TOMILA V. LANKINA is a research fellow with the Local Governance Research Unit, Faculty of Business and Law, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. She is the author of "Governing the Locals: Local Self-Government and Ethnic Mobilization in Russia" (2004). Her current research focuses on comparative local governance and on the impact of transnational and supranational actors on local democracy in Central and Eastern Europe ANNEKE HUDALLA is a scholar and journalist specializing on the politics of the Czech Republic. She is the author of "Auenpolitik in den Zeiten der Transformation: Die Eu...