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☆ Sweden’s Leader Says He Will Meet With Orban to Advance NATO Bid
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bowing to a Hungarian demand for negotiations over the expansion of NATO, the prime minister of Sweden on Thursday agreed to hold talks with Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban, the last obstacle blocking the Nordic nation’s admission to the military alliance. A vote by Turkey’s parliament on Tuesday to accept Sweden as a member of the alliance, however, left Hungary as the only holdout and strengthened Mr. Orban’s leverage. It also intensified accusations abroad that he was effectively holding Sweden’s membership for ransom. In a sign that Mr. Orban intended to use his leverage, Laszlo Kover, a close ally of the Hungarian prime minister and the speaker of Parliament, indicated Thursday that he was in no hurry to put the matter to a vote. Parliament is in recess and is not scheduled to return until Feb. 15.

Persons: Viktor Orban, Ulf Kristersson, Orban, —, Laszlo Kover Organizations: NATO, Nordic, Budapest Locations: Sweden, Swedish, United States, Hungary

☆ Elon Musk, on Rehabilitation Tour, Calls Himself ‘Aspirationally Jewish’
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pushing back against accusations of antisemitism, Elon Musk has in recent months visited Israel, hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Tesla factory in California and repeatedly insisted he bears no animus toward Jews. On Monday, he took his penitence tour to a new level, declaring himself “aspirationally Jewish” after a visit to the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz in southern Poland, where he lit a candle in memory of the millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Mr. Musk, the owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, stirred outrage — and an exodus of advertisers — in November when he endorsed an antisemitic post on X as “the actual truth.” The post accused Jewish communities of pushing “hatred against whites” and supporting the immigration of “hordes of minorities.”The White House denounced Mr. Musk for “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate.”He quickly apologized for his intervention, saying “it might be literally the worst and dumbest post I’ve ever done.” He has been scrambling since to calm the outcry and halt the flight of advertisers.

Persons: Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu, “, Musk, —, ” Locations: Israel, California, Poland

☆ Restrictions on L.G.B.T.Q. Depictions Rattle Hungary’s Cultural World
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When a far-right member of Hungary’s Parliament invited the media three years ago to watch her shred a book of fairy tales that included a gay Cinderella, only one reporter showed up. But what began as lonely, crank campaign against “homosexual propaganda” by a fringe nationalist legislator, Dora Duro, has snowballed into a national movement led by the government to restrict depictions of gay and transgender people in Hungary. The campaign has unsettled booksellers, who have been ordered to shrink-wrap works that “popularize homosexuality” to prevent young readers from browsing, and also rattled one of Hungary’s premier cultural institutions. The director of the Hungarian National Museum was fired this past week for hosting an exhibition of news photographs, a few of which featured men in women’s clothing, and for suggesting that his staff had no legal right to check whether visitors were at least 18 years old.

Persons: Dora Duro Organizations: Hungarian National Locations: Hungary

☆ Orban’s Dream of an Illiberal Pan-European Alliance Is Fading
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Exultant after winning his fourth election in a row last year on promises to protect Christian values and keep out immigrants, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary thanked like-minded conservatives in Poland as well as other “friends” abroad for their support. Europe was turning his way, he rejoiced. Hungary “is not the past,” he said, but “our common European future.”But Mr. Orban’s hopes of leading a pan-European movement — one that is deeply illiberal and infused with nationalism — are fading, deflated by the poor performance at the polls by some of his most fervent admirers in Europe and deep divisions over the war in Ukraine. Most crucially, Poland’s governing Law and Justice party — a longtime partner of Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party in its battles with the European Union over minority rights, migrants, the rule of law and other issues— lost a general election last month.

Persons: Exultant, Viktor Orban, Hungary “, ”, Orban’s, — Organizations: Orban’s Fidesz, European Union Locations: Poland, Europe, Hungary, Ukraine

Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicIn late September, one of the world’s most intractable conflicts ended suddenly and brutally when Azerbaijan seized the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians fled their homes. Andrew Higgins, the New York Times bureau chief for East and Central Europe, explains how the conflict started, why it lasted for more than 30 years, and what its end can tell us about the nature of seemingly unsolvable disputes.

