The Ukrainian Prime Minster, Mykola Azarov, has resigned from the government. This move is the first major political victory of the Ukrainian protest movement against the government of President Yanukovich, but it unlikely to defuse the crisis. After all the violence associated with the protests, the opposition is not likely to accept any outcome other than the end of the Yanukovich government. In the meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the European Union not to intrude upon Ukrainian internal affairs.
The Turkish Central Bank has raised interest rates to very high levels in an attempt to restore confidence in the Turkish currency after its rather precipitous decline in recent days. The increases were far greater than most economists had expected, and it achieved the desired effect of stabilizing the lira, the Turkish currency. However, the interest rates will almost certainly throttle economic activity in the country over the next few months, and an economic decline could bring greater instability in the long run. Turkey is desperately trying to forge a path between short- and long-run imperatives.
Japan is not the only country rethinking its military policy in the face of a more restrained US presence in world affairs: Germany is also thinking about changing its postwar policy. The rethinking does not reflect the views of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who is more likely to prefer a more subdued role for Germany. But Germany, like all other European states, is well aware of the power vacuum that is being generated by the US’s move toward a less ambitious foreign presence.
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