Romania the Leanest, Central Europe and Baltics Among Heaviest In the EU
Eurostat survey shows positive correlation between age and obesity, and a drop in obesity as education levels increase. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Netherland’s Rutte still mired in Ukraine referendum aftermath
At the EU summit overnight (20-21 October) Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte obtained little support for his proposals for a way forward following the referendum in which his compatriots rejected the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. …read more Source:...
Samuel Charap – Russias use of military force as a foreign policy tool
Russia has used its military beyond its borders with unprecedented frequency in the period since the invasion of Crimea in February 2014. In this PONARS Policy Memo Samuel Charap explains this behaviour, arguing that we should see Moscow’s use of force as one element of a broader coercive bargaining process. …read more Source:...
Head of Beleaguered Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Crimea detained after informing PACE of rights abuses
Archbishop Kliment, the Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Kyiv Patriarchate in Crimea, was detained on Oct 19. He was released this time but fears that Russia may be planning to ban him from occupied Crimea as it has Mustafa Dzhemliev and others …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection...
Europe Funds Russian Aggression in Ukraine, Syria, and Beyond
On October 20, the Council of the European Union will consider its strategy toward the Russian Federation. Following the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Europe faces a genuine challenge: to recognize Russian aggression against Ukraine for what it is, and to provide truly effective measures to stop Moscow...
Russian Soldiers Sent to Ukraine Tracked by Hypermarkets and Unmarked Graves
Moscow’s continued denial of direct military aggression in Ukraine convinces nobody, it seems, with the latest confirmation coming from an unexpected, if sadly typical, source …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection...
Russia is systematically driving tortured Ukrainian political prisoner insane
Russia’s Ukrainian political prisoner Stanislav Klykh’s rejection of his lawyer on Oct 17 and request for a singer to replace her is almost certainly linked with his psychologically disturbed state after 10 months of torture and psychotropic drugs, yet Russia is continuing to deny him a proper psychiatric assessment …read more...
Sentsov’s lawyer to defend Russia’s new tortured ‘Ukrainian Crimea saboteur’ hostage
2 and a half years after Russia’s FSB first seized Crimean filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and 3 other opponents of Russia’s annexation, and charged them with a non-existent ‘terrorist plot’, the same scenario is being followed with (at least) two other Ukrainians. Yevhen Panov and Andriy Zakhtei have been illegally taken to Moscow with...
Turkish Stream: The Cost of Russia’s Stubbornness
Unlike Russian gas pumped via Ukraine and Germany, that flowing through Turkey will face tough competition from Azerbaijani, Iranian, Iraqi, and possibly even Turkmen and Israeli gas. Gazprom’s rivals won’t need to ship their gas as far, and they will have much lower pipeline construction costs. The gas market in southeastern Europe...
America’s Russia Policy Has Failed
By any number of measures, Washington’s Russia policy has failed. While ostensibly suffering from diplomatic and economic isolation under a U.S.-led international sanctions regime, Moscow has succeeded in challenging a wide range of American interests, most notably in Ukraine, Syria, and cyberspace. Coming up with a new approach on Russia...
