Section: European Voice (EU)
The man who would beat Putin
MOSCOW nly a little more than 48 hours had passed since Leonid Volkov had been released from a cramped Moscow detention center, but the outspoken Kremlin critic was already back at work plotting to unseat Russian President Vladimir Putin. As chief of staff for Russian dissident Alexei Navalny’s run for the presidency in an election...
Pence: We will ‘hold Russia accountable for its actions’
Amid a fresh wave of sanctions and renewed tension between the United States and Russia, Vice President Mike Pence reassured NATO’s Baltic member states that the U.S. stands firmly behind its mutual-defense commitment in the face of stepped-up aggression from Moscow. “The United States stands with the nations and people...
Putin expelling 755 US diplomats from Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin hit back at pending U.S. sanctions against his country on Sunday by ordering 755 U.S. diplomats to leave Russia. “I decided that it is time for us to show that we will not leave anything unanswered,” Putin said in an interview with Russian television on Sunday, according to translated reports in the New York Times...
Enemies of Putin, but no longer friends
KIEV — The “Chocolate Ass” got the last laugh — for now, anyway. Last month, on a TV talk show hosted by Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who found a new political home in Ukraine, a woman in battle fatigues performed a doleful melody, backed by a rock ensemble. “In the near east, blood...
How a tiny Baltic nation became a top destination for US officials
Estonia, a tiny Baltic nation dwarfed by neighboring Russia, isn’t a premier American tourist destination. But when Vice President Mike Pence arrives there on Sunday he’ll be just the latest in a parade of senior Washington officials to visit in recent months. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) led a congressional delegation...
‘You snakes’ — Russia’s deputy PM to Romanian authorities
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin called Romanian authorities “snakes” after they refused to allow a plane on which he was a passenger to enter Romanian airspace as it flew to Moldova. “Romanian authorities endangered the lives of the passengers on board the S7 airline flight — women and children,” Rogozin tweeted...
Russia punches back at sanctions, tells US to cut diplomats
The Kremlin swiftly retaliated Friday against new sanctions approved by the U.S. Congress, ordering a cut in the number of American diplomats in Russia and suspending use by U.S. diplomats of a beach house and storage facilities in Moscow, according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry In hitting back so quickly, Russia did not even wait to see...
6 crises that could spoil Europe’s summer
August is supposed to be a dull month for European politics, thanks to the long summer holidays enjoyed by many on the Continent. It rarely works out that way. Political crises, armed conflicts and financial fires have a habit of ignoring the holiday schedules of European politicians. When Greece tipped toward default in 2015, European leaders...
Swedish ministers resign amid data security breach scandal
Two senior Swedish ministers resigned on Thursday as the country’s government tried to limit the political fallout from a security breach that may have led to large-scale disclosure of citizens’ sensitive personal information. Sensitive data was potentially leaked to contractors in Romania and the Czech Republic, among other Eastern...
France, Germany urge ceasefire in Ukraine as violence flares
PARIS — The leaders of France and Germany called Tuesday for an immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, where violence flared again in July despite years of attempts to stop the conflict. Warning of a possible “humanitarian catastrophe”, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for withdrawal of...
