‘Keep your head down’ — Americans in Russia tread carefully after arrest of US journalist

MOSCOW — If Amer­i­cans in Rus­sia were wor­ried before, they now have an extra rea­son to be con­cerned.  The arrest of the Wall Street Jour­nal reporter Evan Ger­shkovich has sent rip­ples of alarm through the com­mu­ni­ty of Amer­i­can jour­nal­ists in Rus­sia, leav­ing many in the coun­try won­der­ing who, if any­one, might be next.  Ger­shkovich was seized by FSB security…

Relations with Africa, Asia are on brink of collapse — to Russia’s benefit

Jérémy Lis­sou­ba is a mem­ber of parlia­ment for the main oppo­si­tion par­ty in the Repub­lic of Con­go. He’s also a deputy judge in the country’s High Court of Jus­tice and an alum­nus of the Oba­ma Foundation’s 2018 Africa Lead­ers Pro­gram. Over a year since the war in Ukraine began, the world remains caught in the…

Massive pro-EU, anti-Russia protest erupts in Georgia

Thou­sands of peo­ple demon­strat­ed in Tbil­isi overnight, wav­ing EU flags and fac­ing down riot police in protest against a con­tro­ver­sial law which Georgia’s pres­i­dent says is “dic­tat­ed by Moscow.”  In video footage and pho­tographs, pro­test­ers chant­ed “down with the Russ­ian law” as they squared off with heav­i­ly armored police who blast­ed them with water cannons…

Europe’s looming Ukraine fear: What happens if the US pulls back?

Europe is wak­ing up to a trou­bling real­i­ty: It may soon lose its NATO bene­fac­tor in Ukraine.  With con­ser­v­a­tives poised to make gains in the upcom­ing U.S. elec­tions, NATO’s most gen­er­ous donor to Ukraine’s war effort may sud­den­ly seem much more par­si­mo­nious in 2023. The pos­si­bil­i­ty has put the spot­light on the gap between Amer­i­can and…

Europe’s American president: The paradox of Ursula von der Leyen

Europe’s Amer­i­can pres­i­dent: The para­dox of Ursu­la von der Leyen Euro­pean Com­mis­sion chief’s top-down approach has endeared her to Wash­ing­ton but alien­at­ed col­leagues in Brus­sels. By Suzanne Lynch and Ilya Grid­neff Illus­tra­tion by Lucas Pev­er­ill for POLITICO Ursu­la von der Leyen’s whirl­wind tour of the Unit­ed States start­ed in New York at the Unit­ed Nations General…

When will Europe learn to defend itself?

PARIS/BERLIN — Thir­ty years after the hor­rors of the Balkan wars laid bare West­ern Europe’s inca­pac­i­ty to deal with con­flict on Euro­pean soil, Russia’s inva­sion of Ukraine is demon­strat­ing how lit­tle has changed. As Yugoslavia start­ed to break apart in 1991, it fell to the Lux­em­bour­gish For­eign Min­is­ter Jacques Poos to make the ill-fat­ed­­ly optimistic…

Putin’s attack on democracy is working. Just look at Europe.

Putin’s attack on democ­ra­cy is work­ing. Just look at Europe. As win­ter approach­es, cracks in the West’s sup­port for Ukraine are start­ing to show. By Matthew Kar­nitschnig Illus­tra­tion by Ann Kier­nan for POLITICO BERLIN — It was a scene that has played out on city squares across Europe for months: jar­ring eye­wit­ness accounts of the war…