Persons: Andrew Higgins Organizations: Spotify, Music, New York Times, East Locations: Azerbaijan, Nagorno, Karabakh, Central Europe

☆ Poland’s Ruling Party Casts Doubt on Election That Cost It Power
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After eight years of pumping out vitriol against opponents of Poland’s governing party, state-controlled television has rallied to an unlikely new cause: a free media and fair play. Unsettled by the election this month of a new Parliament controlled by political forces it previously vilified, Poland’s main public broadcaster last week set up a telephone hotline as part of what it described as a “special campaign to defend media pluralism” and counter “increasingly frequent attacks on journalists.”The abrupt about face by a public broadcaster notorious for its often vicious, one-sided coverage reflected Poland’s febrile political atmosphere as loyalists of the defeated Law and Justice party scramble to keep their jobs by presenting themselves as victims of persecution and of a compromised election. That loyalists have much to lose as a result of the Oct. 15 vote was made clear last week when Gazeta Wyborcza, a liberal newspaper, published a long list of journalists and other Law and Justice supporters who “will have to say goodbye to their positions” in media, state corporations and other state-controlled entities. The list has since been expanded as readers send in the names of more people they want gone, too.

Persons: “ Organizations: Justice, Gazeta Wyborcza

☆ A Less Polarized Poland? Not Yet, Election Results Suggest.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-29 | by ( Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Three years apart in age, the brother and sister grew up in a tiny village in eastern Poland, helping out on the family farm and going to church each Sunday under pressure from their parents. Today, the siblings, Monika Zochowska, 38, and her brother, Szymon, 41, are separated by a wide gulf opened by politics and outlook — examples of the many chasms cleaving Poland as it wrestles with the results of a recent general election that handed a narrow majority in Parliament to opponents of the nationalist governing party. Monika and Szymon stand on opposite sides of perhaps the deepest of those divides: the gap between villages and small towns, which voted heavily for nationalist forces, and urban centers, which gave overwhelming support to their more centrist and liberal opponents, notably Civic Coalition, the main opposition party.

Persons: Monika Zochowska, Szymon, Monika Organizations: Civic Coalition Locations: Poland

☆ Slovakia Says It’s Halting Arms Deliveries to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Slovakia, a small Eastern European nation that has been in the vanguard of sending arms to Ukraine, says it is halting all military aid to its embattled neighbor, a policy shift that is unlikely to change the balance of forces on the battlefield but that delivers a symbolic blow to Kyiv at a time of growing fatigue in parts of Europe after 20 months of war. Slovakia’s newly appointed prime minister, Robert Fico, announced on Thursday in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, that while he supported “comprehensive” nonmilitary aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, “I will be supporting zero military aid to Ukraine.”That would make Slovakia the first among those countries that have sent weapons to Kyiv since the war broke out to say it would stop. Slovakia’s commercial defense contracts with Ukraine for Slovak-made artillery and other defense systems, however, are expected to continue. Mr. Fico, who made his remarks to a parliamentary committee on European Union affairs, did not say whether Slovakia, which shares a border with Ukraine and has rail and road links to the country, would continue to serve as a transit route for weapons supplied by other Western countries. Poland has been the main transit country for such shipments, but Slovakia has also been used to deliver weapons from the Czech Republic and some other countries.

Persons: Slovakia’s, Robert Fico, “, Fico Organizations: Ukraine, European Union Locations: Slovakia, Ukraine, Europe, Bratislava, Russia, ”, Slovak, Poland, Czech Republic

☆ Polish Bishop Resigns After Diocese Is Rocked by Sex Scandal
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Polish bishop whose diocese has been badly tarnished by reports of a gay orgy involving priests and a prostitute resigned on Tuesday, the latest in a long series of sexual and financial scandals in Poland’s Roman Catholic Church. Grzegorz Kaszak, the bishop of Sosnowiec in southwestern Poland, announced his departure after one of his priests was placed under criminal investigation in connection with reports last month that he had organized a sex party during which a male prostitute lost consciousness from an overdose of erectile dysfunction pills. Gazeta Wyborcza, a liberal daily newspaper, reported in September that one of the priests at the gathering, held in a building belonging to the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels in the town of Dabrowa Gornicza, had called an ambulance. Others at the party prevented paramedics from tending to the unconscious man, the paper reported, but the paramedics called the police and the priests relented. The priest who organized the gathering in his church apartment, identified by the diocese only as Father Tomasz Z., gave a statement last month to Polish media that disputed details of what had happened, quibbling over the number of priests present at the time of the alleged sex party and saying that “it is worth reading what the definition of an orgy is.”

