and Pamuk); it is likely to put already charming Cukurcuma more on the map.

Ben Aris in Moscow
Wed, 2nd May -- Investor Jim Rogers should rue the day he took on Dmitry Alimov, a 29-year-old Russian MBA student, during a talk he gave at Harvard Business School in 2003 when he disparaged Russia as a hopeless case just as the economy was starting a five-year boom. The irony is that Alimov is living testimony to the changes going on in the country.