Inept management and inconsistent policies have caused disappointment among an Armenian civil society eager for reform.

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.

The reforms of Georgia's electoral system are entering a crucial phase as they have to be completed no later than six months before the elections.

Armenia may choose to draw on the legacy of its own long history, as opposed to the Soviet legacy narratives. Doing so will help the country through institutional development and reforms.

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.

How does the civil society drive Ukraine’s Euro-integration? To which extent are the NGO-coalitions powerful on influencing policy- and decision-making? What are some recent examples of civil society’s influence on the implementation of reforms?

In the last five years since the start of the war in Donbas, a new wave of civic engagement has risen in the post-industrial city of Sievierodonetsk. Now the civil society has to learn how to co-operate with city officials and between themselves.

In the spring of 2014 a large part of the Donbas region fell into the hands of Russian-supported separatists. Since then, the city of Sievierodonetsk became the new capital of the Ukrainian-controlled Luhansk region. It is located just 30 kilometres away from the border which separates Ukrainian-controlled territory with the separatist-held self-declared republics supported by Russian forces.

The institution-building process in Ukraine has been complicated and remains incomplete. Incorporating best business practices and finding new people dedicated to transform Ukrainian state institutions could go a long way as Ukraine seeks to strengthen itself.

Contrary to widely assumed western opinion, Ukraine is not pursuing decentralisation because the West tells it to, but because she has herself decided to do so. The reform helps combatting corruption and protecting Ukraine’s national sovereignty. Moreover, decentralisation practices in Ukraine can, in the future, become models for the entire post-Soviet space.

Ukraine is continuing the process of establishing democratic civilian control over the security and defence sector.

The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine celebrates its centennial anniversary, and so does its president, Borys Paton, who turns 100 on November 27th 2018. Appointed to this position in 1961, Paton, referred to recently as the “Perpetum mobile” of Ukrainian science, has ruled the Academy for 57 years. Celebration events for the Academy’s anniversary are scheduled for early December. But there may be not much to celebrate, other than the date itself.

If birth rates in Russia do not rise, though, the painful reforms will be for nothing