Speculation grows over D.C. death of Putin propagandist
A prominent practitioner of information warfare and ex-aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin did not die of a heart attack in a Washington, D.C. hotel room last year as… Read more »
Category: Authoritarianism
‘Unprecedented’ pressure on Russia’s opposition, as NDI deemed undesirable
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has declared the activities of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs to be undesirable in the latest of a series of measures designed to… Read more »
China urges diplomats, U.N. to boycott Dalai Lama
China has written to diplomats and U.N. officials urging them not to attend a Geneva event on Friday where the Dalai Lama [above, center] will speak, reasserting that it… Read more »
Moderates’ election gains ‘a setback to Iranian democracy’
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday hailed last month’s elections that saw gains for allies of moderate President Hassan Rouhani, denying they lacked competition, AFP reports: The February… Read more »
Why illiberal democracies?
The rise of illiberal democracy in Central Europe is at least partly due to incomplete or inadequate democratic transitions from Communist rule, Le Monde’s Sylvie Kaufmann writes for The New… Read more »
The Obama Doctrine: advancing democracy, but….
President Barack Obama is a democratic internationalist, he tells The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, but experience has also taught him to temper his idealism with a pragmatic, realist approach to foreign… Read more »
How China shut down the Internet
In 2000, President Bill Clinton gave a speech in which he said that the Chinese government’s efforts to control the Internet would be as successful as efforts to “nail Jello… Read more »
Cuba says Obama trip won’t alter `revolutionary’ regime
The Cuban government today said it won’t renounce its “revolutionary and anti-imperialist” ideals as relations with the U.S. thaw ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to the Communist island this… Read more »
Central Europe’s fascist revival
Slovakia’s March 6 general elections have catapulted a neo-fascist party into parliament and strengthened the position of another ultra-nationalist formation, notes analyst Janusz Bugajski. The results highlight a broader European… Read more »
EU surrendering soft power with ‘morally bankrupt’ Turkey deal
The EU-Turkey deal lauded by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a possible “breakthrough” in the refugee crisis met with considerable criticism after being presented to the European Parliament on Wednesday,… Read more »