Starting today with Georgia, and followed by Ukraine and Lithuania, parliamentary elections in Europe's east are revealing the tenuous nature of democracy and sovereignty in countries once entrapped by Soviet-era Moscow.
Among the top priorities that Russian President Vladimir Putin
set for his third presidential term is the reintegration of former
Soviet republics – based on tighter economic links and culminating in a
political and security pact centered around Russia. Moscow seeks to create a new Eurasian Union that will balance the European Union in the West and China in the East.
