Latest Articles about Europe
Preliminary Observations from the June 2007 UK Plots
On June 29, the Tiger Tiger nightclub in London was targeted by a gas cylinder-based car bomb studded with shrapnel—one of two found in central London. The following day, two men, Kafeel Ahmad and Bilal Abdullah, rammed a Jeep Cherokee into the Glasgow airport in... MORE
LUKASHENKA REMOVES KGB CHIEF
On July 17 Belarusian President Alyaksander Lukashenka dismissed the head of the KGB, Stsyapan Sukharenka as well as his first deputy, Vasil Dzemyantsey. Sukharenka's replacement is Yury Zhadobin, formerly head of the president's security forces. Zhadobin's first task is to clean up the organization, signifying... MORE
Massoud Barzani Conducting Dangerous Games in Northern Iraq
With the Turkish army massing on the border of northern Iraq, the hard-won gains of Iraq's Kurdish nationalists now face a serious threat. Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the president of Kurdistan since 2005, has adopted a provocative stance... MORE
OLD GUARD BANISHED FROM YUSHCHENKO PARTY LEADERSHIP
Roman Bezsmertny, a high-ranking member of President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine (NU) party, has left its leadership and is not going to run for parliament this year. Bezsmertny’s departure is part of an evolutionary process affecting Our Ukraine. The group of businessmen active in politics,... MORE
AS UKRAINE LOOKS TOWARD NATO, MOSCOW’S MARITIME INTERESTS SHIFT EASTWARD
Legendary Russian General Alexander Suvorov founded Russia’s Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol in 1783. Since the collapse of communism in 1991, Russia’s presence in the Crimean peninsula has increasingly been a bone of contention between Moscow and Kyiv, and Russia is slowly moving to... MORE
YUSHCHENKO’S MULTI-VECTOR ELECTION STRATEGY
On July 4 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko called a high-level meeting of oligarchs, the third such gathering in his presidency. The first took place in October 2005 after Yuriy Yekhanurov replaced Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister (see EDM, October 28, 2005). Yushchenko has always maintained... MORE
Firefight in Iraq Exposes Presence of Turkish Al-Qaeda Operatives
The northward moves by Kurdish rebels into Turkey in recent weeks and their bombings of Turkish military and civilian targets have been reported extensively, as have the consequent threats by the Turkish military to move into Iraq to bring about a halt to the Kurdistan... MORE
CHUBAIS’ ”ADVISER“ RELEASED FROM MOLDOVAN DETENTION
On July 9, the Chisinau Court of Appeals released Valeriu Pasat from jail, after serving two and a half years out of a 10-year sentence. Pasat has been an adviser to Russian Unified Energy Systems (UES) chief Anatoly Chubais. Moldovan authorities are keeping the case... MORE
LUTSENKO TOPS YUSHCHENKO’S LIST FOR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s bloc for the early parliamentary elections scheduled for September 30 has been formally set up. At a July 5 meeting chaired by Yushchenko, representatives of several right-of-center parties signed a declaration proclaiming the Our Ukraine People’s Self-Defense Bloc (NUNS). The bloc’s... MORE
UK Plot Highlights Growing Arab Radicalism
The arrests of seven men and one woman in connection with the two attempted car bombings in London and an attack on the Glasgow airport have highlighted the spread of jihadi ideology into all sectors of British Muslim society. While attention thus far has been... MORE