Introduction: Growth Resumption in the CIS Countries -- Introduction: Growth Resumption in the CIS Countries -- Russia -- Monetary Policy Transmission and CBR Monetary Policy -- Choice of the Substitution Currency in Russia: How to Explain the Dollar’s Dominance? -- Monetary Policy in Russia -- Russia’s Economic Expansion 1999–2005 -- Ukraine -- Evidence on the Bank Lending Channel in Ukraine -- Now So Near, and Yet Still So Far: Relations Between Ukraine and the European Union -- Belarus -- Modeling the Demand for Money and Inflation in Belarus -- Economic Growth in Belarus (1996–2004): Main Drivers and Risks of the Current Strategy -- Cross Country Studies -- Why is Financial Strength Important for Central Banks? -- The Impact of Financial Openness on Economic Integration: Evidence from Europe and the CIS -- Debt Sustainability in the Wider Eastern European Region: The Long Shadow of the EU.