Section: Voice of America (USA)
Montenegro’s Bid to Join NATO Advances With US Senate Vote
Montenegro is one step closer to becoming NATO’s 29th member. Ratification of the treaty on Montenegro’s admission into the alliance cleared a procedural hurdle in the U.S. Senate Monday, setting the stage for a final vote later this week. Approving the treaty requires a two-thirds’ vote in the Senate, after which the president...
Baltics’ Russian Media Use Online Humor to Combat Propaganda
Russia’s nationalist propaganda machine kicked into high gear after the 2014 annexation of Crimea sparked the worst East-West tensions since the Cold War. State media quickly fell behind the Kremlin line while Russia’s few independent media came under increasing pressure to conform or self-censor. As Russian authorities shrank the...
Baltics’ Russian Media Use Online Humor to Combat Propaganda
Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin’s propaganda machine has shrunk the field for independent media and increased cynicism about politics and current events. To combat the problem, one group of Russian journalists, “The Meduza Project,” moved operations to Latvia and focuses on online content and humor to...
Clear Winner Unlikely in Bulgaria’s Third Election in Four Years
Bulgarians began voting in a snap general election Sunday with the center-right GERB party challenged for power by Socialists who say they will improve ties with Russia even if it means upsetting the country’s European Union partners. Opinion polls put the GERB party of former Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, 57, narrowly ahead of the...
Belarus Police Arrest Hundreds Defying Protest Ban
Riot police in Belarus launched a massive crackdown Saturday on protesters trying to hold a banned march in Minsk. Hundreds were reported arrested, and a human rights leader said many of the detainees had been beaten by police and needed medical attention. An estimated 700 people were trying to march through a central part of the capital, part of...
Trump Administration Reviewing What Role US Nuclear Weapons Should Play
The United Nations begins negotiations Monday on a legally binding treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. This comes as the United States commences a review of what role its nuclear weapons should now play. “Shortly after taking office, the president directed a new Nuclear Posture Review to ensure that the United States nuclear deterrent is modern,...
Cyber Firm Rewrites Part of Disputed Russian Hacking Report
U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has revised and retracted statements it used to buttress claims of Russian hacking during last year’s American presidential election campaign. The shift followed a VOA report that the company misrepresented data published by an influential British think tank. In December, CrowdStrike said it found...
Latvia-Russia Ties Shaped by Soviet History, Marred by Politics
Russia justified its 2014 annexation of Crimea, and ongoing support for rebels in east Ukraine, by claiming ethnic Russians there were threatened by nationalists and faced discrimination. But while Russian rhetoric, frequent military drills, and the legacy of Soviet aggression raise concerns, there is surprisingly little tension within the...
Former Russian Lawmaker Killed in Kyiv
Former Russian lawmaker Denis Voronenkov was shot dead in Kyiv Thursday in a likely contract killing ordered by Russia, Ukrainian police said. Voronenkov fled to Ukraine last year, fearing for his safety and testified in a treason case against Ukraine’s pro-Russia former president, Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine’s general prosecutor,...
Saboteurs Blow Up Ukraine Warehouse Full of Tank Ammo
The Ukrainian military said unknown saboteurs blew up a warehouse storing tank ammunition at a military base in the east of the country early Thursday, but nobody was hurt. The base, which contained about 138,000 tons of ammunition, is in the city of Balakleya about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the frontline of Ukraine’s war against...
