Compiled by Hristo Voynov and Eva Jovanova
1. The novichok poisoning incidents earlier this year may have been solved. England claims that Russian GRU officers were behind the incident, this time providing the public with information regarding their identities. Moscow has expectedly continued to deny any connection, claiming that they are not being given access to any evidence and that the evidence publically released means nothing to them because it is false, even claiming that the names used were made up. While this development is important, unless more information that cannot be denied is released, it is unlikely that this story will develop further than accusations and denials.
2. Montenegro, together with Albania and Ukraine, decided to join the EU sanctions against Russia, a move that the European Union welcomed. This round of sanctions was renewed in late June and it officially expires on January 31, 2019. However, it might also be extended. The sanctions were originally implemented by the EU in 2014, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and have been renewed every six months ever since. Both Montenegro and Albania are EU candidate countries.
3. Hungary’s dispute with the EU will effectively be voted on by the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee on September 12th. Depending on the results, it may lead to the triggering of Article 7 against Hungary for violating the Rule of Law. These accused violations include independence of the judiciary, corruption, and conflicts of interest, academic freedom, freedom of religion, treatment of asylum seekers, and more. Hungary’s defense, as usual, is that this is an attack from the left organized by George Soros funded and controlled organizations that dislike Hungary for its fierce commitment to traditionalism. Hungarian Minister of State for EU Relations, Judit Varga, released an article elaborating on why these accusations are false, though her main argument focuses on the rights of individual states to choose their own destiny within the EU rather than disputing all of the challenges leveled against Hungary.
4. Macedonia welcomed the Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz today on his official state visit. His visit came only two days after NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s visit to the country on Wednesday. Macedonia prepares now to welcome German Chancellor Angela Merkel this Saturday. All of them show their immense support for the name deal with Greece and urge the citizens to vote in the September 30 referendum.
5. Alexander Zakharchenko, former president of the separatist region of Ukraine known as the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), becomes the latest high profile rebel to be assassinated in the Ukrainian conflict when he was killed in a café in Donetsk. The DPR and Russia blame Ukraine, while Kiev blames internal power struggle with the rebels and Moscow’s attempt to remove uncontrollable leaders within the breakaway state. Previous assassinations targeted military leaders, and so it remains to be seen what effect this incident will have on the politics of the conflict or the Minsk Peace Accord.
6. Serbian-made weapons were used in the conflict in Yemen, a photo of the Human Rights Watch shows. The UN Security Council has introduced an arms embargo to Yemen, which Serbia officially respects. But, photos of Serbian weapons have been noticed on both sides of the conflict. Saudi Arabia, which is one side of the proxy-war in Yemen, is one of the main buyers of Serbian weapons.
7. While ANO was able to secure the support of Social Democrats (SD) for their coalition, the outstanding issue of Foreign Minister remains unsolved. This weekend, Czechian PM Andrej Babis stated that SD Miroslav Poche will “never be a foreign minister” even though the SD were supposed to choose the foreign minister under their coalition agreement. For now, SD head and Minister of the Interior Jan Hamáček holds the position, but the two parties have agreed to wait until the upcoming Senate elections in the coming month before returning to discuss options. This lack of unity may hurt them in the polls.
8. A Croatian video game shocked the world last week with its rapid success. The survival video game called SCUM made it to the top of the most-read video game platforms and sold 700.000 copies a week after it made available in early access. This week the producers had to make sure they wipe out all Nazi-tattoos of characters and hide other inconvenient features and they can start celebrating their immense success.
9. Moldovan President Igor Dodon stated his interest in returning to the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) for the parliamentary elections in February 2019. He was a member of the party before becoming president but had to leave after entering office and it is unclear why he can now remain in his position while campaigning under the PSRM. However, the PSRM party chairperson is currently working to change the Moldovan governing system from a parliamentary republic in a presidential republic. While this is unlikely to come about because of the strong bilateral divide between Moldovan politics if passed it would give Dodon immense power within Moldova’s government.
10. Kosovo mourns one victim in a shooting incident that occurred at the Kosovo Intelligence Agency this Tuesday. Both the victim and the alleged shooter were employees at the agency. The prosecution office withholds all other details of the incident.
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