Will Russia's political tradition of personalised autocracy allow Putin's survival strategy to succeed? An analysis in Bulgarian

After trying to resolve Kosovo's status, diplomats have given up. The U.S and the EU now need to back the compromise proposed by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari and re-affirm the region's European trajectory.

Putin?s grand plan may not yet be clear, but most of the likely variants now hinge on how he will use the mandate from Sunday?s election to stage-manage the next vote in March.

The wind seems have gone out of the Bush administration's Iran balloon. But air has been seeping out since the IAEA report in mid-November.

Whatever the electoral outcome, Putin wins. But this time, the manner of the Russian strongman?s victory will undermine not only Russian democracy; but the credibility of Europe?s democracy-promotion.

There?s a real risk that, in the weeks between now and Christmas, the EU will face violence in either Kosovo, where 15,000 European troops underwrite security, or Lebanon where 8,000 Europeans have made up the backbone of the UN peace force.

The EU delegation has prepared an unusually full agenda for the annual EU-China Summit. However, there is a real danger they will go home empty-handed, and the Chinese will hijack the event to lecture about Taiwan and the Dalai Lama.

The EU and NATO have a new opportunity to collaborate in ways that would help both organizations deal with fragile and failing states. But it will require practical steps to overcome ideological opposition to greater cooperation.

The new Ukrainian parliament finally assembled on Friday, 23 November, almost two months after the elections. It then immediately adjourned until Thursday 29 November. An update on Ukraine's complex political developments.

Since it was first mooted in the summer, the Sarkozy proposal for a new round of arguments about the future of Europe has been met with growing consternation.