Page 6 - bne_December 2017_20171204

6 I The Month That Was bne December 2017
Politics
Eastern Europe
Russian celebrity TV personality, journalist and socialite Xenia Sob- chak announced she is going to run for president in Russia's 2018 election. Sobchak will represent the "Against All" vote option, but is widely seen as a Krem- lin stooge. Genuine Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was banned from running in the presidential elec- tion not only in 2018, but also in 2024.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have gone to war with each other. The leading agency the National Anti-Cor- ruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has opened a criminal probe into suspected extortion by members of a sister anti- corruption body The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK) that is charge of the government e-declarations of income by civil servants. NABU has also opened an investigation into pos- sible embezzlement by the Infrastruc- ture Minister Volodymyr Omelyan.
Fresh Russian connections in the administration of the US President Donald Trump were revealed in the Paradise Papers. US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has was found to have a stake in shipping company Navigator through a chain of offshore investments, that is co-owned by Putin’s son-in-law and his petrochemical com- pany Sibur.
The latest round of US sanctions against Russia will not apply retroac- tively to Russian energy export pipe- line projects initiated before August 2 2017, according to a guidance from the US Department of State. The decision will be greeted with relief by the Kremlin and Gazprom which is building a gas pipe to Europe.
Central Europe
The Lithuanian parliament passed a version of the Magnitsky Act. The leg- islation – technically a part of the law on
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the legal status of aliens – will allow the Baltic state to impose sanctions on indi- viduals suspected of violating human rights or committing corruption.
The European Parliament adopted
a resolution calling on the EU Coun- cil to launch the so-called “nuclear option” against Poland to punish Warsaw for its alleged abuse of the
rule of law. The triggering of Article
7 of the Treaty on the European
Union could in theory lead to suspen- sion of Poland’s voting rights in the bloc.
Former Estonian Prime Minister
Taavi Roivas stepped down as deputy speaker of the parliament follow-
ing press accounts of alleged sexual harassment during a trade mission to Malaysia. The charges mark a new low for Roivas whose Reform Party’s coali- tion government collapsed in late 2016 and paved the way for the outcast Centre Party to take power in the Baltic state.
Southeast Europe
The ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) scored a landslide victory in the first local elections since it came to power. Previously, most local governments were under
the control of the rival VMRO-DPMNE, which went into opposition in May after a decade in power.
More than 5,000 employees of the Romanian public healthcare sector protested on October 19 against the government’s plans to transfer social security contributions from employers to employees. Labour Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu has admitted that most of a
promised 25% pay hike will be cancelled out by the policy.
Croatian police launched criminal investigations into 15 people con- nected to troubled food and retail giant Agrokor. Several former Agrokor executives were detained but the group’s founder Ivica Todoric, who is wanted
in connection with the case, has left the country along with his son Ante, a prominent Agrokor board member.
A new task force within the Alba- nian state police has been set up
and tasked with fighting organized crime in cooperation with agents from America’s FBI and Italy. The new force will be operational as of November 6, media in Tirana reported. The fight against criminal and drug trafficking has risen high in the list of priorities for the Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Eurasia
Saudi Arabia accused Iran of being behind an attempted Houthi rebel missile attack from Yemen on Riyadh's international airport that could consti- tute “an act of war”. The missile was shot down but the explosion was heard in the Saudi capital.
The leaking of the Paradise Papers revealed inner workings of Meridian Capital, a major Kazakh investment and holding company. Meridian has drawn on Kazkommertsbank deposits to fund project after project around the world until it went bust.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
on approved civil code amendments that will effectively decimate the legal profession. The amendments give the bar ultimate control of the legal profes- sion and only a tenth of lawyers active in Azerbaijan are members.