Eastern Bloc

Twelve former presidents of East Europe and representatives of former dissident movements have gone to Bucharest for a conference marking and celebrating the 25th anniversary of the fall of communism.

...

Twenty-five years since the overthrow of the Communist regime, Romania is to elect a President who was never affiliated whatever to the former ruling Communist Party.

...

Herta Strossberger, the former lover of Stjepan Djurekovic, the dissident who was murdered in Germany in 1983, testified at the murder trial in Munich on Tuesday that he told her that he was worried that he could be kidnapped by the Yugoslav security agency, UDBA.

...

BELGRADE - German Ambassador to Serbia Heinz Wilhelm has said that the fall of the Berlin Wall helped unite not only Germany, but Europe as well, adding that he hopes Serbia will soon become a member of the EU.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta hailed the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on his Facebook page on Sunday.

Swept along by the excitement as the Berlin Wall was torn down, former top Soviet officials now say, 25 years on, they feel stabbed in the back by the West.
      
Igor Maximychev watched with trepidation from the Soviet embassy in Berlin as East Germans streamed towards the Wall the night it came down.        

The head of the Representation Office of the European Commission (EC) in Romania, Angela Filote said that a "general mobilization" of the European Union is needed in order to get out of the crisis, with restoring the citizens' confidence, adding that the best time to test solidarity is "in hard times."

Poland’s last Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski has passed away at the age of 90, after years of ailing health.

Jaruzelski will be remembered with introducing martial law in 1981 and ordering the arrest of trade union Solidarity’s leader Lech Walesa. The martial law lasted for 2 years, amidst rising political opposition in the country.

Thirteen people running at May 25 European elections were part of Bulgaria's Communist-era State Security (DS), the Files Committee has announced.