Persons: Grzegorz Kaszak, Blessed Virgin Mary of, Tomasz Z, quibbling, ” Organizations: Poland’s Roman Catholic Church, Gazeta Wyborcza, Angels Locations: Poland’s, Sosnowiec, Poland, Dabrowa Gornicza

☆ Momentous Shift Looms for Poland as Governing Party Looks Set to Be Ousted
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It boiled down to a choice between two different visions of the future: one dominated by nationalism, traditional Catholic norms and the defense of Polish sovereignty; the other by promises to “bring Poland back to Europe” and the liberal democratic values espoused by the European Union. In the end, after a long, vicious election campaign in a highly polarized country, opponents of the nationalist governing party won a clear majority of seats in a pivotal general election held on Sunday, according to final official results Tuesday. That victory opened the way for a potentially drastic shift away from Poland’s deeply conservative policies at home and its role abroad as a beacon for right-wing groups and politicians opposed to liberal values. The prospect of an end to years of testy relations between Warsaw and Brussels delighted Polish liberals and those elsewhere worried by what had, for a time, seemed like a rising tide of right-wing, and sometimes left-wing, populism in Poland and across Europe.

Persons: “ Organizations: European Union Locations: Poland, Europe, Warsaw, Brussels, Polish

☆ Armenia: Cast Adrift in a Tough Neighborhood
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-29 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

On the day Azerbaijan’s military sliced through the defenses of an ethnic Armenian redoubt last week, American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division had just finished a training mission in nearby Armenia, a longtime ally of Russia that has been trying to reduce its near-total dependence on Moscow for its security. The Americans unfurled a banner made up of the flags of the United States and Armenia, posed for photographs — and then left the country. At the same time, nearly 2,000 Russian “peacekeepers” were dealing with the mayhem unleashed by their earlier failure to keep the peace in the contested area, Nagorno-Karabakh, recognized internationally as being part of Azerbaijan. The timing of the U.S. soldiers’ rapid exit at the end of their training work — carried out under the intimidating name Eagle Partner but involving only 85 soldiers — had been scheduled for months.

Persons: — Organizations: 101st Airborne Division Locations: Armenia, Russia, Moscow, United States, Russian, Nagorno, Karabakh, Azerbaijan

Tens of thousands died fighting for and against it, destroying the careers of two presidents — one Armenian, one Azerbaijani — and tormenting a generation of American, Russian and European diplomats pushing stillborn peace plans. It outlasted six U.S. presidents. But the self-declared state in the mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh — recognized by no other country — vanished so quickly last week that its ethnic Armenian population had only minutes to pack before abandoning their homes and joining an exodus driven by fears of ethnic cleansing by a triumphant Azerbaijan. Slava Grigoryan, one of the thousands this week who fled Nagorno-Karabakh, said he had only 15 minutes to pack before heading to Armenia along a narrow mountain road controlled by Azerbaijani troops. On the way, he said, he saw the soldiers grab four Armenian men from his convoy and take them away.

Persons: —, Slava Grigoryan Locations: Nagorno, Karabakh, Azerbaijan, Republic of Artsakh, Armenia

☆ Cash, Mules and Paid Protests: How a Fraudster Seized an Ethnic Enclave
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-24 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Part of this, they say, was ferried in by “mules” on flights between Moscow and Moldova, often via Armenia. (Mr. Shor for a time controlled Air Moldova, the country’s now-insolvent national carrier.) They also uncovered hundreds of prepaid debit cards issued by a bank in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and large transfers from Russia to Moldova through an informal network. Mr. Tarnavsky said that he did not know the origin of the money used to support Ms. Gutsul’s election campaign, but added that Mr. Shor “is not a philanthropist,” so it was unlikely that he used his own cash to fund road or other projects that she had promised. These include “Gagauzland,” a theme park celebrating Gagauz culture that is supposed to open next year near Comrat.

