Section: European Voice (EU)
Obama team was warned about Russian interference
WASHINGTON —Â The Obama administration received multiple warnings from national security officials between 2014 and 2016 that the Kremlin was ramping up its intelligence operations and building disinformation networks it could use to disrupt the U.S. political system, according to more than half a dozen current and former officials. As early as...
Moscow nominates former German leader to Rosneft board
The Russian government nominated German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as an “independent director” on the board of the country’s largest oil company, Rosneft, according to an official government statement published late Friday. Schröder — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s predecessor — is already chairman...
The problem isn’t Putin, it’s Russia
NEW YORK — The introduction of new sanctions by the United States on Russia has sent relations between the two countries to lows not seen since the end of the Cold War. Each side blames the other and claims to be seeking better relations, behaving as if the antagonism is just an undesirable, but passing, phase. But while many in the...
Why the Pope ❤ Putin
An increasingly belligerent Vladimir Putin is finding a new friend in a man of peace: Pope Francis. The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is scheduled to fly to Moscow on August 20 to meet the Russian president and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The four-day visit — the...
German liberal-conservative coalition short of parliamentary majority: poll
A coalition between Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) would fall short of a majority in parliament if federal elections were held today, according to an opinion poll published Wednesday. The conservative CDU together with its Bavarian sister party CSU remained stable compared to...
Trump NATO pick was US military’s ally on Capitol Hill
Never mind keeping the peace. America’s new ambassador to NATO once had to pretend to keep the peas. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the former United States senator from Texas who is Donald Trump’s new envoy to the military alliance, once delivered two tons of peas to American soldiers in Bosnia. Or perhaps more accurately, the peas...
Tillerson: US will respond to Russia’s move to expel diplomats by September 1
The U.S. government will respond by the end of this month to the Russian government’s decision to reduce the number of American diplomatic staff in Russia by more than 700, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday morning, according to an Associated Press report. Tillerson’s promise of a U.S. response followed his...
Christian Lindner: Germany should accept Crimean annexation as ‘permanent provisional solution’
The leader of the German Free Democrats Christian Lindner defended his foreign policy in an interview with Bild am Sonntag, after he caused an uproar by calling for the Russian annexation of Crimea to be considered a “permanent provisional solution.” The conflict around the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March 2014,...
EU Confidential Episode 7: Anders Fogh Rasmussen — Ukrainian summer — Greece’s scapegoat statistician
To listen to the podcast now, click on the player below or click here to get it on iTunes. This week Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former NATO secretary-general and now an adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, sets out his views on how the EU should deal with Russia. He also talks about NATO, defense spending, Trump… and why (and where)...
Trump signs Russia sanctions bill but says parts violate Constitution
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a bipartisan bill placing new sanctions on Russia, but in a statement he claimed multiple aspects of the legislation violate the Constitution. In one of two statements released almost simultaneously Wednesday morning by the White House, Trump said he supports the law’s...
