Page 6 - bne_November 2018_20181105

6 I The Month That Was bne November 2018
Politics
Eastern Europe
Russia may be excluded from the number of participants in the Council of Europe (PACE) if it does not trans- fer contributions to the organization’s budget by the middle of next year, said the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland.
Central Europe
Istvan Tarlos will run for a third con- secutive term as mayor of the Hungar- ian capital Budapest in next year's local government elections. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has asked the incumbent mayor of Budapest to run again, as while he is not a member of the ruling Fidesz party, he has a massive lead in the polls.
Lithuania will hold a referendum on dual citizenship at the same time as the presidential and European Parlia- ment elections in May 2019. MPs voted in favour of the plan following pressure from citizens in the country of 2.85mn that has a very high emigration rate.
Czech President Milos Zeman suggest- ed scrapping the Senate in an interview with Czech Radio. The president also laid into so-called “solar barons” whom he described as “economic f***ers”, prompt- ing a number of complaints to the Radio and Television Broadcasting Council over his language.
Southeast Europe
Bulgarian journalist Victoria Mari- nova was brutally murdered. A 21-year-old local man on suspicion of
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raping and killing Marinova was detained in Germany. The police said they were working on several different theories for the murder, including those related to her work – she hosted an investigative
TV show – and personal life.
Without prospects of joining the EU in future, the Western Balkans might face new military conflicts soon, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker warned. Juncker added that the history of the 1990s still has not been overcome in the Balkans.
A Slovenian think tank claimed the “big- gest ever” theft of votes and fraud took place during the recent general election in Bosnia. The Ljubljana-based International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) argued the vote should not be recognised.
A rift appeared within Bulgaria’s junior ruling party, the far right United Patriots. The National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria, one of the trio that makes up the United Patriots, says it will withdraw its support for parliamentary faction leader Volen Siderov amid a spat over plans for next year’s European Parliament elections.
Eurasia
A Kazakh court sentenced the former mayor of Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty in absentia to 17 years in prison. Viktor Khrapunov and his wife Leila Kharpunova were found guilty of fraud, creating and running an organised crime group, money laundering, abuse of office, and embezzlement.
Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian is backing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s plan to force snap gen- eral elections in Armenia in Decem- ber. Tsarukian's move comes one week after he was pushed out of the govern- ing coalition formed after the country’s spring ‘people’s revolution’.
Tajikistan established an alternate route for deliveries of goods from Azerbaijan, which bypasses Turkmenistan, Trend news agency reported. The development follows Turkmenistan’s blockading of Tajik trucks as well as trucks from other countries with Tajikistan as their final destination.
Transparency International Georgia accused the government of an "unprec- edented attack" on NGOs prior to the presidential elections on October 28. The transparency watchdog is pulling out of the Georgian Inter-Agency Commission for Free and Fair Elections in response, saying it "no longer sees potential for maintaining a constructive dialogue with the government”.
Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court ordered the immunity enjoyed by ex-presidents to be cancelled, ruling it unconstitutional. The ruling comes at a time when current President Sooranbai Jeenbekov appears to be locked in a power struggle with his predecessor Almazbek Atambayev, who stepped down in November 2017.
Mongolia's parliament voted to dismiss transport minister Bat-Erdene Jadam- ba after an official was beaten to death inside the ministry's building in August. The killing allegedly by a fellow official is believed to be related to a dispute over a ministry job – government jobs are highly sought-after in the country.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev blames the lack of industry in the Fergha- na Valley on his predecessor’s widow. A recording leaked to RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service revealed that Mirziyoyev considered Islam Karimov’s wife, Tatyana Karimova, and her sister-in-law Tamara were ultimately respon- sible for the situation in the vital region.
The US asked the International Court of Justice to throw out a claim by Iran to retrieve bank assets worth $1.75bn impounded by US courts during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In 2016, the US Supreme Court ruled that the funds must be turned over to American families of victims of alleged Iranian terrorist attacks.