Persons: Shor, Gutsul’s, —, Tarnavsky, Shor “ Organizations: Air Moldova, United Arab Locations: Moldova, Russia, Moscow, Armenia, Chisinau, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Comrat

☆ Russian Missile Strike in Ukraine Kills 1: Live Updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Victoria Kim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Mr. Blinken “affirmed our unwavering support to Romania, our NATO ally,” according to a State Department summary of the call. American military officials did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. Russian drones have struck the port city repeatedly in recent weeks as Moscow targets what has been a shipping lifeline for Ukraine. Throughout the war, NATO aircraft have frequently intercepted Russian fighter jets that have flown too close to allied nations’ airspace. Three weeks ago, British and Danish fighter jets were scrambled to confront Russian bombers that officials said were heading toward Scotland and the Netherlands.

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, Luminita, Blinken “, ”, Klaus Iohannis, Andrew Higgins Organizations: NATO, Department Locations: Ukraine, United States, Ukrainian, Russian, Romania, Kyiv, United, Bucharest, Eastern Europe, Izmail, Moscow, Danish, Scotland, Netherlands

☆ Suspected Russian drone debris is found in Romania.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Romania said on Wednesday that debris from what could be a Russian drone had landed on its territory across the Danube River from Ukraine and said that if the wreckage turned out to be Russian, it would be “a serious violation” of a NATO member’s sovereignty. Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian grain ports in the Danube delta, including Izmail, which lies less than 200 yards from Romanian territory and was blasted again by Russian drones on Tuesday. If confirmed, the presence of Russian drone wreckage inside Romania “would be completely unacceptable and a serious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Romania, a NATO allied state,” the country’s president, Klaus Iohannis, said on his Facebook page. As a member of NATO, Romania is covered by the U.S.-led alliance’s commitment to collective security, which obliges all members to come to the defense of any state that requests assistance in the event of an attack. But Romania has avoided any hint that it might invoke Article 5, the cornerstone of the joint defense pact, over the debris found on Tuesday.

Persons: Klaus Iohannis Organizations: NATO Locations: Romania, Russian, Ukraine, Russia, Romanian, Plauru, U.S

☆ It’s One of Ukraine’s Fiercest Allies. But an Election Could Change That.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the ambassador visited Ladomirova, he met with Mr. Cuper’s bitter rival, a former mayor whom Mr. Cuper had accused of embezzling village funds and who was convicted of fraud in 2019. The former mayor’s wife, Olga Bojcikova, who declined to be interviewed, was at the time running against Mr. Cuper, who was backed by pro-Ukrainian parties, in the local election last October. The ambassador’s story of “razed” Russian graves, though debunked by the police, was, Mr. Cuper recalled, “blown out of all proportion” by Kremlin-friendly Slovaks, particularly the Brat za Brata bikers. Mr. Cuper said he never touched the graves but had removed stone border markers because they were falling apart. The cemetery contains the unidentified bodies of soldiers from various countries, including Russia, killed in a World War I battle.

Persons: Ladomirova, Cuper’s, Cuper, Olga Bojcikova, “, ” “, ”, Maros Zilinka Organizations: Mr, Kremlin, Facebook Locations: Russia, United States

☆ At Risk of Invasion or Lovely to Visit: Two Views of a Polish Border Area
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After a day of kayaking last month along Poland’s northeastern border with Belarus, the chief editor of a news portal covering events in a strip of farmland and forest known as the Suwalki Gap watched the news in dismay as the Polish prime minister warned about Russian mercenary fighters advancing on the region from Belarus. More than three weeks on, there is no sign of the mercenaries from the Wagner paramilitary group moving anywhere, except perhaps back to Russia. And the only real danger that the editor, Wojciech Drazba, sees comes from the “parallel world” of Polish leaders “spewing fear” about the Suwalki Gap as they pose as muscular defenders of Poland’s borders ahead of a critical national election. “The sun is shining, the scenery is beautiful and absolutely nothing is happening,” Mr. Drazba said last week in Suwalki, the sleepy town that serves as the administrative center of a border area that Polish state television, recycling overwrought foreign media reports, describes as the “most dangerous place on earth.”A supporter of neighboring Ukraine in its efforts to resist Russian aggression, Poland has taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees and become a vital transit route for Western arms. But its critical role as a linchpin of the West’s military, humanitarian and diplomatic support for Ukraine has coexisted with a government agenda increasingly driven by domestic politics.

