Section: European Voice (EU)
Viktor Orbán: Putin has no personality
BUDAPEST — Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin are an eye-catching couple on the international stage. Coming from starkly different political backgrounds, the men — about a decade apart in age — have built perhaps the best relationship that exists between a leader of a NATO and EU country and the Russian president. The Hungarian prime minister, an...
Obama to Hollande: Stay the course against Russia
When President Obama hosts French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday, he’ll have more on his agenda than demonstrating solidarity against terrorism. He’ll also be working to make sure Hollande sticks with the international effort to punish and isolate Vladimir Putin for his aggression in Ukraine. Privately, Obama officials say...
Paris, refugees, and Europe’s hard borders
This year was already set to go down as a turning point in the history of Europe’s undeclared war against illegal immigration. And now the November 13 attacks in Paris have thrown fuel on an already incendiary debate. The unprecedented collective disobedience of migrants crossing borders en masse subjected the “fortress” model of border...
Putin wants to turn page from Ukraine to Syria
When it comes to relations with Russia, the Kremlin wants the West to choose between sticking by its diplomatic guns on Ukraine or working arm-in-arm in Syria. So far, the EU and U.S. are resisting a zero-sum choice. In the days since the Paris terrorist attacks, senior officials in Washington and European capitals have signalled their reluctance...
‘All the terrorists are migrants’
BUDAPEST — “Of course it’s not accepted, but the factual point is that all the terrorists are basically migrants,” says Viktor Orbán. “The question is when they migrated to the European Union.” In his office at the Hungarian parliament, the prime minister points toward the flowing Danube. In another era, an aide notes, the Turks followed...
Time for US to get serious about Europe
The hard truth is that for much of the last seven years, Europe has been relatively low on Washington’s agenda. Today, as Europe struggles to cope with a series of existential crises — ranging from the still shaky eurozone to the crisis in Ukraine, the threat from ISIL and an aggressive Russia, and an escalating migration crisis that has...
The politics of corruption in Kiev
KIEV — The former head of Ukraine’s state security service, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, arrived in Washington D.C. Thursday to deliver his scathing assessment of the country’s post-revolutionary law-enforcement to the U.S. Congress. Sources close to Nalyvaichenko say the visit is part of a bid to win American backing for a challenge to...
Beating the Islamist propagandists
Barely 12 hours had passed since the siege on Paris’ Bataclan theater ended and already the propagandists of the Islamic State had put together audio and textual statements claiming responsibility for the attack, in French, Arabic and English. Within minutes, tens of thousands of people had seen their audacious, gloating claim. Within...
Russia cooks its defense books
Reports that Russia is limiting military spending to a 1 percent (nominal) increase in 2016 may be timed to deflate NATO’s initiative to raise defense spending to the target 2 percent for each member country. Russia is playing a dual role. On the one hand, it exults in its military power on prominent display in Syria. On the other, it plays...
Additions to the Transparency Register November 7 — November 31
Alitalia Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A. All with us – Tous avec nous American Insurance Association Asociación Dominicana de Productores de Banano Association for the International Collective Management of Audiovisual Works Associazione Difesa Consumatori e Ambiente promossa dalla CISL Autohaus Schaller GmbH Banana Growers Association, Belize...
