BULGARIA “I back and will do back the unpopular measures of the rightist government if there are grounded and everything around them is clear – what, why and how. The report and discussions today are not a zeal for an alternative but for establishing a consolidated position. We lack enough …

RUSSIA Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Friday welcomed a decision by the United States to scrap plans for a missile defense shield but called on President Barack Obama to make further gestures to improve ties. Putin, Russia’s most powerful politician who now serves as prime minister, said Washington’s decision to …

RUSSIA Russian diplomacy is worried about involving Burgas – Alexandroupolis gas pipeline project in the electioneering in Greece. Last week leader of the Greek socialists Georgios Popandreu stated that if PASOK come to power in Greece it will reconsider the agreement on the gas pipeline, because it serves to Russian …

RUSSIA Nato’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called for a new strategic partnership with Russia. In his first major foreign policy address as Nato chief, Mr Rasmussen called for a “joint review” with Moscow of global security challenges. He was speaking in Brussels the day after the US announced …

ALBANIA Albania should take extra measures to stop the politicization of the elections process in the country, says a statement of the Swedish EU presidency, DPA reports. The statement acknowledges that the Balkan country has registered serious progress in its elections system but local authorities should carefully study the final …

ROMANIA Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc said Friday he asked Education Minister Ecaterina Andronescu to cancel the order she passed recently entitling her to replace and appoint school principals, and said he would dismiss her if the act is applied.

MACEDONIA Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki commented on the talks with Greece and remarked that Macedonia has a constructive approach and expressing country’s position on the issue will not hamper the work of name dispute mediator Matthew Nimetz.

MACEDONIA Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki leaves Friday on an official visit to the Vatican, local media report. The minister will make an official invitation to Pope Benedict XVI to visit Macedonia. The invitation is sent by Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov and under the protocol it has to be handed …

MACEDONIA Although political parties deny it, the atmosphere in the country indicates that Macedonians could be heading to the polls soon, political analysts say. The ruling centre-right VMRO-DPMNE, which instigated and won the 2008 snap election, could again catch the opposition Social Democrats, who are is in the midst of …

BiH NATO has successfully completed its Joint Endeavour 2009 exercise, conducted in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina over the past fortnight. “Joint Endeavour brings Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to NATO,” Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz reported on Friday. Speaking at the closing ceremony in the town of Banja Luka on Thursday afternoon, …