Shrinking space for Kazakhstan’s civil society

     

First, there was a media report hinting at shadowy links between foreign-funded charities and terrorism in Kazakhstan. Then, the taxman came knocking, notes analyst Joanna Lillis. The tax inspections served as… Read more »

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Poland’s drift ‘backwards and to the East’ a denial of European values

     

Poland’s prime minister has made a televised speech defending the ruling party’s controversial reorganization of the country’s legal system that includes giving politicians influence over the judiciary, including the country’s… Read more »

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Rethinking Political Islam?

     

  The Qatar quarrel may seem like a tempest in an Arabian teapot, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius writes. But at its heart is the question that has vexed the… Read more »

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Russia’s fellow travelers aid disinformation in ‘cooler Cold War’

     

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been excised from two major upcoming releases. The move reportedly shows that Hollywood’s nerves are shredded after the cyber attacks… Read more »

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‘A sickness beyond borders’ – understanding and combatting media capture

     

Recent developments in South Africa have highlighted how state capture has emerged as an increasingly dangerous threat to democratic governance and to prospects for democratic transition. According to a definition… Read more »

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Human rights a casualty of Philippines’ ‘war on drugs’

     

President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial campaign against illegal drugs in the Philippines will be the subject of a hearing at the U.S. Congress this week. The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission… Read more »

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Bearing the brunt of Russia’s disinformation strategy

     

As the US and the EU imposed sanctions on Russia over the MH17 downing that was by then accepted as mass murder, Moscow responded by claiming that documents purporting to… Read more »

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Kadyrov flaunts Chechnya’s de facto independence

     

The July 18 episode of HBO’s “Real Sports” features a surprising interview subject—Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, in his first interview with a Western journalist since 2014,… Read more »

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Where are the bodies buried in North Korea? Regime conducts public executions for theft, watching S Korea media

     

Efforts to hold the Kim regime accountable for decades of brutality against North Korea’s people have so far amounted to little, but that isn’t stopping human rights activists from trying… Read more »

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