by CBBSS | Jul 30, 2021 | Regional News
Putin arrived in Slovenia Saturday for a visit Lublijana is describing as informal, AP reports. But, Slovenia has maintained friendly relations with Moscow even as it joined EU sanctions against Moscow. Read original...
by CBBSS | Jul 30, 2021 | Regional News
Serbian and Croatian officials are handing protest notes to one another over ethnic tensions are that currently resurfacing. A bne IntelliNews article points out is not uncommon for politicians in either country to resort to nationalist rhetoric when they want to...
by CBBSS | Jul 30, 2021 | Regional News
An Istanbul court threw 17 Turkish journalists in jail on terror charges, AFP reports. On Friday, the court heard the cases of 21 journalists who are charged with membership in Fethullah Gulen’s “terror group.” The court freed four of the journalists...
by CBBSS | Jul 30, 2021 | Regional News
Inspired by feelings of unity in Turkey in the wake of the failed coup, Erdogan has decided, for one time only, to make a great display of kindness by withdrawing all of the lawsuits filed against people charged with insulting him, Hurriyet Daily News reports....
by CBBSS | Jul 30, 2021 | Regional News
Google changed its maps so that the names of towns in Crimea complied with Ukraine’s de-communization law. But, the tech giant then succumbed to Russian pressure and restored the Soviet names for Crimean settlements, The Moscow Times reports. Read...
by CBBSS | Jul 30, 2021 | Regional News
Bulgaria will hold presidential elections on Nov. 6, bne IntelliNews reports. Simultaneously, there will be a national referendum on the introduction of mandatory voting, the introduction of a majority electoral system and on setting state subsidies for political...
by CBBSS | Jul 29, 2021 | Regional News
Turkey’s trade deficit grew 5 percent from June 2015 to June 2016, rising from $6.24 billion to $6.55 billion, according to a report published by Hurriyet Daily News. Read original...
by CBBSS | Jul 29, 2021 | Regional News
In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, 51 percent of young Serbians think Serbia should stop EU integration, and 60 percent believe Crimea should be recognized as a part of Russia, according to a study presented Thursday in Belgrade. Despite the growing pro-Russian...
by CBBSS | Jul 29, 2021 | Regional News
Foreign investors offloaded $460 million of Turkish equity and debt securities the week following the coup attempt in Turkey. But given the scale of the political turmoil triggered by the coup attempt, the selloff was relatively small, bne IntelliNews reports. The...
by CBBSS | Jul 29, 2021 | International News and Analysis
An RFE/RL column examines why Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic still has not formed a government three months after his Progressive Party easily won the parliamentary elections. The column suggests Moscow is strong-arming Vucic to place pro-Russian politicians in the...
by CBBSS | Jul 28, 2021 | Regional News
The Turkish government announced Wednesday that it would shut down three news agencies, 16 TV channels, 23 radio stations, 45 newspapers and 15 magazines, EU Observer reports. Ankara also issued arrest warrants for 47 journalists and media executives, most of whom...
by CBBSS | Jul 28, 2021 | International News and Analysis
The Atlantic interviews British general and NATO’s former deputy supreme allied commander of Europe, Richard Shirreff, about the possibility of a Russian invasion of the Baltics. Shirreff said Russia could attack and occupy the Baltic states and then threaten to...
by CBBSS | Jul 28, 2021 | Regional News
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said during a press conference Wednesday that he “would be looking into” recognizing Crimea as belonging to Russia and lifting sanctions against Moscow, Politico reports. Read original...
by CBBSS | Jul 27, 2021 | Regional News
Pristina has dismissed a request by Ankara to punish a prominent Kosovar journalist over satirical comments he made about the Turkish coup attempt, RFE/RL reports. Kosovo foreign minister Enver Hoxhaj said the request by the Turkish embassy in Pristina was...
by CBBSS | Jul 27, 2021 | International News and Analysis
A Balkan Insight article suggests Turkey’s international witch-hunt for everyone connected to Fethullah Gulen could aggravate divisions in Bosnia. Ankara is trying to get Sarajevo to shut down Gulen-connected schools in Bosnia. Read original...
