Whether you call it “dangling lucrative incentives,” or outright vote-buying, it seems likely that Silvio Berlusconi was able to heavily influence the successful outcome of Tuesday’s censure poll that allowed him to avoid calling new elections and imperil his administration. But one could argue that he truly owes whatever remains of his career to his […]
Hat-tip to Frédéric LeMaître for reminding me of this: Maybe the biggest opponent of the apocalyptic, Thomas Mann-induced vision of a German Europe that Alphaville has been fearing and which I invoked in a recent post, might actually be Germany itself. Ulrike Guérot from ECFR has put forward an argument recently that Germany were in […]
Noting the “ongoing deterioration of the situation on the ground” as Israel resumes settlement expansion, a group of former EU leaders last Friday called on the EU to take concrete action, with “consequences,” to force Israel back to the negotiating table. Among their demands: laying out a final plan, with a clear time frame, to […]
Arguably the most fascinating exercise one can indulge in ever since the early days of the eurozone crisis is to compare the coverage of said crisis in the German media discourse with that everywhere else in Europe. Within Germany, the focus lies on the hard-working, financially frugal Germans who fail to understand why they should […]
One of the latest Wikileaks that might cause a serious rift between friendly nations is the assumption by officials that Russia and Mr. Putin have a stronger relationship with organised crime within Russia and abroad that realised and that this relationship is often used to promote national goals. These accusations focus mostly on the sale […]
More Europe or else. Considering the problems facing the euro, more Europe seems to be the only alternative to a euro meltdown that could jeopardize the entire European project. European Central Bank boss, Jean-Claude Trichet, is not in doubt. In a meeting with the European Parliament´s economic and monetary affairs committee, Trichet called for a […]
Sunday’s Wikileaks release containing some 250,000 diplomatic cables included headline-creating news regarding Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. One of the cables, marked as “confidential” (not a terribly high level of secrecy) was “classified” and perhaps written by Donald Lu, who at the time was the US Chargé d’Affaires in Baku. The cable summarizes in great detail […]
In a stunning development, Emin Milli, the second so-called “donkey blogger,” was granted a release from prison today by an Azerbaijani court. Details are still sketchy, and Radio Free Europe does not appear to have confirmation yet that Milli is actually out as of press time. One of my sources claims that Milli has been released, […]
Faced with considerable pressure to tap into the eurozone bailout fund, Ireland seems about ready to buckle. In particular, Spain and Portugal (worried that Ireland’s troubles will spread, sending their bond yields, and thus borrowing costs, even higher) have shouted from the rooftops of the necessity for Ireland to apply for bailout funds. Although the […]
This blog may have been the first news source anywhere (or at least the first non-Azeri source) to confirm that Adnan Hajizade was actually released from prison – although RFE/RL was apparently first to report the court’s decision to release him. See attached two superb pictures taken by freelance journalist Turkhan Karimov. Karimov emailed me, saying […]
On November 19 and 20, Lisbon will be hosting the latest NATO Summit. The main purpose behind the Summit will be to adopt a new ‘Strategic Concept’ and try to bring Russia closer to the Alliance. This Summit is extremely important for the future of the Alliance and transatlantic relations. For these reasons, I will […]
In a surprise move, jailed “donkey blogger” Adnan Hajizade was released from prison in the last two hours. He had been serving a two-year sentence on charges of “hooliganism” after being mauled by thugs in a Baku cafe in 2009. Coincidentally, the charges and the assault took place not long after Hajizade produced (and starred […]
Big news out of Georgia (which is where I am until 17 November), where thirteen men were arrested on charges of spying for Russia, Georgia’s nemesis. Most of the men were arrested in October, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs made the announcement on 5 November, perhaps due to Reuters breaking the story a week […]
A proposition for major cuts on the uniformed and civilian division of the German army has been suggested to the German Defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg by an expert commission. The plan would be to downgrade the Bundeswehr from 250.000 to 180.000. Mr. zu Guttenberg has been calling for cutting military spending by professionalizing the […]
This is nothing new per se of course, it has been argued before that European integration proceeds only when faced with an important obstacle. In that sense once again the financial crises have led to a number of heretofore unimaginable cooperative steps of governments giving up national sovereignty. The French President Sarkozy has proposed an […]