Tag Archives: Europe

It seems clear that the plane crash which killed President Lech Kaczynski in Smolensk was the fault of the Polish pilots, however Warsaw was not too pleased by the level of cooperation during the investigation.  From the Wall Street Journal: Polish investigators sent their comments to Russia on Dec. 19, renewing requests for information on [...]

Just one week into 2011, the situation in Belarus continues to worsen. The severe crackdown following disputed elections in late December has resulted in hundreds of new political prisoners, gagged media, and regular police raids of various organizations and institutions. Democracy is no longer in the vocabulary, and by contrast even Russia enjoys greater respect [...]

Writing in the Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash argues that it’s time that Europe actually put a bit of pressure on the dictatorial regime of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, especially following his latest stolen election.  You’d be surprised by how much impact just a little nudge can have. Belarus is a far-away country of which most [...]

It seems to be a transformative moment in the Russia-Poland relationship, facilitated in large part by a change in attitude toward Katyn.  From Judy Dempsey in the New York Times: “The Poles realized that if they wanted influence in the E.U., particularly in foreign and security policy, they had to be more constructive in the [...]