Belarus will hold presidential elections in October, and President Alexander Lukashenko will face Tatiana Karatkevich, the first-ever female candidate. That is, of course, unless the all-powerful ruler changes his mind.
Tag: eu
From Athens’ corrupt and radical politicians to the staid bankers and diplomats of Brussels, all are to blame for the crisis in Greece. An un-lesson for modern politics.
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Who Is The Real Alexis Tsipras?
Those who know him best say Greek Prime Minister Tsipras is driven by three contradictory strands. Profile of a leader battling his ‘inner troika.’
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Extra! Greek Crisis, European Front Pages
Le Soir, June 29, 2015 The European and Greek flags billow beside each other under the headline “Disunion” on the front page of today’s Le Soir, a Brussels-based daily. Negotiations between Athens and its European creditors collapsed over the weekend, plunging the continent into a new depth of uncertainty and crisis. After European officials rejected […]
On this southern European island, some of the hundreds of corpses have arrived from the latest migrant tragedy. They will be processed and buried without knowing their identity. It is not the first time.
-Analysis- TURIN — Thousands of people — calling them people, i.e. men, women and children, is the first step — have died in the Strait of Sicily since 2010. Sunday saw the worst tragedy yet, but it was not the first, and unfortunately it won’t be the last. Many of these people are fleeing the […]
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Russia Flexes Soft Power In Moldova
Gagauzia, a small region in neighboring Moldova, has taken a turn toward economic union with Russia, and away from the EU. Will the whole country follow?
Anti-austerity party Podemos is not the only group upsetting politics in Spain and trying to capitalize on popular discontent. Another party gaining favor among voters is the significantly less radical Ciudadanos (“Citizens”). Formed in Catalonia, the party promotes national unity and has been attracting voters from both the left and right who are fed up […]
-OpEd- TURIN — Geography is inexorable: Italy can never be isolated from Libya, which is just 300 miles from the coast of Sicily. Still, the Italian public tends to be isolated from the rest of the world. The government knows both these truths. Unlike any other European or Western country, Italy kept its Libyan embassy […]
After the Greek election of radical leftists and the European Central Bank’s new liquidity, Europe is still where the rest of the world looks to understand themselves. History has so much to say.
Greece’s anti-austerity party Syriza won Sunday’s general election with 36.3% of votes, putting the country on a potential collision course with the European Union over its 240 billion euro bailout package. Party leader Alexis Tsipras said that, “The verdict of the Greek people renders the troika the IMF, the EU Commission, and European Central Bank […]
Right-wing politicians think we should abandon the Schengen Area, and return to national borders within Europe. That would make about as much sense as putting a wall around Sicily.
-OpEd- BERLIN — As German military theorist Carl von Clausewitz once wrote, the aggressor is always peace-loving. He wants to take over our land, our people, our resources without firing a single shot. By this same logic, the defender is always the aggressor. This truth has seldom been better illustrated than by events in eastern […]
The Polish Solidarity leader and Nobel Peace Prize Winner offers a combative vision for how Europe can stand up to Moscow. He speaks from experience.
Turkey’s fraught relationship with Europe and the U.S. should be bolstered by its impressive response to the refugee crisis in neighboring Syria. But now will the West step up?
European Union regulations will now require lower maximum voltage on vacuums. It may making cleaning slower, purchase prices higher, but hopefully long-term energy saving benefits.
Though Belarus is part of a Customs Union with Russia and Kazakhstan, it is cooling toward Moscow. As Minsk hosts Russia-Ukraine talks, much is at stake in the old Soviet orbit.
Thanks to a hidden supply of weapons seized from a Russian arms trafficker 20 years ago, Italy may be able to quickly help Kurdish fighters as they battle against the ISIS jihadist terrorists.
PARIS — The figures are dizzying. According to the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization, 1.3 billion tons of food — one-third of the world’s total food products — are thrown away or wasted each year. Among the food we needlessly toss are yogurt pots that have passed their “best before” date and potatoes that aren’t […]
In September 2011, in Thessaloniki, Greece, Apostolos Polyzonis set himself on fire outside his bank, which had refused to ease his debt payments. He survived, and so did his anger.
MOSCOW — Finally, an engagement that Vladimir Putin could enjoy. Wearing dark aviator glasses against the bright sun, the Russian president attended the Russian “Navy Day” parade last Sunday at the Norwegian sea port of Severomorsk. A warship recently put into service fired some salvoes, and sailors responded to Putin’s greeting with three cries of […]
The downing of Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH17 may change Putin’s hand in eastern Ukraine, but a weak and divided Europe is still no match for the well-armed Russian poker player.
