Apologies if this blog post title reminded you of an obscure 1986 Tommy Lee Jones film featuring a sleek black car with a red stripe, Black Moon Rising. For some years now, the Greater Black Sea region has been attracting the interest of the Great Powers, and I expect it to rise further in prominence… [Read more]

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s been trouble in Moldova and Georgia of late. The reason that both small ex-Soviet states have erupted onto your TV screens (and Risk Watchdog) this week is that both have seen crowds of 10,000+ angry citizens take to the streets of their respective capital cities to protest against their… [Read more]

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the rising threat of strikes and demonstrations in Emerging Europe. Business Monitor International (BMI) has long raised a number of structural problems in the region – endemic corruption, nepotism and flawed election procedures. However, with unemployment set to rise, the erosion of real wealth and governments’ perceived mismanagement of… [Read more]

If you think emerging Europe currencies have run their course to the downside, take another look at the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). This being the only European sub-region dominated by dollar pegs, monetary authorities for the most part have only recently succumbed to mounting fundamental pressures. While the Ukrainian hryvnia, Russian rouble and Georgian… [Read more]