FOR weeks he played all sides and avoided throwing his clout in any one direction in eastern Ukraine’s simmering conflict. Now Rinat Akhmetov (pictured), the country's richest man, who has long run the Donbass region like his own feudal estate, has made his choice. On May 19th he released a video in which he criticised the separatist leaders of t...

MUCH of Serbia, Bosnia and eastern Croatia are under water. Flood maps marking the affected areas make it look as though a vast inland sea has suddenly appeared across the region. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. In Serbia some 300,000 do not have access to clean water or electricity. One third of Bosnia, an area that is home to...

IN ONE week Ukrainians are to vote in a presidential election scheduled for May 25th. Developments on the ground have left people wondering if the past few days have been the calm before the storm—or whether both sides, uncertain about what to do and unable to muster enough force to prevail, have reached a stalemate. In one dramatic development t...