Latest Articles about Europe
MEDVEDEV FINALIZES GAS AGREEMENT WITH SERBIA WHILE MOSCOW ENCOURAGES VIOLENCE IN BELGRADE
Having previously encouraged assassination attempts against Georgia’s leaders, Russian state television has now lauded the assassination of Serbia’s pro-Western prime minister Zoran Djindjic by a local ultranationalist in 2003, and in the same breath assailed that country’s incumbent pro-Western president Boris Tadic. On February 21... MORE
KREMLIN CONTINUES TO BLAST THE WEST OVER KOSOVA
Mobs, angry over Kosovar independence, burned the U.S. Embassy in the Serbian capital Belgrade last week, promoting a new outburst of anti-Western, anti-U.S. rhetoric in Moscow. The pace was set by President Vladimir Putin, who during an informal Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in... MORE
WILL UKRAINE HAVE NEW CONSTITUTION?
President Viktor Yushchenko has begun his drive to reverse the 2004 constitutional reform. His goals include boosting presidential powers and weakening the legislature. On February 20 Yushchenko convened the first meeting of the National Constitution Council (NKS), consisting of 97 experts and politicians, to share... MORE
RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN BELARUS SPARKS DEBATE
Over the past two weeks Belarus has released a large group of “political prisoners” from jails and camps across the country. They include activists, politicians, and some of the entrepreneurs who were arrested when protesting the restriction of their activities through new state laws. Significantly,... MORE
New Tests for Turkey’s Evolving Security Relationship with Israel
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s visit to Ankara on February 12 and 13 attracted much attention from Turkish political and military officials (Milliyet, February 13). The visit may stand as a turning point in Turkish-Israeli relations by giving a boost to military cooperation between the... MORE
The Pakistan Connection to the United Kingdom’s Jihad Network
Recent weeks have seen increasing international interest in the connections between jihadis in the UK and their counterparts in Pakistan. Attention has focused on how such groups and individuals could link up and cooperate to carry out attacks in Europe, South Asia or the United... MORE
THERE IS A KOSOVA PRECEDENT, THOUGH NOT WHAT MOSCOW SAYS IT IS
Russia has failed to exploit Kosova’s independence from Serbia as a “precedent” for conflict-resolution through partition in Georgia, Moldova, or Azerbaijan (see EDM, February 19). Nor could Moscow stop Kosova’s move to Western-supervised independence and its international recognition. Moscow had insisted that Kosova’s internationally recognized... MORE
OPPOSITION USES UKRAINE–NATO ISSUE WHEN POLITICALLY EXPEDIENT
For over a month, the Ukrainian parliament has been in a forced recess as the opposition blocked the legislature to protest a joint letter to NATO signed by President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and Parliamentary Speaker Arseny Yatsenyuk. The January 15 letter asked... MORE
KOSOVA AND THE “FROZEN” CONFLICTS OF THE FORMER USSR
The leaders of the breakaway mini-states of Transnistria in Moldova, Karabakh in Azerbaijan, as well as Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia welcomed Kosova's unilateral declaration of independence this week and its subsequent recognition by the international community. At a joint press conference this week... MORE
German Intelligence Describes a “New Quality” in Jihadi Threats
Germany fears that it may have moved toward the top of al-Qaeda’s list of targets. An increasing number of messages on jihadi websites call for an attack on German soil. Simultaneously, there seems to be a “new quality” in the Islamic propaganda, in the words... MORE