Thanks for all the feedback. On visuals – I’ve been extremely nervous about using pictures because I haven’t really known where I can find ones available for use. Thanks for the suggestion.

When I actually get my new site set up, I plan to have a page of background on each of the countries I’m writing about and a page about me.

I’ve been to Ukraine, but never Georgia or Kyrgyzstan. I’m hoping to point out how similar the situation is in each of these countries that are still dealing with the collapse of the Soviet Union and torn between a desire to join the West and to stick with Mother Russia. Moldova’s been going through a lot of the same issues as well.

Thanks for the advice about giving a clear picture without bogging people down with specifics. Good call. I’ll see what I can do with my new page by Wednesday.

Liza instructed me to comment on this blog rather than the new one, but I’ll include some comments on that one as well.

I’m impressed that you picked such an underreported topic. As such, average readers like myself will probably have a hard time picking up on what your articles address. Have you found any sites out there that give a good general background of these countries, indexed and easily navigable? The thing that comes to my mind is The Economist’s web site, where links to country-by-country profiles are provided in the margins of world news articles.

Aside from this, pictures! I’m not sure what is fair game out there and what is not, but I’d bet there are some travelogue or State Department photos you could add that would really draw readers into the stories.

The post I enjoyed the most was the one titled “Many worry Kosovan independence to inspire separatists,” from Friday. I think you did a good job contextualizing the article, highlighting why this matters to people around the world. The link to BBC’s Kosovo background is exactly what I was talking about earlier regarding country profiles.

The post I found that could perhaps stand improvement is the one titled “Tymoshenko calls mobster arrest sign of the times.” The title itself is a little vague, but in other ways not vague enough. Not many people know who Tymoshenko is. I did, but I was not yet aware she had been reelected as prime minister. Maybe “Ukraine’s prime minister” instead, though this may hurt your search engine optimization I suppose. The article itself referred to a lot of issues in Ukraine that I suspect most others are nearly clueless about, myself included. Though if you’re going for a more advanced audience, scratch that.

Context like “European countries purchase about a quarter of their gas supplies from Gazprom, and about a quarter of that is transported through Ukraine,” is very helpful. Maybe, for the lay audience’s sake, address the news items more thematically, with fewer specific details. As an example, instead of “Ukraine has agreed to pay $179.50 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas this year. That’s 46 percent more than it paid in 2007, but Western Europe pays on average $350,” maybe something that simply says Ukraine is paying more for its gas, yet still far less than the rest of Europe.

Other than that, I think you’ve done an admirable job highlighting a really dynamic part of the world. You served in the Peace Corps (in Moldova?), so have you ever been to these areas you speak of? If so, you should mention some of your experiences. It would certainly give the posts more authority. And do you plan on creating an about the author page?

You may tell me to read the links you’ve posted, which is a fair criticism, but I’m a lazy, ignorant person. So give me a bit more to get me invested so that I will read those links.

I could never ask you to dumb down this blog because it is so smart. But I guess I might suggest a more relaxed, friendly tone to draw in us ignorant readers. I particularly like your line in the post after this one about the energy company’s name coming straight out of the USSR. A little more of that humor would be welcome.