Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, is the longest serving minister in the country’s history. Appointed as an interim in the spring of 2014 he survived government reshuffles under President Petro Poroshenko and retained his seat under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Avakov was not an obvious candidate for political longevity, but a set of circumstances in Ukraine’s recent political history made him a golden shareholder.

The nickname of minister of everything was bestowed upon Arsen Avakov by public commentators after the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine and the formation of the first government under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Avakov was referred to as the only grown up in the government especially compared to the young, inexperienced Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, who was 35 at the time of his appointment.

With the tensions between Ukrainian institutions growing, how far is President Zelenskyy willing to go in order to avoid an unfolding constitutional crisis?

Ukraine's anti-corruption agency is facing a public image crisis at home. Changes are opposed by the West, which is focused on aiding in the fight against corruption in the country.

Questions are being asked after over a hundred days of mass protest in Bulgaria. What has been achieved and what does the future hold?

Interview with the Ukrainian investigative journalist Ihor Stakh. Interviewer: Maxim Rust.

The EU reaction to the continuing protests in Bulgaria has been quite ambiguous.

A string of scandals could signal the end of Borissov's ten year long rule.

Over the last ten years, Hungary has become a textbook example of systemic corruption and clientelism in the heart of the European Union. Yet despite the fact that EU institutions have developed a wide range of tools, they could barely curb Viktor Orbán’s regime with regards to its feudal system of corruption.
In order to understand the nature of Viktor Orbán’s regime in Hungary, it is worth reading the classic Hungarian novel Relatives by Zsigmond Móricz. Móricz tells the story about a fictional town that is a hotbed of systemic corruption and a clientelist network of provincial nobility between the wars in Hungary. After 30 years since the democratic transition, its thesis about feudal dependency applies to contemporary Hungary more than ever: “In a certain way, everybody depends on the government.”

Azerbaijan may not be on the cusp of a major reform, but developments of recent months have formed the most interesting socio-political dynamics this rather boringly-stable Caspian Republic has seen since 2003.

It is not the first time “reform” has become a buzz word in Azerbaijan. The authorities made several pledges in the past to overhaul and diversify the economy and uproot corruption – especially ahead of elections or in moments of social unrest. Yet apart from a few cosmetic changes, the system and its people remained largely intact. So when the 57-year old president recently announced a package of sweeping reforms and started replacing older officials with young technocrats, many shook their heads in disbelief, taking it as yet another empty promise aimed to pacify the public and create a façade of change.

The US Ukraine scandal has been in the news 24/7 in the United States for over a month now. Consistent with the origin of the inquiry, the focus has been more on the United States than Ukraine. This article examines a recent development in Ukraine’s fight against corruption that got lost amidst the all other Ukraine-related news.

Trump’s new scandal is damaging for both Democrats and Republicans, writes Taras Kuzio in an op-ed for NEE.

Bulgarian state institutions compete in disseminating falsehoods.