Eastern Europe watches nervously as America improves relations with Russia Edward Lucas When he returns home, a routine task in President Barack Obama's in-box will be to proclaim the third week of July "Captive Nations Week". Established by Congress in 1959 to show American solidarity with countries trapped inside the Soviet empire, it amounts nowadays to little more than a press release and a couple of parties. But it echoes a decades-old American commitment to the region's freedom and security, sealed by NATO's expansion to include 12 ex-communist countries.
From The Economist print edition, July 9th 2009. It is available in its entirety at Mr Lucas blog,
http://www.edwardlucas.blogspo... 