GEORGIA Georgia’s minister for refugees and accommodation has granted refugee status to a Russian soldier who deserted on July 1, a senior official said on Tuesday. Dmitry Artemyev left his post at a Russian base in the South-Ossetian controlled village of Perevi near the Georgian town of Sachkhere after claiming …

ROMANIA Romania’s tourism minister answered questions before a parliamentary committee Tuesday and denied some allegations that she misspent government funds. Elena Udrea’s participation in the hearing was a reversal from her previous refusal to cooperate. Last week she filed a legal complaint against the committee on the grounds that it …

ROMANIA Romania’s council on declassifying communist-era secret police files has asked a Bucharest court to officially confirm Romania’s ambassador in Sofia, Anton Păcureţu, as a collaborator of the Securitate, Romania’s feared communist secret police. Under a ruling of Romania’s constitutional court from 2008, the National Council for Studying the Securitate …