Category: Central/Eastern Europe

Inside Russia’s social media wars

     

Marrying a hundred years of expertise in influence operations to the new world of social media, Russia may finally have gained the ability it long sought but never fully achieved… Read more »

E.U.’s democratic values ‘up for grabs’ in Poland

     

Poland’s alleged slide from democracy came under scrutiny from fellow European Union states on Tuesday, with some openly questioning the nationalist government in Warsaw’s commitment to EU values, Reuters reports:… Read more »

Ukraine sanctions Russian social media amid Crimea’s virtual blackout

     

Ukraine has moved to block access to top Russian social media sites and search-and-email portals, adding them to a list of companies and individuals sanctioned over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea… Read more »

As West dithers, Russia ups its game in the Balkans

     

Tensions are rising between west and east and over the Balkans. Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and other Balkan countries that aspire to EU membership remain a long way from entry because… Read more »

Russia’s info warfare stoking tensions, sowing discord – not advancing coherent ideology

     

Russia has recently been accused of stoking tensions in the Balkans by waging ‘information warfare’ in the region, notes Jarosław Wiśniewski. Even if these allegations are true, the West should… Read more »

Advancing democracy the antidote to populist wave – Condoleezza Rice

     

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is alarmed by the political wave of rising populism, nativism, protectionism and isolationism, calling them “the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,”  Global Politico reports…. Read more »

Has democracy reached a breaking point?

     

Across the world, experts say democratic states are facing their biggest test in years as they attempt to cope with a loss of trust in public institutions and growing disenchantment… Read more »

Is Russia’s anti-corruption movement Putin’s Kryptonite?

     

  Russian President Vladimir Putin today criticized opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, indirectly accusing him of using his anticorruption campaign to gain political prominence, RFE/RL reports: Without naming Navalny in comments… Read more »

What the beginning of the end of democracy looks like

     

The United States has been the modern world’s most influential country and has promoted democracy passively by serving as a model and actively through its diplomatic efforts, aid, and even military and covert action… Read more »