Just as Russians have been getting used to drinking excellent Georgian wine and mineral water again after a seven year embargo, their taste buds have been assaulted by new trade bans with neighbouring countries.

As the Ukrainian government steadies itself following the violent surge of protest in Kyiv, the opposition must now present a united face if it wants to achieve anything. Realistic? Annabelle Chapman wonders

For twenty years Alyaksandr Lukashenka, president of Belarus, has ruled with an iron hand, and ruined the economy; and still there is no sign of the screws loosening. Meanwhile, as Annabelle Chapman reports, his country has seen a brain drain of young talented Belarusians, many of them to neighbouring Poland.