The Eastern and Central Europe Section of IR Insider publishes breaking news reports and analysis from Russia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, and other Eastern and Central European nations. Topics covered in the Eastern and Central Europe Section may range from Russia’s role in the Syrian Civil War to the Latvian parliamentary elections and beyond. Our section editor is Kevin Qi.
The regime in Russia further cracked down on its queer community this month, with Russia’s top court ruling to ban the so-called “international LGBTQ movement,” labeling it an extremist organization. It is now illegal in Russia to “promote or praise LGBTQ relationships, publicly express non-heterosexual orientations or suggest that they are normal.”
The European Union (EU) has threatened legal action against the Polish government for failing to resolve the blockade at the border between Poland and Ukraine — caused by a weeks-long trucker protest.
Around 250 blue Stars of David were tagged on buildings in France, in what the Parisian police chief called an “antisemitic” incident. Officials in France claim that a Russian-speaking person living abroad “may have paid for” the graffiti and Russian-controlled social media accounts promoted images of the graffiti.
In a recent interview with The Economist, top Ukrainian General Valery Zaluzhny admitted that the war against Russia has reached a stalemate — comparing the situation in Eastern Ukraine to Northern France during World War I.
A mob in the Russian Republic of Dagestan stormed an airfield on Oct. 30, 2023, prompting the closure of an airport and the diversion of flights.
In a controversial move, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Oct. 24, 2023. Orbán, the leader of Hungary’s right-wing party FIDESZ, was even photographed shaking hands with Putin, drawing the ire of other Western leaders.
In a sharp reversal of trends since the COVID-19 pandemic, Central European Schengen area countries (i.e. European Union member states who have joined the visa-free and, essentially, internal border-free zone) have opted to reintroduce border controls of various intensity temporarily.
In the run-up to the election, the public media network Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) showed that 41% of respondents thought that Ukraine should accept territorial concessions to Moscow, should it mean an end to the conflict.
The Russian government blamed Ukraine for an apparent drone attack above its capital building.
On Monday, April 17, Moscow City Court sentenced opposition activist and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in a strict regime penal colony after finding him guilty of spreading 'fakes' about the Russian army, operating an 'undesirable' organization for working with the Open Russia Foundation, and committing high treason.
Finland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) last Tuesday after remaining militarily non-aligned since the end of the Second World War.
Thousands of opposition supporters gathered outside the Georgian parliament to express their dissatisfaction with the government’s policies.
On April 1, the Russian Federation took hold of the presidency over the United Nations (UN) Security Council.
The trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who has led the partially recognized republic since 2016 and resigned in November 2020, began on Monday, April 3, at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
On March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his intention to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.
Last week on Friday, March 17, Slovakia announced that it would be providing 13 MiG-29 jet fighters to Ukraine; this came only a day after Poland had pledged four.
US officials have received new intelligence that suggests that a pro-Ukraine group was responsible for the North Stream pipeline attacks.
Kosovo’s political leaders announced this weekend that upcoming local elections will be postponed until early next spring in several northern municipalities.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid received a “bloody package” containing animal eyes last Friday, Dec. 2, after receiving a letter bomb earlier that week.
The European Commission overcame its last hurdle in putting into place its Russian oil price cap this week.
On Saturday, Nov. 26, Belarusian state media BelTa reported that Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has died.
On Nov. 15, 2022, a missile landed in Polish territory close to the Polish-Ukrainian border, scrambling the military and diplomatic counterparts of NATO, Poland, Russia, and the U.S.
Travelers from Slovakia are frustrated over border controls that remain in place by the Czech Republic.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Nov.11 that “Kherson is [Ukrainian]” after Russia effectively withdrew from the southern city– the only provincial capital to be captured by Moscow since the invasion began.
Nov. 9, 2022, the European Court of Auditors released its report on the effectiveness of the European Union’s support for phasing out coal production.
Russian troops are actively looting Kherson, in the south of Ukraine, amidst continued fighting over the city.
Oleg Tinkov, the founder of Moscow-based Tinkoff Bank, renounced his Russian citizenship.
Ukrainian authorities warned Kyiv residents on Saturday, Oct. 29, of longer anticipated power cuts – lasting more than four hours – due to prolonged Russian air attacks on energy infrastructure.
On Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022, the general secretary of the ruling Law and Justice Party in Poland said that they were considering building a structure along its border with Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave along the Baltic Sea.
A Russian court ordered the official arrest of former Channel One television journalist Marina Ovsyannikova on Thursday, long after she held up a sign during the March 14 broadcast of the news channel to protest Putin’s war, according to Interfax news agency.
