Presidents, Oligarchs and Potash: Russia’s Trade War With Belarus
At first glance, there are no truer friends than Russia and Belarus. The two states are united by a common history and have strong ethnic and linguistic links. Russia has long subsidized her neighbor with cheap oil and gas, wh...
Russians Wary Of Snowden Asylum
After spending six weeks ensconced in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, Edward Snowden was finally permitted to leave the airport “transit zone” after he received temporary asylum in Russia for the period of one year. Slipp...
Budget Negotiations and Inter-Institutional Relations
The recent EU budget negotiations have been subject to quite some debate and media attention, mainly because of their first-time-ever smaller total capacity and the row between Northern European states urging for more cuts and ...
Hungary’s New Media Tax: An Undemocratic Legislation?
Hungary’s tumultuous political sphere seems like a never ending topic for democracy advocates. Right after the governing party’s much criticised actions (alterations in the country’s constitution, forced retirements and o...
The Rise & Fall of a “Terrorist” Group: Jabhat al-Nusrah, Syria
Western media and thinkers, as crude as that categorisation seems, tend to oversimplify matters when dealing with “Jihadist” groups such as Al Qaeda. Like any “human institution”, however totalitarian it may seem, balan...
When It All Comes Crashing Down: The Future Of Hun Sen And Cambodia
In 1985, 33-year-old Hun Sen became the youngest prime minister in the world. Nearly thirty years later, Prime Minister Sen is now Southeast Asia’s longest serving non-royal leader. His grip on power, however, is trembling. A...
