Page 6 - bne_Magazine_May_2017_print

6 I The Month That Was bne May 2017
Politics
Central Europe
The Slovak parliament has revoked amnesties that former prime minister Vladimir Meciar issued to cover up the biggest scandal of his premiership. Meciar issued the amnesties in 1998 to 13 people, including the then head of the secret police, who were suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of the son of Michal Kovac, the then presi- dent, and the murder of a witness.
Slovak courts are viewed as the least independent in the EU, according
to a report released by the European Commission. According to the latest EU Justice Scoreboard, the Slovak public has the lowest level of trust in the inde- pendence of courts in the EU.
The EU warned Hungary that it may face legal action over Prime Minis-
ter Viktor Orban’s undermining of democracy and the rule of law. The EU’s left-liberal wing has long been crit- ical of Orban, but the recent effort to push Central European University out of Hungary has brought condemnation from members of his own conservative bloc, the European Peoples Party.
Czech lobbyist Marek Dalik, a back- room fixer close to former rightwing premier Mirek Topolanek, was freed from prison by the Supreme Court. Dalik was sentenced in February 2016 to five years in prison for allegedly demanding a €18mn bribe in Novem- ber 2007 from Austrian arms company Steyr in return for a CZK14bn contact to purchase Pandur armoured personnel carriers.
Southern Europe
Albania’s main opposition Demo- cratic Party has refused to register
to participate in the June 18 general election by the deadline. The upcoming election could pave the way for Albania to launch its long-awaited EU accession negotiations. However, an opposition boycott will undermine the legitimacy of the vote and risks delaying Albania’s progress towards EU accession.
Students have repeatedly protested in Belgrade and other Serbian cities against Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s victory in the April 2 presiden- tial election.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and chief of police Sergey Knyazev announced that Ukrainian and Moldovan law enforcement bod- ies carried out a joint operation to stop an attempt to assassinate Vlad Plahotniuc, president of the ruling Democratic Party of Moldova.
Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has announced plans for an external audit at the National Anticor- ruption Directorate (DNA), the Direc- torate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, and the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cas- sation and Justice. There have been sev- eral attempts to try to weaken the DNA’s credibility or to intimidate the head of the institution, while the government has also tried to water down anti-corruption legislation, leading to huge protests that forced the withdrawal of the legislation.
Eastern Europe
Belarusian President Alexander Lukash- enko has signed a new customs code of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union after months of delay caused by feuding with Moscow over oil and gas supplies, border security and terms of membership of post-Soviet integration organisations.
A bombing of the St Petersburg metro system killed 14 people and left more than 60 injured. The suspected sui- cide bomber was named as Akbarzhon Jalilov, who was born in Kyrgyzstan.
Speaker of the de facto parliament
of Russian-backed breakaway region South Ossetia, Anatoly Bibilov, won
a first-round victory in a presidential election. Russia, which has recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as indepen- dent after its brief 2008 war with Georgia, has signed a military agreement formal- ising the integration of South Ossetia’s military forces into the Russian army.
The European Bank for Reconstruc- tion and Development has warned Ukraine’s leadership that the pos- sible collapse of the country’s energy sector reform could “shatter inter- national confidence” in the current government.
Eurasia
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran as a failure, saying it can only delay Tehran’s goal of developing nuclear weapons. “An unchecked Iran has the potential to travel the same path as North Korea,” he said, also hitting out at Iran’s "alarming ongoing provocations" in the Middle East, and confirming that the Trump administration had launched a 90-day review of the nuclear deal.
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan completed the delimitation of 1,000 km of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. The failure to delineate border sections between the two countries has in the past even led to armed clashes.
President Serzh Sarksyan’s ruling Republican Party won Armenia’s par- liamentary election with 49.12% of the vote. The election was the first that Arme- nia has held under a new constitution to introduce a parliamentary republic.
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