Bulgaria was torn apart by political turmoil as the year began. The situation looked far better in Romania, where the November 1996 elections for the first time ushered in a pro-reform team. But as the year draws to a close, the situation in the two countries appears almost to have been reversed. The year 1997 will be remembered as one in which globalisation of the economy ceased to be an abstract theory and took on concrete form, visibly affecting the lives of millions of people. In Russia Former Yugoslavia Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic's candidate Milan Milutinovic holds a comfortable lead in initial returns in the Serbian presidential elections held on December 7.
Problems are far from over, however, for the wily Yugoslav leader.
The international human rights monitor, Freedom House, says 1997 was a good year for the cause of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The year 1997 was the year in which NATO opened to the East. This process started in May, when the Alliance and Russia set up a special council to facilitate relations. The unpredictable situation of the financial markets could serve as a metaphor for most other Russian developments of 1997, particularly political ones. Russia II Three years ago, the Kremlin sent thousands of army and interior ministry troops into Chechnya, to quell the Caucasus republic's three-year old independence drive.