Page 6 - bne_Magazine_May_2018_print

6 I The Month That Was bne May 2018
Politics
Eastern Europe
The US Department of Treasury has released an update to the sanctions against Russia, with seven Russian tycoons, 12 major companies and 17 government officials added to the Spe- cially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN List). Oligarch Oleg Deripaska was singled out for specially tough action.
The US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin considers the so-called "nuclear option" of sanctioning Rus- sian sovereign debt is still a bad idea, after a draft bill including the measure was introduced to Congress last week. The US government has caused turmoil in the Russian securities with a new round of sanctions that some are calling a “game changer.”
Russia's agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has threatened Belarus with a potato ban if it keeps re-exporting Egyptian-grown pota- toes as its own in defiance of a trade ban imposed on Egypt by Russia.
Ukraine will impose sanctions against Russian oligarchs recently hit by US sanctions, the nation's President Petro Poroshenko told journalists during
the joint briefing with Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel following their bilateral talks in Berlin.
Central Europe
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) ended the monthly vigils to com- memorate the 2010 plane crash in
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Smolensk, Russia. The crash killed then president Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 other people, including top military brass and other officials.
A crowd of an estimated 55,000 people – mostly women – protested in Warsaw against apparent plans to push through an amendment to the current abortion law that would ban termination due to fetal abnormality. Tens of other Polish cities and towns also saw protests in a demonstration of defiance to the conservative forces in power in Poland.
in the 1990s. Seselj said after the verdict he was “proud of all war crimes”.
The Albanian parliament descended into chaos as opposition MPs pelted Prime Minister Edi Rama and other cabi- net ministers with eggs and flour during a discussion of the arrests of protesters against the country’s first toll road. The toll, which local residents backed by the main opposition parties say is too high, has become one of the country’s most contentious issues.
Thousands of Moldovans rallied
in support of reunification with Romania. The event marked 100 years since the unification of the region of Bessarabia, most of which was part of modern-day Moldova, with Greater Romania, in 1918.
The small HRAST party quit Croatia’s ruling coalition over the planned rati- fication of the Istanbul Convention. The decision leaves Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic with a very fragile parliamen- tary majority.
Eurasia
As expected President Ilham Aliyev won a landslide victory in the snap presidential election in Azerbaijan. His fourth term will run until 2025 having been extended following the 2016 referendum.
Azerbaijan and Iran signed eight cooperation agreements during a meeting between presidents Hassan Rouhani and Ilham Aliyev. Their two Shi'a-majority countries have lately left some historical animosities aside. A recently built railway connection unites the Azerbaijani and Iranian railway net- works and Rouhani and Aliyev presented a common front when it came to the Caspian Sea map.
Slovakia's long-dominant political party Smer-SD party is dropping in opinion polls in the aftermath of the murder of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée and the ensuing politi- cal crisis focused on perceived corrup- tion in government. A recent poll by the AKO agency showed support had dropped from 24.7% in February to 20.7% in April.
The embattled Hungary-based Central European University (CEU) is plan- ning a move to Vienna, having signed
a memorandum of understanding on establishing a campus in the Austrian capital. Hungary tightened rules govern- ing the operations of foreign universities in spring 2017.
Southeast Europe
Serbian far-right leader Vojislav Seselj was sentenced to 10 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the civil war caused by the breakup of Yugoslavia