Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 19 February 2015
This report is for the media and the general public. The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements”. The SMM, based on its monitoring – which was restricted by third parties and by security considerations – noted a limited number of ceasefire violations in the Luhansk region and...
European MPs Protest Jailing of Two Men by Armenia’s Puppet Nagorno-Karabakh Regime
For two decades, the world has paid scant attention to the everyday injustices Armenia has perpetrated during its occupation and brutalization of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding, occupied territory. Today, perhaps, that is changing, and a reckoning is coming. Armenia has illegally occupied twenty percent of Azerbaijan for...
Spain 1936-1939; Ukraine, 2014-?
This article will be published in the March 2 edition of The Weekly Standard.Last week’s Minsk agreement, by which France and Germany in effect codified the cession to Russia of Kiev’s sovereignty over southeastern Ukraine, has temporarily taken the issue of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine off the table and thus off the...
Groups Lay Out Serbian Media’s Plight, Privatizations Planned in Bosnia
Plus, currency and export woes pose problems for Moldova’s new government, and Croatia gears up for more oil and gas drilling. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Oligarchs after the Maidan: the old system in a ‘new’ Ukraine
2015-02-16Wojciech KonończukThere have been major changes in the balance of forces among the key Ukrainian oligarchs, representatives of big business with strong political influence, since the victory of the Maidan revolution. However, these changes have not undermined the oligarchic system per se. Over the past decade or so, the oligarchs have...
Caught Between the Ruble and Red Tape
Belarus’ sole traders are sinking as the currency slides and new customs regulations kick in. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
OSCE Secretary General addresses White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism
Communication and Media Relations Section The OSCE’s comprehensive approach to security, which embraces human rights and democracy, economics and environment as well as politico-military security, offers a powerful antidote to violent extremism, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier told high-level officials from around the world at the...
Whether Minsk Deal Holds or Not, Ukraine Has Time to Save Itself
Ukraine’s latest ceasefire agreement will not make constitutional reform happen, but the deal can help refocus Ukrainian and Western attention on that process. …read more Source: Carnegie Endowment for International...
Russia refuses to make the compromises that would lead to de-escalation in Donbas
A cease-fire reached on 12 February 2015 stop fighting in eastern Ukraine echoes a similar pact struck five months ago. This time the leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia were present to bless – although they did not sign – a deal that could be the last chance to halt a conflict that has spiraled toward all-out war over the past month,...
At OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Winter Meeting, ODIHR Director stresses importance of joint observation efforts for local elections in Ukraine’s east
VIENNA, 19 February 2015 –Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in an address today to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) annual Winter Meeting, stressed the importance of an effective, co-operative effort in observing local elections agreed for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions...