Persons: Wagner, Wojciech Drazba, ” Mr, Drazba Locations: Belarus, Russia, Suwalki, Ukraine, Poland

☆ As Russia Threatens Ships in the Black Sea, a Romanian Route Provides a Lifeline
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Grindeanu said Romania “is not trying to make money” out of Ukraine’s pain. “We invested a lot of money in Galati,” the minister said in an interview in Bucharest. “But they don’t use it. A move to Romanian ports would mean that Ukraine would forfeit considerable loading fees and other revenue. With entry to the Sulina channel so congested, Ukraine has sought to open a second route to the north by dredging the Bystroye Canal, a Ukrainian waterway connected to another branch of the Danube.

Persons: Grindeanu, Romania “, Oleksandr Kubrakov, ” Organizations: Ukraine — Locations: Romania, Galati, Ukraine, Ukraine — Romania, ”, Bucharest, Romanian, Ukrainian

☆ After Russian Attack in Ukraine, Broken Glass and Rattled Nerves in Romania
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

His thatched-roof shack on the bank of the Danube River just 200 yards from Ukraine has no running water, and getting to it involves waiting for a ferry and a bumpy ride on dirt roads. Last week, however, the farmyard home of Gheorge Puflea, 71, became a piece of attention-grabbing real estate thanks to its unwanted status as the first property in NATO territory damaged in a Russian attack aimed at Ukraine. The drone missile assault, carried out before dawnlast Wednesday, hit a Ukrainian cargo port across the river, but it was so close that shock waves from the explosions shattered windows in Plauru, a tiny hamlet with just a dozen tumbledown homes on the Romanian side of the Danube. The sound of the blasts and breaking glass woke Mr. Puflea from his sleep and sent him rushing outside in a panic to see what was going on.

Persons: Gheorge Puflea, Puflea Organizations: dawnlast Locations: Ukraine, Ukrainian, Plauru, Romanian

The attack is the closest Moscow has come to hitting the military alliance’s territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. The port strike came amid two drone attacks in central Moscow on Monday morning that Russian officials blamed on Ukrainian forces. At least two nonresidential buildings were hit about 4 a.m. local time, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of Moscow said on the Telegram messaging app. He added that there had been no “serious damage or casualties.”Ukrainian and Romanian officials denounced the port strike, with President Klaus Iohannis of Romania condemning the attack on Ukrainian infrastructure close to his country’s borders. He said on Twitter that the “recent escalation poses serious risks to the security in the Black Sea,” as well as affecting Ukrainian grain shipments and global food security.

Persons: Sergei Sobyanin, Klaus Iohannis Organizations: Monday, NATO, Twitter Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Romanian, Ukrainian, United States, Reni, Romania, Moscow, ”

☆ Poland Doesn’t Want Migrants, but These Foreign Workers Are Welcome
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The foreign workers’ compound in Biala was built in only a few months from 2,500 modules that look like shipping containers with windows. Poland’s economy is reviving now that Covid lockdowns have ended, but its pool of working-age people is shrinking, and like much of Europe, it is desperately short of workers. But when it looks at the violent unrest that convulsed France after the shooting in late June of a French teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent, it sees more reasons to restrict immigration. The riots “are the consequences of the policies of uncontrolled migration,” the Polish prime minister said this month. “We don’t want scenes like this on Polish streets,” Mr. Morawiecki added, seizing on the upheaval to attack the government’s liberal critics ahead of a critical election for a new Parliament in October.

Persons: Morawiecki, Mr Locations: Greece, Italy, North Africa, Europe, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, France, Algerian

☆ A Tangled Past Complicates Poland’s Welcome to Ukrainian Refugees
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Andrew Higgins | More About Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bound by shared hostility toward Russia’s imperial ambitions and determination to resist the military onslaught ordered by President Vladimir V. Putin, Poland and Ukraine also share painfully entangled pasts. The carnage of 1943 has been a source of tension for decades, but it is now an episode of pressing import as Poland prepares to commemorate its 80th anniversary on July 11. On Sunday, President Andrzej Duda of Poland and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visited a church in Lutsk, in western Ukraine, to remember the massacre. Mr. Duda’s office and Mr. Zelensky posted photographs on Twitter from the ceremony, using the same language to pay tribute to the victims. She still resents “that they show no remorse” and has not forgotten the frenzied cries of “kill the Polacks, kill the Polacks” that echoed around her home village when she was 13.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Andrzej Duda of Poland, Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Osinska, “ Locations: Poland, Ukraine, Warsaw, Lutsk

