Page 6 - BNE_magazine_bne_September 2019

6 I The Month That Was bne September 2019
Politics
Eastern Europe
Russia's Federal Security Bureau (FSB) will be given new powers
that will allow it to block websites without the need for a court order, Kommersant daily reported on August 6 citing unnamed sources.
Russia’s Investigative Committee announced during protests in Moscow last weekend that it had opened a criminal case into the laundering
of RUB1bn ($15.3mn) by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). Authorities raided the FBK’s office in Moscow as part of the investigation, the committee said.
The US has enacted a second round
of sanctions that analysts say are largely symbolic against Russia linked to the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal on British soil, Bloomberg reported on August 3 citing the US State Department. The new sanctions, effec- tive of August 26, will prohibit US banks from participating in the issuance of Russian sovereign debt but do not stop them buying on the secondary market, the State Department and Treasury Department said in separate statements.
Zelenskiy conducts talks with Putin after four soldiers killed. The morning four Ukrainian soldiers were shot and killed in the war-torn Donbas region, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy placed a telephone call to Russian President Putin to request that he use his influence to stop the aggression. “I urgently called him and said this doesn’t bring us closer to peace,” Zelenskiy said.
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has signed a special decree setting the date for the next elections to the House of Representatives – the lower house of the nation's parliament – for November 17, the presidential media office said on August 5.
Central Europe
Campaigning for the next general election in Poland has kicked off after President Andrzej Duda on August
6 issued an official decision setting polling day as October 13. According to Polish laws, the next general election in Poland must be held between October 13 and November 10.
Several Polish cities held rallies and marches in support of Poland’s LGBT community on July 27-28 after thugs attacked an equality march a week earlier. The recently united Polish left- wing parties held the events in protest against attacks that they linked to the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and the anti-gay message that Poland’s Catholic Church has been spreading
in support of the government.
Slovakia's Regional Directorate of the Police Corps halted the prosecution of former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar for abusing his office in an amnesty case from 1995, the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Bratislava Matej Izakovic said, the Slovak News Agency (SNA) reported on July 6.
Southeast Europe
Around 5,000 protesters from across Turkey gathered on the outskirts of Kira- zli in the west of the country to protest against a Canadian-owned gold mine project they claim will pollute the envi- ronment and strip the landscape of far more trees than was communicated in the EIA. The gold mine project is owned by Dogu Biga Mining, the Turkish sub- sidiary of Canada-based Alamos Gold. Alamos claims the protest was based
on “political misinformation”.
Media NGOs expressed concerns and criticised Bulgarian authorities for putting pressure on independent investigative news outlet Bivol.bg.
A European investigation order issued against Bivol.bg’s editor-in-chief Atanas
Tchobanov claims he is related to a hack attack that led to the leaking of personal and financial data of more than 5mn people.
The leaders of Bosnia & Herzegovina's three main parties reached a deal to form a state-level government, ending a 10-month political crisis. The break- through hinged on a vaguer commit- ment to seeking Nato membership.
Slavi Trifonov, anchorman of popular TV programme “Slavi’s Show”, will set up
a new political party, named No Such State, on October 5. The party’s name refers to people’s dissatisfaction with state institutions.
Eurasia
Azerbaijan accused Armenian PM Nikol Pashinian of "provoking" tensions by paying an "illegal" visit to breakaway territory Nagorno-Karabakh dur-
ing which in a speech he described the region as “Armenian, and that’s that”. Pashinian's speech was "aggressive" and a "major blow" to internationally medi- ated negotiations, Baku said.
Turkmen state TV broadcast footage
of rumoured-to-be-dead President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov driving
a rally car around Turkmenistan’s Hell’s Gate flaming gas crater and scoring three strikes in a bowling game. Officials appear to be concerned that the speculation that autocrat Berdimu- hamedov is deceased or is in poor health won’t go away. They say he is simply on vacation.
British officials said the UK is to join the US in a naval mission in the Gulf to escort oil tankers at risk of seizure from Iran. The announcement fed suspi- cions in Iran that the UK, desperate for allies and markets as it moves towards a potentially wrenching Brexit in the late autumn, will bend over backwards to keep Donald Trump sweet.
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