Section: The Economist (The United Kingdom)
Germany and Russia: A new Ostpolitik
Putin wags a finger at Mutti OVER the past year, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has become the West’s diplomatic shield against Russia’s Vladimir Putin. That is partly because America’s Barack Obama is distracted and weakened by his midterm elections. It is also because nobody else in the European Union has the same...
The Cyprus problem: Intractable—or insoluble?
EUROPEAN UNION countries loudly criticise Russia for creating frozen conflicts in Georgia, Moldova and, now, Ukraine. Yet they are quieter about their own case of Cyprus, an EU member with an unrecognised Turkish-Cypriot north. This frozen conflict is older: over 50 years have passed since clashes broke out between Turkish- and Greek-Cypriots, 40...
Charlemagne: Cold comfort
ALL of Europe rejoiced when the European Space Agency deposited Philae, a probe the size of a kitchen appliance, on the surface of a comet 300m miles (480m km) from the Earth. It was like throwing a dart blindfolded across an ocean and hitting the bullseye. Philae fell silent soon afterwards, but not before dispatching reams of data and a shot of...
Russia and Ukraine: Military marches
EVEN as Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, was heading to the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, tensions in Ukraine were escalating. Scores of tanks, lorries and artillery, unmarked and stripped of licence plates, were snaking along Ukrainian roads. Kiev accused Moscow of sending in more troops; Russia denied it. The ceasefire that never...
Ukraine’s separatists: Shrinking country
Bullets and ballots UKRAINE, which lost Crimea to Russian annexation this spring, just got smaller again. Russian-backed separatists declared sovereign governments on the back of sham elections in Donetsk and Luhansk on November 2nd. America, the European Union and the UN condemned the vote for imperilling a ceasefire agreed in September. Russia...
Germany’s far left: Thuringia’s November revolution
Ramelow on the high road to power NEXT weekend Germany celebrates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Yet a few days before that, Die Linke (The Left), the party that descends from the communists who ran the old East Germany, may take charge of one of reunified Germany’s 16 states (Thuringia) for the first time.The...
Russia and the West: Hard talk
WHEN Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, gave a belligerent anti-Western speech in Munich seven years ago he was tense and angry. But on October 24th he was reportedly relaxed and happy as he delivered his most anti-American diatribe so far. He joked and smiled. He enjoyed flaunting his characteristic toughness in front of foreign...
Ukraine’s election: Good voters, not such good guys
TO ALL appearances, Ukraine’s parliamentary election on October 26th was a triumph. Reformists mostly won and voters rebuked the far right and far left. Western allies heaped praise on the pro-European, pro-democratic results. Yet Ukraine remains troubled and deeply divided.In an upset, the People’s Front party of Arseniy Yatsenyuk,...
Ukraine before the election: The battle for Ukraine’s future
ONLY a few photographs of dead fighters and flowers in the centre of Kiev recall the dramatic events that unfolded on Independence Square, or the Maidan, a year ago. The barricades and the encampment are long gone. The city feels subdued and traumatised as it awaits the parliamentary elections on October 26th. The energy and hope of a new...
Serbia’s government: Europe or Russia?
Not the best way to play the game UNDER Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s prime minister, the country is caught between its European ambitions and his autocratic drift. This week’s visit by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, highlights Serbia’s dilemmas. Its main strategic goal is to join the European Union, yet it is refusing...