☆ How a Crypto Fugitive Upended the Politics of a Troubled Balkan Nation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Already notorious as an agent of market mayhem, the crypto industry has now unleashed political havoc, too, upending a critical general election in Montenegro, a troubled Balkan nation struggling to shake off the grip of organized crime and the influence of Russia. Only days before a vote on June 11, the political landscape in Montenegro was thrown into disarray by the intervention of Do Kwon, the fugitive head of a failed crypto business whose collapse last year contributed to a $2 trillion crash across the industry. In a handwritten letter sent to the authorities from the Montenegrin jail where he has been held since March, Mr. Kwon claimed that he had “a very successful investment relationship” with the leader of the Europe Now Movement, the election front-runner, and that “friends in the crypto industry” had provided campaign funding in return for pledges of “crypto-friendly policies.”Europe Now had been expected to win a decisive popular mandate in elections for a new Parliament. Its campaign mixed populist promises to raise salaries and pensions with pledges to put the country on a clear path to joining the European Union by cleansing the crime and corruption that flourished under Montenegro’s former longtime leader Milo Djukanovic.

Persons: Kwon, ”, Milo Djukanovic Organizations: Montenegrin, Mr, European Locations: Montenegro, Balkan, Russia, Europe, European Union

In the war-torn Chechnya region, Mr. Kadyrov built up a private fiefdom while professing loyalty to no official but Mr. Putin himself. A judo sparring partner from Mr. Putin’s youth became a construction billionaire and built Mr. Putin’s landmark bridge to Crimea. And then there was Mr. Prigozhin, who has said that he met Mr. Putin in 2000 as a St. Petersburg restaurateur. In Ukraine, as Mr. Prigozhin tells it, Wagner troops were only called in after Mr. Putin’s initial invasion plan failed. But Mr. Putin seemed to vacillate on his own support for Mr. Prigozhin.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Putin’s, “, ”, —, “ Putin, Tatiana Stanovaya, ” Mr, Ramzan Kadyrov, Aleksandr G, Lukashenko, Mr, Wagner, tycoons, Boris N, Yeltsin, Kadyrov, Prigozhin’s, K.G.B, Donald J, Trump, Weeks, ’, Putin “, Andrei Soldatov, Prigozhin “, ” Mark Galeotti, ” Neil MacFarquhar, Valerie Hopkins Organizations: Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, ., Reuters, Federal Security Service, Kremlin, Television, Defense, Defense Ministry, Center for Locations: Russia, Moscow, Russian, Rostov, Chechnya, Belarus, Russia’s, Don, Ukraine, Putin’s, Crimea, St, Petersburg, United States, Syria, Africa, Ukrainian, Bakhmut

☆ In Serbia, a Strongman Under Fire Hails Himself as Defender of the Nation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He is courted by American and European diplomats, applauded by a media machine dedicated to vilifying his critics and still has four years left in a presidential term secured last year with a landslide re-election victory. But President Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s strongman leader for more than a decade, never looked so lost as when he appeared this week in an official video on the vast rooftop terrace of his presidential offices to share a bowl of cherries with two lieutenants — and gripe about street protesters calling them rude names, including “abnormal lunatics, murderers and criminals.”Over-the-top insults, a regular feature of Rottweiler tabloids loyal to Mr. Vucic and pro-government television stations, used to be directed mostly at the president’s enemies, at least in public. But, after weeks of street protests set off last month by two mass shootings, Mr. Vucic is now on the receiving end — and on the defensive like never before since establishing himself in 2012 as the pivot around which Serbian politics turns. The protests, with calls for the dismissal of senior law enforcement officials and the withdrawal of broadcasting licenses from two pro-government television stations, have grown into a wider revolt against a “climate of violence” blamed on Mr. Vucic and his media attack dogs.

Persons: Aleksandar Vucic, —, Vucic, ” Organizations: American, Serbian

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