Challenging Moldova’s pro-Western facade
An unknown assailant threw a grenade at the house of the governor of Moldova’s central bank overnight, RFE/RL reports: Bank chief Dorin Dragutanu and his family were asleep when the… Read more »
Search Results for: russia
Inward-looking EU ‘in hock to authoritarians’
Over the last five years, the European Council on Foreign Relations’ annual Scorecard has tracked the European Union’s diminishing ability to influence its neighbors. In 2015, the story became one… Read more »
Putinism, Islamism no alternative to liberal democracy
Russian President Vladimir Putin and the extremist Islamic State group are both engaged in efforts at state building that share two qualities: each seeks to create a political alternative to… Read more »
Are falling oil prices good for democracy?
Authoritarian regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Russia have had to slash government spending because of the drop in oil prices, notes Erik Voeten, Associate Professor of Geopolitics and Justice in… Read more »
Poland locked in battle of traditionalists vs modernizers
Three months after it voted for change, Poland is wracked by crisis. Just 38 per cent handed a victory to Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s national conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) and, for the… Read more »
‘Politics of fear’ threatens rights, prompts civil society ‘choke-out’
The politics of fear led to a global roll-back of human rights and a great civil society choke-out during 2015, according to the 659-page World Report 2016 from Human… Read more »
Democracy takes global ‘battering’
Global democracy has endured a battering over the past decade, and those who hoped for a brighter century may be wondering when to expect relief, note Mark Lagon, the president… Read more »
Fearing social instability, China waging ‘lawfare’ on NGOs
China’s Communist authorities are intensifying a crackdown on dissent, civil society and growing labor unrest, reflecting the ruling party’s concern that economic restructuring and dislocation will “threaten social stability.” “If… Read more »
Chaika: a criminal drama in five acts
Watched by over 5 million people in less than two months, the Anti-Corruption Foundation is now releasing the English version of a documentary that has shone the light on… Read more »
Oil price collapse good news for Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts
The global collapse of oil prices is good news for Ukraine, says Anders Åslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How… Read more »