Section: European Voice (EU)
In pictures: Training to fight for Ukraine
Fifty kilometers west of the Russian border in the eastern Ukrainian province of Luhansk, new recruits — eager to defend their country against pro-Russian separatist forces — are put through their paces. Photojournalist Filip Warwick, currently based in Ukraine, recently spent a week with them. The training takes place in an ex-Soviet Youth...
On the trail of Europe’s last ‘lost city’
ASTRAKHAN, Russia — One recent cold December morning, I find myself aboard a wooden raft, pulled across the Volga by a small fishing vessel. I’m here to look for the remnants of a powerful, mostly forgotten medieval empire few have heard about. Once a mythical capital of enormous wealth, it once stood at the crossroads of the ancient Silk...
Russia’s dissident poets society
OZOLNIEKI, Latvia — Russian culture is often defined by nationalist rants on state television, the Orthodox Church’s cozy ties with politicians and soldiers marching on Red Square. There are also iconoclasts, atheists, dissidents and gay poets with wild hair and pink trousers — but many are fleeing to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania to...
Cartoon carousel
The toons of the week. “Blatter and Platini try it by all means.” “No, you will not come in here again, not even with fake Syrian passports!!” First published in Tagesspiegel, Germany, December 23, 2015. By Klaus Stuttmann. “Santa [Hollande] on the balcony.” “French, fallen, non fallen.” First published in Le Monde, France, December 24, 2015. By...
Most powerful photographs of 2015
Perhaps more than any year in recent history, 2015 has proven to be one of struggle. Struggle by migrants to escape their war-torn countries and find refuge in safer lands. Struggle by victims — and those they left behind — to cope after horrific crimes and natural disasters. And let’s not forget the struggle by the world to comprehend...
Slovakia defends its closed doors on migration
WASHINGTON — Slovakia’s chief diplomat, Miroslav Lajčák, turned tense when asked to explain why his country is leading resistance against the German-backed effort to residstribute migrants across the bloc. “You cannot turn into a multi-cultural society overnight,” Lajčák told POLITICO in an interview at the German Marshall Fund’s...
Transatlantic Caucus participants: December 2015
Find the article on POLITICO’s Transatlantic Caucus poll here and the full results of the poll here. András Baneth, Director of European Office, Public Affairs Council, Brussels Richard Bergström, Director-General, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), Brussels Carl Bildt, Former Prime Minister and...
US Treasury expands sanctions linked to Russian moves in Ukraine
The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday added nearly three-dozen people to its Specially Designated Nationals list, a catalog of people and entities restricted from doing business with American citizens. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified 34 people and organizations under sanctions from executive orders concerning...
EU bid to appease Russia over Ukraine deal collapses
A last-minute attempt to prevent Russia from slapping economic sanctions on Ukraine failed Monday, as EU-led negotiations between the parties broke down. The sticking point is the launch of a delayed EU free trade agreement with Ukraine that will enter into force on January 1. The EU had been talking for 18 months over Russia’s concerns the...
EU extends economic sanctions against Russia
The EU will extend for six months its economic sanctions against Russia, the Council announced on Monday, noting that the conditions of the Minsk peace deal have not been met. The bloc imposed the sanctions in July 2014 and revised them in September 2014 after a deterioration of the situation in eastern Ukraine, where the country’s army was...
