At the other end of the scale are former Soviet countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
Indeed, Russia is doing no worse than average among former Soviet countries, to say nothing of the developing world.
Slovene banks borrowed money abroad cheaply, and bought up branches of banks in former Yugoslav countries like Serbia and Montenegro.
The mood in the former satellite countries of eastern Europe is bleak.
The chief Russian statistician, Vladimir Sokolin, backed Mr Gref's assertions by saying that Russia was entering "the stage of tough competition for immigrants with European and former USSR countries".
You even get a little exposure to former Soviet bloc countries like Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Much of what is smuggled through Syria into Iraq is equipment manufactured in former Soviet bloc countries, he said.
Led by former third world countries who are making their presence felt.
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U. member, one wonders if Poland and other former Eastern Bloc countries have really turned the corner in economic development and conducting business.
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Living in post-Franco Spain, along with his visits to former Eastern Bloc countries like Hungary and Romania, taught him something about dictatorships in transition, he says.
Russia has been granted a special consultative status with NATO, but Yeltsin failed to convince the Atlantic alliance to rule out future membership for former Soviet bloc countries.
The idea of applying these fracing techniques to Europe is appealing, especially in Eastern and Central Europe, where the former Soviet bloc countries still largely depend on imported natural gas from Russia for domestic consumption.
The Kremlin is especially upset over plans to install components of the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, both former Soviet Bloc countries that are now members of NATO and the European Union.
On 30 September, President Yeltsin reportedly sent a letter to France, Germany, Britain and the United States warning against the admission of any former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO under present circumstances and proposing instead a joint guarantee of Eastern Europe's security.
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With a grant of USD34.000 the project "Advocacy for Access to Knowledge: copyrights and libraries" will work with networks of library consortia, mainly in former Soviet Union countries to raise awareness, build capacity, expertise and resources in current copyright issues and identify how they relate to the application of ICTs.
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The EIB also provides loans to projects in neighbouring "pre-accession" countries such as those of former Yugoslavia, and "neighbourhood" countries such as those in north Africa.
Her organisation helps reunite former migrants living in countries such as Australia with their relatives.
The OSCE consists of the United States, Canada, all European countries and former Soviet republics in central Asia.
Both countries are former Soviet satellites which now belong to the NATO alliance.
Another source might be Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet-block countries, which have plenty of helicopters, but have so far offered few of them.
The Pentagon hard-liners think this attitude underestimates the Iraqi people and note that some former Soviet-bloc countries made the transition in a matter of months.
The concern is that if the euro zone unraveled, the Gateshead facility could be overwhelmed with requests from former euro-zone countries to print their national currencies, the person said.
During his seven years in office, Mr Katsav confined himself largely to speaking up for the interests of the Jewish state abroad on his many foreign tours - including to former fascist-ruled countries like Austria and Croatia.
Launched in 2008, this project is funded by the European Commission and implemented by UNESCO to increase media accountability in South-East European countries which aims at accelerating media reforms in EU candidate countries namely Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey and in EU potential candidate countries namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244).
UNESCO: All Events | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
It may be necessary for unfortunate countries to promise former dictators safety at home.
Russia, he thinks, should be tougher with countries of the former Soviet Union.
In some southern African countries, half of new mothers could soon die of AIDS. Epidemics are emerging in China, India, eastern Europe and countries in the former Soviet Union.
France is the former colonial power of many countries in west and central Africa and it maintained a close relationship with most local administrations, even those not always popular with the people.
Some countries in the former East Bloc are further along in their democratic transitions than others (as we are seeing today in Ukraine) and Romania's young democracy is still a work in progress.
Putin's promise to scrap visas was seen as crucial to his country's prospects of winning the vote as nationals of almost all countries outside the former Soviet Union require the paperwork to visit Russia.
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