Section: European Voice (EU)
Corker: Russia sanctions could move before August recess
The implosion of Senate Republicans’ Obamacare repeal push could clear space for a bipartisan deal on long-stalled sanctions against Russia to make it to President Donald Trump’s desk as soon as this month, a key GOP chairman said Tuesday. The Russia sanctions package has been mired in the House after passing the Senate with 98 votes,...
How the Republicans became the party of Putin
“Would somebody please help me out here: I’m confused,†read the email to me from a conservative Republican activist and donor. “The Russians are alleged to have interfered in the 2016 election by hacking into Dem party servers that were inadequately protected, some being kept in...
White House leaves door open to U.S.-Russia cyber ‘dialogue’
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is still open to a cyber dialogue with Russia — despite having no plans to form the joint U.S.-Russian election security team that President Donald Trump floated to much disbelief last weekend. White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert on Friday tried to dispel the...
6 takeaways from Trump’s Paris trip
PARIS — Donald Trump is so unpopular in Europe that there’s been talk of all-but smuggling him into the U.K. whenever he makes his oft-delayed visit. There was no such problem in Paris, perhaps because Trump simply confirms many long-held French views about Americans. The U.S. president and his French counterpart, Emmanuel...
Trump dodges on Russia sanctions
U.S. President Donald Trump sent mixed signals about U.S. sanctions against Russia in a conversation with reporters released by the White House on Thursday. Trump’s comments came as the House struggles for a way forward on a Russia sanctions bill that cleared the Senate with 98 votes last month. Trump sidestepped a question about whether...
EU and Ukraine — close but not that close
KIEV — Ukrainian and European Union leaders ended a two-day summit Thursday that celebrated their growing closeness while also highlighting points of tension between the two sides. European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker arrived in Kiev on Wednesday evening for talks with...
Boris Nemtsov killers handed long jail sentences
Five men convicted of killing Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov were on Thursday given lengthy prison terms. A Russian court last month convicted Zaur Dadayev and four accomplices — all ethnic Chechens — for the February 2015 assassination of Nemtsov, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin. Dadayev, the...
Trump: I wish I asked Putin, ‘Were you actually supporting me?’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times during their meeting last week on the Kremlin’s efforts to interfere in last year’s presidential election. But there’s one question Trump did not ask of his Russian counterpart...
In Trieste, modest expectations for Western Balkan integration
TRIESTE, Italy — The European Union was hoping to get a firm grip on the Western Balkans at a summit Wednesday, but all it got was a limp handshake. “We need to re-found Europe,†French President Emmanuel Macron said at a press conference at the Western Balkans Summit, which he attended alongside German...
Dutch block aspirational communique at EU-Ukraine summit
KIEV — A summit between top Ukrainian and European Union officials to take place over the next two days in Kiev is likely to end without a final joint communiqué because of Dutch objections over wording that the EU “acknowledges Ukraine’s European aspirations.†European Council President Donald...
