Section: European Voice (EU)
Battleground Berlin: Will Russian-Germans vote for the far right?
BERLIN — As long as the Russian-speaking enclave on Berlin’s eastern edge voted for the far left, it was largely invisible on the German political map. But then its residents started voting for the far right. Widespread support among Russian-speaking Germans is one of the key elements that is expected to propel the anti-immigrant...
UK wants ‘deep security partnership’ with EU post Brexit
The British government wants a “deep security partnership” with the European Union after Brexit that is closer than with any other country outside the bloc. The U.K. lays out its position on future security cooperation with the EU in a paper to be published Tuesday in which it emphasizes the mutual benefits of working across the Brexit divide....
Barcelona mayor hesitates on Catalan referendum over court fears
Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona, and officials in other major Catalan municipalities have pushed back on requests to host an upcoming referendum on Catalan independence planned for October 1 amid fears that Spain’s courts will sanction politicians and officials. The move by local governments covering a third of Catalonia’s...
Merkel’s ‘forgotten sisters’
Germany FAZ’s front page featured an interview with Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, the foreign policy adviser to Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko. Yeliseyev slammed German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel’s push to lift sanctions against Russia before Moscow fulfills its obligations under the Minsk Agreement as “irresponsible,”...
Preventing disaster in Donbas
VIENNA — Ukraine suffered one of the most horrendous man-made disasters in recent memory — the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986. It is now suffering through a war that is poisoning relations between Donbas and the rest of Ukraine, polluting the political climate between Kiev and Moscow and tainting the relationship...
World in midst of ‘Cold War 2.0,’ says Germany’s Sigmar Gabriel
German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel has warned the world is facing a “new phase of nuclear rearmament,†and is in the midst of “Cold War 2.0.†In an interview with German paper Bild, Gabriel spoke of the new “ice age†between the West and Russia and the danger of both sides building...
Chernobyl: City of ghosts
PRIPYAT, Ukraine — In a post-Cold War world, the fear of nuclear holocaust has receded from the global consciousness. Donald Trump’s threat of unleashing “fire and fury like the world has never seen” against North Korea was an untimely and unwelcome reminder of a past, perilous era. Even by Trump’s...
Poll: Republicans’ confidence in Putin on the rise
WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin is enjoying rising popularity among Republicans, a new poll from the Pew Research Center found. The poll found that the share of Republicans expressing confidence in Putin doubled to 34 percent from 17 percent in 2015, when Donald Trump launched a campaign for the White House that was...
Ukrainian MP seeks probe of Ukraine-Clinton ties
KIEV — A Ukrainian member of parliament has requested a criminal investigation into possible meddling by his country’s government in last year’s U.S. presidential election, claiming the interference has “seriously damaged Ukrainian-American relations.†In a July 24 letter to...
Angela Merkel plays for her place in history — and Europe’s future
Angela Merkel’s return for a fourth term as German chancellor seems such a foregone conclusion, given her conservatives’ wide lead in opinion polls, that interest is mostly focused on who her coalition partner will be after the September 24 federal election. More than ever, Europeans are looking to Berlin for a lead...
