Page 6 - Buy Russia - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine April 2017

6 I The Month That Was bne April 2017
Politics
Central Europe
Donald Tusk was elected for a second two and a half year term as Euro- pean Council president, with Poland the only state to vote against. A Polish prosecutor has summoned Tusk to testify as a witness in a probe involving the suspected unauthorised coopera- tion of Polish and Russian counterintel- ligence services in 2010. The summons is widely seen as part of the Law and Justice government’s campaign against the former Polish premier.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn’s attempt to resolve the political deadlock in Macedonia received a setback when President Gjorge Ivanov cancelled his planned meeting with the commissioner on March 21. Macedonia has been with- out a government for more than three months after the December 11 snap election. Ivanov continues to block the formation of a Social Democrat-led government.
Turkey accounted for more than half of all Twitter content removal requests received worldwide by the social network during the second half of 2016. Requests from Turkish courts, police and government agencies have kept Turkey at the top of the removal applications ranking for three years.
The International Court of Justice dismissed Bosnia’s appeal against
a 2007 judgment in a genocide case against Serbia. The appeal was filed at the request of Bakir Izetbegovic, the Bosniak member of the tripartite presidency, but was not approved by the other two presidents.
Eastern Europe
Russians demonstrated against cor- ruption in the biggest numbers for several years. The protest in Moscow drew about 8,000 people, followed
by St Petersburg (3,000), Novosibirsk (2,000), Vladivostok (1,000), and up to several hundred protesters in most other large Russian cities. Alexei Navalny, who inspired the protests, was arrested again.
Belarusian riot police arrested hundreds of peaceful anti- government protesters who took part in rallies in Minsk and other cities on the March 25 Freedom Day marked
by the opposition. The crackdown comes after several weeks of lower- level detentions at smaller rallies that began as a protest against a tax on the
unemployed but grew into an anti- government campaign.
Ukraine banned Russian performer Yulya Samoylova from travelling
to Kyiv to take part in the Eurovi- sion song competition in May. The wheelchair-bound artist was deemed to have violated Ukraine’s sovereignty by performing on the annexed Crimean peninsula in 2015.
Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump's former election campaign manager, struck a covert deal with Kremlin-affiliated Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in 2006 to promote the interests of President Vladimir Putin abroad, AP reported.
Eurasia
Hundreds of protesters were dispersed in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek on March 25 after they took
to the streets following the detention
of ex-parliamentary deputy Sadyr Zhaparov. Similar protests were held after the detention of the head of Ata- Meken party, Omurbek Tekebayev, who also intended to run for the presidency during this year’s November elections.
Former Abkhaz President Alexander Ankvab secured a seat in the Georgian separatist republic’s parliament in the March 12 election, despite complaints from the ruling Forum of National Unity of Abkhazia Party who said Ankvab's candidacy would destabilise the break- away region.
The government of Azerbaijan
has decided to withdraw from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative after the EITI board suspended its membership at its quarterly meeting in Bogota for its continued crackdown on human rights. The withdrawal endangers Baku's ability to complete its big energy investment projects on time.
The European Commission dropped the last of its probes into Hungary's project to expand the Paks nuclear power plant. Hungary's planned €12bn expansion of its only nuclear plant has been controversial at home and abroad since the contract was handed to Rus- sian state nuclear agency Rosatom in January 2014. Russia will finance 80% of the project and operate the plant.
The Hungarian parliament voted for President Janos Ader to serve a second five-year term as the country's presi- dent. A long-time ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Ader easily achieved the simple majority required from Hungary's 199 MPs in the second round of voting.
Southeast Europe
The centre-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) won the early parliamentary elections held on March 26. According to preliminary results, GERB won 32.55% of the votes and is followed by the BSP (27.02%).
www.bne.eu