KLAIPEDA — The entrance to this Lithuanian city’s port is a lesson in geopolitics. Klaipeda is the major transit hub for Russia on the Baltic Sea, but there’s no overlooking the huge semi-domes of the new terminals for LNG (liquefied natural gas) which Lithuania hopes will free the country from its energy-dependence on Moscow. There […]
BRUSSELS — There is no shortage of good advice for Europe. The United States recommends becoming independent of Russian gas supplies — Vice President Joe Biden, on a recent visit to Romania, passed that tip on to Prime Minister Victor Ponta. “We have to make certain that Russia can no longer use its energy resources […]
Should a state be driven by law, or by force? Russia’s neighbors, friends and enemies must reflect on what’s really at play in the showdown over Ukraine.
BERLIN — It looked as if a great moment might be in the making: German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Polish colleague Radoslaw Sikorski had teamed up with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, and the trio flew to Kiev for joint talks with the then-Ukrainian government and opposition. At the time violence on Maidan […]
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Is Europe’s Criticism Of Iran Toothless?
What does Iran see when it looks at Europe? Not necessarily a Union at all. It was reported this week by the Iranian press that the Netherlands ambassador in Tehran told Iranian authorities not to worry about the European Parliament’s recent vote condemning Iran’s handling of human rights. The official IRNA news agency cited ambassador […]
More than 61% of Greeks aged 25 or younger are unemployed amid the country’s economic crisis. They are educated and demoralized, writes one young woman lucky enough to have work.
The path of the EU and the U.S. on Ukraine is defining not only the West’s long-term interests but also the key geopolitical players involved. A Russian look at two key diplomatic players.
-Commentary- OSLO — In Oslo, where snow falls abundantly, visibility is virtually nil. But what this white desert suggests is not melancholy à la Ibsen or a metaphysical Munch Scream. On the contrary, deep satisfaction and hope dominate here. In other words, unlike the French, Norwegians are happy people. They claim to feel no remorse, […]
For one prominent Polish columnist, all the European Union’s panting for expansion to the East may lead it to choke on its own ambitions.
KIEV — So Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is still a prisoner — and Ukraine’s future as part of the European Union hangs in the balance. The Ukrainian Parliament balked Wednesday night on any decision to release the opposition leader, who has been jailed since 2011. Meanwhile, the EU has sent Kiev a clear […]
HAMBURG — When Natalie Leroy talks about this German city’s water, her voice changes. It’s as if it was bubbling directly from the holy spring in Lourdes, not from one of the thousands of faucets in Hamburg. “It’s just water…” you might want to tell her, but then you would be getting it totally wrong. […]
Kiev doesn’t want to risk its ties with Moscow, but can’t afford to pass up economic opportunities in Europe. And where does that leave jailed opposition chief Yulia Tymoshenko?
ISIS ADVANCES INTO KOBANIISIS fighters advanced into the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani overnight after a three-week siege and amid intense street fighting with the Kurds, and are now occupying southwestern neighborhoods, Reuters reports. Karwan Zebari, a representative of the Kurdish regional government, told the BBC that the town could fall into ISIS hands unless […]
KEFLAVIK — The first thing that strikes you on landing at Keflavik International Airport is the weather. It’s raining. The clouds hang so low that it looks like you could reach out and touch them. Welcome to Iceland. A land mass covering 103,000 square kilometers, Iceland is a little larger than Hungary, but at 330,000 […]
BERLIN — It is becoming chic in Germany not to vote — and to make sure that everyone knows that you didn’t. It used to be just the poor and unemployed who failed to show at the polls, and, ashamed, they hid that fact. Now abstainers come from educated, well-off circles, and opinion polls warn […]
BERLIN — There are a record number of asylum seekers pinning their hopes on Germany this year, and refugees from Russia by far represent the largest group. Of those, some 90% are from the North Caucasus, particularly Chechnya. German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has characterized the situation as “unsettling.” Germany has more asylum requests than […]
BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, has met Egypt’s ousted President, Mohammed Morsi, her spokeswoman says. Ashton visited Mr Morsi on Monday evening and held two hours of “in-depth” discussions with him. The location of the meeting was not given, but Mr Morsi has been detained since he was […]
Berlin-based Die Welt is not taking lightly a recent EU directive that backed French bans on imports of new models of German-built Mercedes.