All posts by Frank Elbers

How Pussy Riot Crashed the World Cup Final

Those watching the FIFA World Cup’s final on TV may have barely noticed because producers immediately turned their cameras away from the field, but there was a pitch invasion during the game between France and Croatia. Veronica Nikulshina, Olga Kurachova, Pyotr Verzilov and Olga Pakhtusova, all members of the Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot, managed to run onto the field at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Dressed as police officers, they interrupted the game in the 52nd minute, forcing the referee to suspend play until stewards wrestled the activists off the field. The invasion happened as Russian President Vladimir Putin watched from the stands.

Read further in Muftah Magazine.

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Former Communist States Are Bracing Themselves Against Russia – and Western Europe

U.S. President Donald Trump has been visiting Europe for summits with NATO and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Yet what many forget is that last summer Trump’s first state visit to the European Union was to Poland. In the shadow of a monument to the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis in 1944, he gave an unusual refined speech, which Slovaks, Poles and Hungarians could watch live via their state TV networks. They did so massively.

“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive,” Trump said. “On both sides of the Atlantic, our citizens are confronted by yet another danger — one firmly within our control. This danger is invisible to some but familiar to the Poles,” he continued, speaking next to the monument of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, CNBC reported. The speech was of an unusually high rhetorical level and contrasted sharply with Trump’s usual reckless style. This must have come from the pen of Steve Bannon, analysts concluded. The former head strategist of the White House is a well-known adherent to the ‘alternative right’ conviction that Europe is falling prey to multiculturalism, advancing Islamism and globalization.

That story, packed in oratorical craftsmanship, was exactly the right sound in the right place. From all over the country, buses with Trump fans came to take part in a ‘patriotic picnic’ in honor of the presidential visit. “Trump! Trump! Trump!,” the frenzied crowd chanted in Warsaw.

Just before his speech, Trump had attended a conference of the Three Seas Initiative, a new economic alliance of the countries between the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas. What did the American president do on a summit of that unknown covenant? Was this the birth of a new geopolitical player in Europe? Historians soon established the link with the Intermarium, a Polish plan from the twenties and thirties to establish a strong Central European federation between fascist Germany and the communist Soviet Union. Certainly now that Poland and Hungary are at odds with the European Commission about the relocation of refugees and the breakdown of the rule of law, possible block formation is being watched with suspicion. According to Professor Andrzej Zybertowicz, advisor of the Polish president, the Three Seas Initiative can become a backbone of a new Central European Union if the EU collapses under the migration or Euro crisis.

The Three Seas Initiative is closely related to two major infrastructure projects in the region: a north-south highway “Via Carpathia” and liquefied natural gas infrastructure, with ocean terminals in Poland and Croatia and a connecting pipeline. Up to now, all major motorways in the region have traveled to the West, to Germany. The route of the Via Carpathia, construction of which has already started in Poland, starts in Lithuania and then goes straight down through the east of Poland, continues through Hungary, Romania (a fork in the south may continue eastwards through Romania to the Black Sea port town of Constanța) and Bulgaria and ends at the port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece.

The third Three Seas Initiative Summit will be held in Bucharest in September. The Via Carpathia will not be ready yet – completion of the Polish stretch of the highway is foreseen for 2023 – but both Poland and Romania continue to be at odds with Brussels over rule of law infringements and the refusal of the Visegrád countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) to accept refugees continues to prevent the EU from developing a coherent and consistent migration and refugee policy. Perhaps a Central European Union may not be that far off in the future. 

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Corrupt Government Sacks Anti-Corruption Head in Romania

After months of mounting pressure from the government, Romania’s president confirmed his dismissal of the country’s top anti-corruption prosecutoron July 9. Laura Codruța Kövesi was the chief prosecutor of Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), a position she held from May 2013 until the time of her sacking.

Read further in Muftah Magazine.

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Understanding Russian Propaganda in Eastern Europe

It is a public secret that, through its state-funded multilingual television and radio networks, the Russian government has for years tried to influence the political situation in the former Soviet states. Networks like RT, formerly known as Russia Today, are notorious for biased news coverage that often borders on propaganda. These misinformation networks are not, however, only limited to traditional media and increasingly include social media, as well.

Read full blog in Muftah Magazine.

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UAE Should Honor Its Commitment to Resettle Syrian Refugees

On June 18, the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) made a surprise announcement granting nationals of countries suffering from war and disasters a one-year residence visa. Although an important gesture to relieve suffering and provide temporary shelter, Abu Dhabi is not following through on a much more important and sustainable solution to these problems: the permanent resettlement of Syrian refugees from Lebanon, Jordan or other hosting countries to the UAE.

Read full blog in Muftah Magazine.

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De metamorfose van het centrale plein van Tirana

Ooit een symbool van het communistische regime van Albanië is het Skanderbeg-plein omgevormd tot een voetgangersoase op menselijke schaal omringd door bomen en fonteinen.

Lees verder op Donau.

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The Metamorphosis of the Albanian Capital’s Main Square

Once a symbol of Albania’s Communist regime, surrounded by monumental Stalinist buildings and chaotic traffic, Skanderbeg Square –the main plaza in the Albanian capital of Tirana– has been transformed into a human-scale pedestrian oasis surrounded by trees and fountains.

Read full blog in Muftah Magazine.

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More Secret Executions in Belarus

Two new executions have reportedly taken place in Belarus, according to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Aliaksei Mikhalenia and Viktor Liotau were killed in secret in May. Information about the impending executions were withheld from family members, as well as the public.

Read further in Muftah Magazine.

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Study Shows Need to Engage Men in Gender Equality in Kosovo

The results of a comprehensive survey on gender equality in Kosovo were published by the United Nations Kosovo Team on May 31, 2018. The research shows that a legal and policy framework exists, but more needs to be done to involve men in realizing gender equality in Kosovo.

Read full blog in Muftah Magazine.

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Book Review: My Life as a Spy: Investigations in a Secret Police File by Katherine Verdery

After the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, newly elected parliaments adopted legislation to dispose of the former communist elites. Through so-called “lustration” laws (“purification” in Latin) countries addressed the legacy of human rights abuses by identifying and, in some cases, sentencing those responsible for abuses under the prior regime. Lustration, however, was only one of the ways that secret police files could be used.

Read full book review in Muftah Magazine.

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