by CBBSS | Jul 27, 2021 | Regional News
Turkey has a new regulation that allows for the chemical castration of sex offenders, Hurriyet Daily News reports. The regulation allows Turkish courts to order medical treatment to lower or terminate a sex offender’s sexual drive. Read original...
by CBBSS | Jul 27, 2021 | Regional News
Having returned to being friends, Turkey and Russia are discussing reviving Gazprom’s planned Turkish Stream gas pipeline, bne IntelliNews reports. A Turkish delegation held talks in Moscow on Tuesday, and Erdogan is due to meet Putin in St. Petersburg on Aug....
by CBBSS | Jul 27, 2021 | Regional News
The party of Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj is reactivating its Montenegrin affiliate, which will run in Montenegro’s parliamentary elections in October, Balkan Insight reports. Known in Montenegro as the Party of Serbian Radicals, the party is...
by CBBSS | Jul 27, 2021 | Regional News
The Independent reports, as NATO prepares to send troops to Poland and the Baltics, a report produced by the Atlantic Council warns Russia could invade Poland overnight. NATO’s presence in the region is not currently large enough to stop a Russian invasion,...
by CBBSS | Jul 26, 2021 | Regional News
Turkey is now trying to get Kosovo to punish a journalist for a satirical comment, Reuters reports. During the Turkish coup attempt, Berat Buzhala, a leading Kosovo journalist known for his satirical comments, posted a comment on Facebook saying Kosovars in Turkey...
by CBBSS | Jul 26, 2021 | Regional News
Kosovo’s Special Prosecution arrested an Iranian citizen and indicted him with four charges, including money laundering and financing terrorism, Balkan Insight reports. The Iranian national is accused of hiding suspect funds belonging to an Islamic NGO operating...
by CBBSS | Jul 26, 2021 | International News and Analysis
Two attackers who said they were from the Islamic State stormed a church in a suburb of Rouen in northern France, killed an 84-year-old priest and took four other people hostage, the BBC reports. Read original...
by CBBSS | Jul 26, 2021 | Regional News
About 150 migrants, mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, began hunger striking Monday in a field on the Serbian side of the Serbia-Hungary border, Reuters reports. About 3,000 migrants are currently stranded in Serbia. Read original...
by CBBSS | Jul 26, 2021 | International News and Analysis
A Reuters investigation finds the black market for arms, including heavy weapons, is booming in Eastern Ukraine. Weapons being smuggled out of Eastern Ukraine are ending up in Russia’s North Caucasus, the Middle East and elsewhere. Some of the arms are being...
by CBBSS | Jul 26, 2021 | Regional News
Erdogan is again demanding the EU disburse the 3 billion euros in funds for refugees that Brussels promised to Ankara, EU Observer reports. Likewise, Erdogan is again threatening to unleash the 3 million Syrian refugees Turkey is hosting. Brussels and Ankara agreed on...
by CBBSS | Jul 26, 2021 | International News and Analysis
The Russian government has been implicated in a hack that leaked 20,000 U.S. Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails and led to the resignation of the DNC chairwoman, who was exposed as a blatant Hillary Clinton supporter. A piece in The Moscow Times suggests the...
by CBBSS | Jul 26, 2021 | Regional News
A newfound love affair between Ankara and Moscow is blossoming following the Turkish coup attempt. Turkey’s FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu thanked Putin for his support of the Turkish government, saying Russia, unlike other countries, has given Turkey unconditional...
by CBBSS | Jul 26, 2021 | Regional News
The Ansbach bomber had his asylum request denied in Germany and was due to be deported to Bulgaria, Balkan Insight reports. The EU’s Dublin rules state the first country an asylum seeker enters is responsible for the person’s asylum process. Many migrants...
by CBBSS | Jul 25, 2021 | International News and Analysis
The Syrian suicide bomber who injured 15 people Sunday night at a music festival in Ansbach, Germany left behind a video pledging allegiance to ISIS, CNN reports. Read original...
by CBBSS | Jul 25, 2021 | Regional News
The EU has relinquished the European Council presidency for the second half of 2017, possibly leaving Bulgaria in control of the EU presidency in early 2018, Balkan Insight reports. Bulgaria has never before held the EU presidency, and Sofia will be stepping into the...
