Category: Europe

Mustafa Dzhemilev: Crimean Tatars ‘known for history of nonviolent resistance’

     

Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, this week claimed to have discovered and terminated the activity of a so-called ‘extremist group’, allegedly created by Crimean Tatar leaders Mustafa Dzhemilev (above)… Read more »

Countering Gray Zone Tactics: Russia’s hybrid threats to Western democracies

     

Britain’s MI5 spy chief accused Russia on Monday on attempting to subvert Western democracies by sowing disinformation and spreading lies, Reuters reports. “The Russian state’s now well-practised doctrine of blending… Read more »

Muzzled Media: ‘perfect storm’ threatens press freedom

     

Independent media are facing a “perfect storm” of challenges, from capture by oligarchs to the emergence of “post-truth” politics, says Mark Nelson, director of the Center for International Media Assistance… Read more »

Macron promotes ‘grand narratives’ for democratic renewal

     

Europe’s most dynamic political leader, Emmanuel Macron, pays a state visit to Washington this week. The French president has emerged as the West’s most formidable opponent of populist nationalism and… Read more »

Russian kleptocrats ‘fraught with anxieties’: why the latest sanctions will bite

     

The lives of Russian kleptocrats in Britain are suddenly fraught with new anxieties, the Washington Post reports: Critics in London of Russian President Vladimir Putin are reevaluating their need for… Read more »

Democracies under duress from ‘global menace’ of populism

     

The populist threat to democracy “would be sure to grow” unless policy-makers address changes in the nature of employment and “rebuild the links among work, opportunity, and economic security,” according… Read more »

Russia looks to Balkans as a battlefield in ‘political war’ with the West

     

With migration, Russian aggressiveness and Brexit, the European Union is taking the western Balkans seriously again, the New York Times reports: The bloc’s strategy for the Western Balkans, published in February,… Read more »

Hungary’s election result ‘disproves resilience of democratic institutions’?

     

  Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party signalled on Monday it could push on with legislation to crack down on organisations promoting migrant rights as soon as parliament reconvenes after Prime Minister… Read more »

Is EU ‘enabling’ Hungary’s authoritarian kleptocracy?

     

Hungary is no longer a democracy, says Nóra Köves, an activist with the pro-democracy Eötvös Károly Institute. “I wouldn’t say that, no. Not, I think, any more. We are heading to… Read more »