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Eastern Europe
June 2, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
by June 15. If a majority of apartment owners vote against demolition, the building remains. But the vague wording of the initial plan also leaves the door open for authorities to knock down “similar” buildings. The list of affected houses also includes “perfectly sturdy brick buildings as well as the prefabricated khrushchevki”, the Carnegie Mos- cow Centre added.
The last truly large-scale protests in Moscow took place in 2011-12 when tens of thousands of peo- ple attended rallies to decry electoral fraud that saw the Kremlin-loyal United Russia party win a majority in the lower chamber of parliament. Op- position leaders were persecuted and some jailed, and tough protest laws were passed, bringing the actions eventually to an end.
Russians have since largely rallied behind their president and government in the showdown with the West over Ukraine. But new eruptions of
Dutch parliament ratifies EU-Ukraine free trade and association deal
bne IntelliNews
The upper house of the Dutch parliament on May 30 ratified the free trade and association deal between the EU and Ukraine even though more than 60% of Dutch voters had rejected the trade pact with Ukraine in a non-binding referendum in April 2016.
The Senate motion followed February’s ratification of the document by the Dutch House of Representatives. To complete the procedure, the pact should be submitted to the King of the
discontent over issues like housing can threaten to snowball with wider grievances as the 2018 election approaches. Putin, who has not yet an- nounced his candidacy, is expected to stroll to a fourth term in the Kremlin. Medvedev still re- mains, but is likely to be replaced before the elec- tions to spare Putin from being tainted by associa- tion with the waning popularity of the premier.
But even if the Moscow demolition controversy is resolved peacefully, this could sow future trouble for the city and national authorities. Horizontal networks of citizens mobilised by the housing cri- sis will stay in place to tackle other issues, warns the Carnegie Moscow Centre. “New dissenters have ample opportunity to express their opinion in the coming months, with a number of elections looming on the political horizon, ranging from municipal Moscow elections in September to the presidential election early next year,” it says.
Path to agreement's ratification was “long and much harder” than the Ukrainians had imagined, says President Petro Poroshenko.
Netherlands for signing and then be officially published.
“Today’s vote in the Dutch Senate sends an important signal from the Netherlands and the entire European Union to our Ukrainian friends: Ukraine’s place is in Europe. Ukraine’s future lies with Europe,” EU Commission President Jean- Claude Juncker said in a statement.
Signed in 2014, the Association Agreement with