"The West will now view the Ukraine with indifference," laments the Romanian weekly Revista 22, in the immediate aftermath of the presidential election in the ex-Soviet republic. "A few years ago Kiev was regarded as an integral part of the European political architecture,” recalls editorialist Alexandru Lazescu, who says pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych’s victory over Yulia Timoshenko, the icon of the 2004 democratic uprising, "officially spells the death of the Orange Revolution and the country’s return to Moscow’s sphere of influence. Incumbent president Viktor Yushchenko and his former prime minister did everything they could to destroy the trust they had gained in Europe.” This is why “the election result was a foregone conclusion and why it got such short shrift in the Western media”. For the nonce, the EU can only note “the new strategic equation taking shape in southeast Europe” and map out a new neighbourhood policy approach.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.