Section: European Voice (EU)
France and Russia reach warship agreement
France will refund all of the money Russia already paid for two undelivered Mistral warships, but the final sum will be lower than the almost €1.2 billion Russian media reported last week. The two countries signed a contract for the sale of the warships in 2011. The first ship was to be delivered in 2014. But under significant pressure from the...
What to watch: GOP candidates on foreign policy
Donald Trump says he would get along just fine with Vladimir Putin. Rand Paul would be open to engaging with Cuba, unlike other Republicans he calls “isolationist.” And every GOP candidate running for president hates the Iran nuclear deal, but not all will commit to getting rid of it. With the Iran agreement under review in Congress and the...
Ukraine’s other war
My frustration with Ukraine’s post-Soviet system reached boiling point in 2011. After years of struggling to faithfully carry out my duties as prosecutorial investigator, I decided that I was absolutely done with Yanukovych-era ways. I could no longer take the criminality of law enforcement bodies, the immunity of members of the then-ruling...
Citing threats, Pentagon refocuses on Russia
Even as President Barack Obama tries to stave off a conflict with Russia, the Pentagon isn’t taking any chances. Each of Obama’s picks for top Defense Department jobs says that Russia represents the biggest national security threat to the United States. The Army is giving heavier weapons to its frontline cavalry unit in Europe, while...
Chronicler of evil
If they made The Imitation Game about Alan Turing, the British mathematician who cracked Germany’s military code in World War II, they should make at least three movies about Robert Conquest, the Anglo-American Stanford University historian and poet, who died on Monday at the age of 98 in Palo Alto, California. The first would be about one...
Not invited: Poland’s Duda to Tusk
There’s little love being exchanged between Polish elites this week as President-elect Andrzej Duda prepared for his swearing-in at 10 a.m. CET in Warsaw on Thursday. Rumor spread online Wednesday that former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, now president of European Council, would be attending the ceremony. Nope. “President Tusk will not attend...
Obama channels JFK to pitch Iran deal
As he defends his nuclear deal with Iran, U.S. President Barack Obama is honing a larger vision of foreign policy — one in which military power alone can’t achieve the most important objectives, America is strongest when leading an international coalition, and even an imperfect agreement with a sworn enemy can be progress, not capitulation....
Athletics boss laughs off doping charges
International Association of Athletics Federations President Lamine Diack brushed off media reports accusing his organization of lax drug testing. “There are allegations made, no evidence. We want to look into them seriously because to say that in athletics between 2001 and 2012 we did not do a serious job with tests is laughable,” Diack told...
MEPs call for thaw in EU-Russia relations
Members of the European Parliament are urging governments in Russia and Europe to restore dialogue between their parliamentarians amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has strained the EU-Russia political dialogue for more than a year. The Progressive Alliance of Socialist & Democrats party has called for a “new initiative for political...
France to compensate Russia over warships
France may have to pay Russia over €1.1 billion for canceling a contract for the sale of two Mistral warships, according to reports from Russian media. France agreed to sell the warships to Russia in 2011 under then-president Nicolas Sarkozy. After strong opposition from the EU and the U.S., especially since the escalation of the conflict in...
