Recent Posts

DEMOCRACY DIGEST: POLAND’S MOMENT; SLOVAKIA’S SHAME

Poland cements its status as key NATO state with Biden visit; as Slovakia commemorates the anniversary of the contract killing of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, a new trial date for the alleged masterminds is set. All eyes on Poland this week as US President Joe Biden visited first …

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Russian Rumour-Mongering Causes Fear of War in Transnistria

Russian television stations and Moscow’s local mouthpieces have been promoting unsubstantiated theories about an imminent attack on Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria from neighbouring Ukraine. Fears have grown in recent days in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria about a possible military attack, after pro-Russian television stations, the dominant media force …

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Visegrad Group: No Rekindling the Romance

The once-vaunted unity of the V4 has been shattered by the war in Ukraine and Poland and Hungary’s diametrically opposed views on it. 2023 holds out little hope of a rapprochement. Central Europe’s regional grouping of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia was formed originally to coordinate positions before EU accession, …

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Poverty In the Region: One Direction

The war in Ukraine has stoked inflation and increased the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion throughout Europe. With food and energy prices remaining high in 2023, experts expect more people to fall below the poverty line. At the end of 2021, 95.4 million people in …

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Why Biden Snubbed China’s Ukraine Peace Plan

There’s something irrational about President Biden’s knee-jerk dismissal of China’s 12-point peace proposal titled “China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis.” “Not rational” is how Biden described the plan that calls for de-escalation toward a ceasefire, respect for national sovereignty, establishment of humanitarian corridors and resumption of …

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Blinken Meets Lavrov at G20 Riven by Ukraine Divisions

The United States and Russia met in their highest face-to-face contact since the invasion of Ukraine last year on the sidelines of a G20 meeting that ended in disarray due to divisions over the conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke briefly at …

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