Category: Central/Eastern Europe

Ukraine: trans-Atlantic alliance should counter Russian aggression

     

U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker says Russia needs to release the Ukrainian sailors taken captive in the Kerch Strait in late November by Christmas or “before the new… Read more »

EU launches ‘war against disinformation’: resisting Russia’s ‘populace-centric warfare’

     

Russia’s efforts to weaken America’s democratic institutions aren’t limited to elections — but also extend to the U.S. justice system, a group of cybersecurity, national security and legal experts told… Read more »

Could democratic world feel the heat from Paris?

     

France is the latest European country to experience an upsurge of anti-elitist sentiment ripe for exploitation by populist or illiberal forces. The demonstrators known as gilets jaunes — “yellow vests,” named after… Read more »

A ‘dark day for freedom’: Hungary’s democracy ‘dying a slow death’

     

European Union leaders warned that it was a red line, and dared Hungary not to cross it. The U.S. ambassador pegged the issue as his top priority. In the streets of… Read more »

Ukraine’s presidential race is ‘wide-open, says poll

     

Ukraine’s March 2019 presidential race is “wide-open,” according to a new poll of Ukrainians by the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Center for Insights in Survey Research. The survey reveals growing support for… Read more »

Putin’s ‘masterclass in despotism’ threatens Ukraine’s fragile democracy

     

A Russian court has ordered several of the Ukrainian sailors who were captured by Russian coast-guard forces during a confrontation at sea off Crimea to be held in custody for… Read more »

‘Striking fragility’ in willingness to defend core democratic values?

     

The illiberal attitudes underpinning the populist upsurge in Europe are not unique to that continent, analysts suggest. There is a striking fragility in Americans’ willingness to defend core democratic values,… Read more »

Persuasive populism enters the mainstream

     

Populist parties have more than tripled their support in Europe in the last 20 years, securing enough votes to put their leaders into government posts in 11 countries and challenging… Read more »

The Power of Focus: Proposal for a ‘European Magnitsky Act’

     

Germany has halted arms sales to Riyadh and agreed with France to place a travel ban on several Saudi nationals following the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, raising international pressure on… Read more »

Why disinformation impacts democracies and autocracies differently

     

Democracies are vulnerable to disinformation campaigns that “flood” public debate and disrupt shared understandings of actors and coalitions, in ways that autocracies are not, research suggests. That’s because there are… Read more »