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6 I The Month That Was bne July 2019
Politics
Eastern Europe
Former Georgian President and ex- Odesa governor Mikheil Saakashvili will run for a seat in the parliamen- tary elections and has announced the top-five MP candidates for his Movement of New Forces political party. Candidates to the Rada should have been living in Ukraine for at least five years and Saa- kashvili doesn't meet this condition.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelen- skiy is going to restart the Normandy format peace talks between Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France. "We agreed on the importance of updat-
ing cooperation within the Normandy format. Our foreign policy advisers will meet in the near future and prepare the next meeting of the leaders. This is a key issue," Zelenskiy told journalists fol- lowing a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on June 17.
Baring Vostok Capital Partners (BVCP) has given up in its fight to retain control of the Orient Express Bank (OEB, aka Vostochniy Bank) and called off lawsuits brought against its former Russian partners, who have been accused of abusing the court system in their battle to take control of the bank.
Ukraine’s Constitutional Court ruling can’t halt elections, commissioner says. Any ruling by the Constitutional Court on the president’s decree dis- missing parliament and calling early elections isn’t capable of halting the elections, Central Election Commission Head Tetiana Slipachuk said in an inter- view with the BBC.
Central Europe
Poland signed a defence cooperation declaration with the US that could
see Washington add 1,000 troops to its current forces in Poland. The declara- tion still needs to be followed by a final agreement. But the possibility of deploy- ment of more US troops onto Polish soil
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is seen as strengthening both the Polish- US alliance as well as Nato’s deterrence capability, aimed at Russia.
Three-quarters of Czechs are against the adoption of the euro, according to recent research published by the Czech Public Opinion Research Centre (CVVM). According to the poll, only 20% of Czechs want to adopt the common Euro-
pean currency while 75% are against.
The European Commission opened
an in-depth investigation into Lithu- anian support for energy company AB Lietuvos Energija. The Commission's investigation concerns an electricity strategic reserve measure, which was in place in Lithuania until 2018, that it suspects could have unduly favoured the company and distorted competition in the EU Single Market.
The government submitted a bill to par- liament on June 5 that would relocate the network of research institutions of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) to a government-run body. The bill also stipulates the takeover of the Academy's property, which may violate the Constitution.
Southeast Europe
A constitutional crisis erupted as two rival governments are installed in Moldova. The parliament endorsed a new government led by Maia Sandu of the pro-EU ACUM bloc, that has since been recognised by EU nations and Russia, but the outgoing government
is refusing to leave its offices.
Albania’s governing Socialist Party attempted to impeach President Ilir Meta after the president signed a decree cancelling the June 30 local elections. Meta said conditions do not exist for “true, democratic, representative and all- inclusive elections”, following months of protests and an opposition boycott.
Eurasia
Some 1,879,413 people have left Turkmenistan within the last 10 years on a permanent basis, opposition-run news website Chronicles of Turkmeni- stan reported, citing government figures revealed by Radio Azatlyk. The figures were supposedly classified by the Turkmen government, which worries that the rev- elation would “discredit” the regime’s rule.
Russia backed Japan’s plan to play a role in helping to resolve the stand-off between Iran and the US, an official in Tokyo said on May 30 after a meeting of the Japanese and Russian foreign and defence ministers in Tokyo.
Iran and Turkey finalised an agree- ment to restart direct passenger train services between Ankara and Tehran, News.am reported. It is not clear why the service was cancelled in the first place, but it is likely that it was down to previous political tensions that occurred before the rapprochement seen between the two neighbours in more recent times.
MPs in Armenia’s parliament unani- mously approved amendments to
the country’s “Lotteries” law which prohibit bookmakers’ activities in the capital Yerevan from 2020. The project sparked a protest from employees of the GoodWin company who mounted street protests saying further crackdowns on brick and mortar betting parlours could put thousands out of work across the country.