In the Czech Republic, hospitals in regions badly hit by COVID-19 are on the brink of capacity.
EPA-EFE
Eastern European countries are making the same mistakes now as western European countries did in the spring.
Worshippers attend an outdoor mass in Prague.
EPA/Martin Divisek
Lauded as a success story during the first wave, the country is now struggling with an explosion of cases.
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko takes the oath of office during an unannounced inauguration ceremony Sept. 23 in Minsk.
Andrei Stasevich\TASS via Getty Images
Has Europe’s last dictator finally gone too far?
EPA/Janos Philip
The Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria all showed early signs of success but have since seen their COVID-19 cases rise.
Victor Orban: Hungary’s prime minister.
Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
Fighting populism requires us to recognise its embeddedness in business elites. Viktor Orbán’s regime is a case in point.
Deploying riot police to suppress peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Belarus turned more people against the country’s autocratic leader.
AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File
Pres. Lukashenka of Belarus has stayed in power for 26 years by being a master tactician. But he has seriously mishandled opposition protests, says a Belarus-born scholar of Eastern European politics.
Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev on a visit to Beijing in 2019. Now China and eastern Europe are going separate ways.
How Hwee Young/EPA
After a decade of cooperation, central and eastern Europe increasingly sees China as a threat.
EPA/Antonia Bat
Death rates are low in the region but this has largely gone ignored.
A trainload of expelled ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia arrives in Bavaria, Germany, after World War II.
dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
After World War II ended in Europe, millions of ethnic Germans faced an uncertain future. The political repercussions of their expulsion continue even today.
EPA/Zoltan Mathe
The government now has the power to do whatever it deems necessary to manage the crisis, effectively for an unlimited period of time.
Supporters of the anti-Islam party Pegida attend a rally in Copenhagen on January 19, 2015.
Juliane Lydolph/AFP
The perception of an immigrant threat in Europe is often thought to be driven by rising numbers of asylum seekers, but research indicates that political and media discourses are often the driving factor.
A ferris wheel in the deserted town of Pripyat, Ukraine.
EPA/Helmut Fohringer
The HBO series ‘Chernobyl’ has reignited interest among tourists to visit Pripyat, but growing up in the disaster’s shadow has made us wary.
People gather in the streets in Vilnius, Lithuania to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the country’s statehood.
(Facebook)
While many countries across Eastern Europe celebrate 100 years since they were born or restored as nation-states after the First World War, not everyone in these states are celebrating.
Because male migrants earn more money to send back home than females, families in some post-communist countries are strongly tempted to use sex-selective abortion to improve their lives.
Johann Walter Bantz/Unsplash
Breeding young men for export has never been a successful economic development strategy. Policies that improve local labour market opportunities could increase the status of women.
Pro-Europeans protest against the rulling coalition Social Democrat Party (PSD) next to the Romanian Atheneum during the ceremony of taking over the Presidency of EU Council in Bucharest January 10, 2019.
Daniel Mihailescu/AFP
With Romania at the helm of the EU, many fear that there’s a bumpy ride ahead. But there’s no need to worry (too much).
Turin, 2005.
Paco Serinelli/AFP
City decline is neither a fatality nor an urban nightmare. It can even be the background to a resilience strategy.
Viorica Dăncilă is seen as a puppet PM.
EPA/Robert Ghement
Romania is leading the European Council for six months. But its government has been dogged by corruption scandals and judicial overreach.
Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia, Bulgaria, painted overnight on February 24 2014 by unknown activists in solidarity with anti-Russian protests in Ukraine.
Wikimedia Commons
The Soviet programme of building war memorials in Eastern Bloc countries was a bid to win the hearts and minds of future generations.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
Croatia lost to France but has won unprecedented public exposure.
What’s there to smile about? Babchenko at his press conference resurrection.
EPA/Sergey Nuzhnenko
A stunning feat of security service showmanship speaks volumes about Ukraine’s abject state of decay.