On Moday, the European Union and Ukraine finalized the negotiations on the Association Agreement. The EU-Ukraine summit reconfirmed the common ambition and commitment of both parties of a closer EU-Ukraine relation and its strategic importance.

I am tempted to write again about Russia, but will leave that to my colleague Dmitry Babich for now. My predictions for the New Year will look at what a weakened Putin might mean for Eastern Europe. But first, I should catch up on the story in Belarus, where Lukashenko signed a series of deals with Russia at the end of November that seems to have given his beleaguered regime an undeserved lifeline.

Armenia is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus. Its neighbours are Georgia in the north, Azerbaijan in the east and southwest, Iran in the South and Turkey in the West. Used to be one of the Soviet Republics, Armenia regained its independence in September 1991.

"Topol-M" and "Barnault-T" are the names of the two missile systems deployed on Russian territory in less than a month. This deployment of missiles would be anecdotic if the military activity of Russia would not be so intense over the last month.

On Monday, the EU Commissioner for the Enlargement Štefan Füle met with the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich as well with imprisoned former Prime minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. The purpose of the EU Commissioner’s visit was the preparation of the ground for the upcoming EU-Ukraine Summit on 19 December in Kiev.

In Russia's recent elections to the State Duma the ruling United Russia party won. The Russian opposition claims that the authorities falsified the results in favour of the Putin's party.

At first glance, the idea of a re-integration of the post-Soviet republics may seem sensible. The economies, societies, and populations of the successor republics of the USSR are linked to each other by a multitude of ties.