Ukraine can begin to expose its economy to more foreign competition and investment and truly live up to its potential only if it cracks down on corruption and encourages domestic competition.

While there were high hopes for Ukraine’s speedy transition to a wealthy free market democracy and full membership in the European and Euro-Atlantic communities when it declared independence in 1991, it has fallen short of these targets.

If 2011 was the year of the euro crisis, Carnegie scholars examine what issue will have the greatest impact on the global economy in 2012.

Unless a major crisis erupts in Europe, Finland’s fiscal prudency and solid banks might well satisfy the markets.

Finland sets the prospect of a European crisis against its own experiences two decades ago.

In spite of predicted growth in 2011, the Russian economy faces a number of serious challenges as it recovers from the global financial crisis.

Russia’s economy suffered one of the world’s steepest declines in gross domestic product in the wake of the global financial crisis. Two years later, Russia’s economic indicators still tell a grim story.

While Russia’s short-term economy will largely depend on oil prices and the country’s demographic challenges, its medium-to-long-term outlook will be influenced by the lessons that leaders take from the crisis, which will affect Russia’s economic structure and policies for many years to come.

To counter the steep economic downturn in 2009, Russia enacted a stimulus package equivalent to almost 7 percent of GDP. The Kremlin's response was effective and its consequences lead Russia's relatively quick recovery.

Global energy companies still want to go into Russia, even if the conditions are not what they had once hoped. Most countries don’t sell majority shares in big fields. So Russia is becoming a more normal energy-producing country.