Section: US & Canada
All the Presidents’ Spies: Blackwater-founder Erik Prince is the latest Trump cut-out to parlay with Putin’s men
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., right, and the Committee’s Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., stand up to leave on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 30, 2017, following the committee’s hearing on Russian intelligence activities. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Credit: AP) I’ve been reading...
Ukrainian President Appoints Gaidar As Adviser
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has appointed Maria Gaidar, a former politician and activist in Russia, as an adviser. …read more Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio...
Defence deal could open the door to weapons sales to Ukraine
The Trudeau government has signed a defence co-operation agreement with Ukraine, a seemingly mundane bit of statecraft that could have far-reaching implications for the eastern European country’s bid to buy Canadian-made weapons. The bilateral deal, signed this week by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and his Ukrainian counterpart Stepan...
Freedom House: Democracy Scores Decline in Many Countries
Democracy scores declined in 2016 in more than half of the 29 countries surveyed in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Eurasia, according to Freedom House, a U.S.-based pro-democracy watchdog organization. This is the second-biggest decline in the annual report’s 22-year history and is attributed to the rise of populism in the...
‘Poisoned’ Russian dissident: Trump echoed ‘one of the Kremlin’s oldest propaganda tools’
Manuel Balce Ceneta/APWASHINGTON — Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza told Congress last week that there is no equivalence between the US’ political system and Putin’s Russia, as President Donald Trump implied in a recent interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. In the February interview, Trump acknowledged...
Hungarian MPs Pass Bill Targeting Soros-founded University
Lawmakers from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party approved draft legislation Tuesday that critics say could force the closure of an international university founded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros. The legislative approval sparked protests by thousands of critics outside the campus of the...
Trump Has a Thing for Despots: The President Can’t Hide His Admiration for the Likes of Putin and el-Sisi
Angela Merkel isn’t worth his time, but the leader of a murderous coup gets a warm White House reception. Whenever I hear someone on the cable gabfests say that President Trump is an isolationist I have to wonder if they’ve ever actually listened to anything the man says. It’s true he claimed to have been against military action...
Trump Has a Thing for Despots: The President Can’t Hide His Admiration for Authoritarians
Angela Merkel isn’t worth his time, but the leader of a murderous coup gets a warm White House reception. Whenever I hear someone on the cable gabfests say that President Trump is an isolationist I have to wonder if they’ve ever actually listened to anything the man says. It’s true he claimed to have been against military action...
Russia and Belarus Patch Things Up
Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko yesterday agreed to a comprehensive deal on energy and debt that will put a lid on talk of Belarus’s Westward drift. Reuters: At a meeting in St Petersburg, held while the Russian city was reeling from a deadly bombing on a metro train, Russia agreed to refinance Belarus’ debt while Belarus will...
Watchdog Report: ‘Breakdown of Democracy’ in Poland, Hungary
U.S.-based pro-democracy group Freedom House said Tuesday that a “spectacular breakdown of democracy” has been taking place in Poland and Hungary, two countries that stood as models of democratic change after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Hungary now has the lowest democracy score in Central Europe, and Poland’s...
