Blogging the democratic revolution
As part of my previous explication of the Hungarian political parties, and in order to convey how the parties involved are pretty counter-intuitive to American standards, I????????m presenting excerpted transcriptions of speeches regarding the upcoming elections. The first is by Viktor Orb????n, head of FIDESZ, who is presenting his eighth ???????state of the country??????? address…
Traian Basescu, the President of Romania delivered yesterday a speech at the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg. He talked about several issues, like the importance of the Black Sea, Romania’s accession to EU, the current status quo and the future of the Moldavian Republic, the national minorities status, Transdniestria, etc. The Romanian Ziua…
In democratizing countries emerging from tyranny, where tremendous injustice has occurred, there is usually some effort to call the past into account. South Africa is a good example, where truth commissions have forged national reconciliation, and Germany after World War II is another, where Naziism was totally repudiated and renounced, and large compensation payments were…
In the Bucharest Daily News, a little item pops up: the Hungarians want the Romanians to pass a minority status law. Yawn. What else is new? Oh. Yes. That EU thing. Speaking in Targu-Mures on Saturday during a two-day visit to Transylvania, Szili Katalin also spoke about cooperation between Hungary and Romania in view of…
From the cycle: ???????This can happen only in Romania???????? (and I????????m sure in the third world countries, but in theory Romania is not a part of that lot). I have wanted to share with you the story of Ion Dumitru, father of 7 children who has been kept in jail for 866 days, by mistake….
Index recently ran a condensed political analysis from financial analysts at Erste Bank, entitled The Market doesn’t care for Grand Coalitions. The upshot of the article is that across Central Europe, the political scene is characterized by weak parliamentary majorities. The writers give a general overview of East-Central Europe, which is unfortunately so severely condensed…
President Basescu’s administration believes that Romania should continue to promote its special relationship with the Arab world. In its 50 long and dark years of communism, Romania has developed friendly relations with the Arab and Muslim leaders, mainly with Yasser Arafat and Gadhafi. Nicolae Ceausescu????????s private ambition was to act as a mediator between Arafat…
Remember that whole deal between Russia and Ukraine that ended the gas crisis that the press and diplomats all over the place were cheering over like a teenage boy getting his first lap dance? Well, if you’ve been reading Publius then you’d know that there was some pretty shady behind-the-scenes dealing going on. Ex-Prime Minister…
I’m currently reading The Oligarchs, a truly fascinating book about the six everyday Soviet citizens who bought up Russia during the period of privatization and came to rule the country from behind the scenes. It’s very good, very detailed, and told smoothly like a story. The most fascinating part about it is not so much…
Here are some articles about RosUkrEnergo, the middle-man company being used in the gas deal between Russia and the Ukraine, and the particularly shady way it’s involved. – RFE/RL goes into the history of the company and why it was created. Let’s just say it involved a certain ex-president of Ukraine, a certain current president…
Our favorite babe of politics has come out swinging in the settlement of the gas dispute between the Ukraine and Russia, and will be challenging the deal in court. The reason has little to do with the actual price negotiated, but much more to do with the single issue that she really stands out on:…
In a recent poll, Russian citizens picked superlatives for their politicians, naming among others who is the most honest, the smartest, and even who is the sexiest. As for the latter, ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the ironically named Liberal Democracy Party took the prize for the sexiest politician in the country. Just take a look…
…in the context of Latin America’s failed economic reforms is a truly interesting comparison. After all, failed reforms in Latin America have left it at the mercy of increasingly hostile, unproductive, dead-end leftist leaders, while rule-of-law-loving Estonia has seen itself vault to nearly first-world status in just a few short revolutionary years. Mary Anastasia O’Grady…
The gas crisis that has shaken relations between the Ukraine, Russia, and the European Union is now over. The air is clearing, but whatever the politicians are saying now, the damage has been done. So the question begs: who came out on top of this? Or perhaps we should be asking who came out on…
Instead of letting them phase in following the New Year, President Yushchenko wants to hold a popular referendum on the constitutional changes that were agreed upon during the Orange Revolution last year. I smell a — dun dun dun — political ploy! KIEV (Reuters) – President Viktor Yushchenko said on Friday constitutional changes reducing his…
It looks like more truth is coming out about the Russian government’s 1) disregard for the hostages and 2) its attempt to cover up the raid on the Beslan school that was under siege. While the Russian government maintains that it stormed the school after terrorists explosives went off, new evidence shows that this was…
I’m going to be starting a new feature here at Publius, where I take excerpts from books I’m reading or have read and post them along with some additional background or commentary. The first book we’ll be going over will be Kremlin Rising, a detailed look at Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union,…
First it was September, then July, now March?? The Parliament in Belarus voted Friday to hold the countryés next presidential election in March, opening an accelerated campaign between its authoritarian leader, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, and a beleaguered opposition movement. The election will be a watershed for Belarus, which Mr. Lukashenko has led since 1994 with…
From this: To this: See the BBC report here. A Croatian general charged with war crimes has been arrested in Spain, the UN’s chief war crimes prosecutor says. Ante Gotovina – the third most-wanted suspect from the Balkan wars – was held in the Canary Islands on Wednesday. Gen Gotovina, 50, is accused over the…
Eurasia Daily Monitor has an in-depth article detailing pressure by Georgian President Saakashivili’s Rose Revolution government on the judiciary in the country. Widespread allegations about restrictions on judicial independence since the Rose Revolution have received new credibility following sensational confessions by four members of the Georgian Supreme Court. Tamaz Iliashvili, Merab Turava, David Sulakvelidze, and…
The North Ossetian parliamentary investigation into the Beslan massacre is out, and guess who caused the fabled first explosion? Last week, the results of a North Ossetian parliamentary investigation into the terrorist attack in Beslan were made public. The report went largely unnoticed. The pro-government media shied away from a number of awkward conclusions, while…
Russia, for some reason allowed to be a part of the OSCE, is fighting tooth and nail to dismember the best election monitoring team in the world. Why? Because behind Russia’s supposed concerns that the monitors are politically motivated, it is actually worried that the unveiling of more phony elections in its backyard will spark…
Hey, why is only President Putin and his entourage of ass-kissers dancing? That’s because the first parliamentary elections in Chechnya since 1997 were held on Sunday, in what the dear leaders over in Moscow are hailing as the last legal step toward restoring the region. It’s all a flash-by cinematic sequence for those watching in…
The rift between Poland and Belarus continues, with the leading Polish newspapers blacking out their front pages to protest censorship in its less democratic neighbor. Could you imagine the papers here in the U.S. taking such a stand? WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s two leading newspapers blacked out large sections of their front pages Wednesday in…
Garry Kasparov, writing for Newsweek International, calls President Putin out on the misnomer that he is a true ally of the West in the war on terror, and even less so committed to building a democratic society. And he really nails it. The embattled George W. Bush isn’t going to pick a fight with Mr….