
EU urged to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians
Finnish and Estonian leaders want EU countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens in protest at the war against Ukraine.
Thursday
11th Aug 2022
Finnish and Estonian leaders want EU countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens in protest at the war against Ukraine.
There's unprecedented international anxiety about the safety of Ukraine's nuclear reactors, but many European countries are also turning to nuclear power to secure energy supplies.
The agreement came as Russia's Gazprom said it would cut gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to 20 percent of capacity, starting Wednesday. Ireland, Malta and Cyprus secured exemptions.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz also rejected Moscow's argument that gas flows were reduced due to a missing turbine, saying it was Russia that refused to take the delivery of the turbine.
Lawmakers in France, Italy, and the US have voted to let Finland and Sweden join Nato.
Nuclear stockpiles have been reduced since the Cold War — but the risk of using nuclear weapons remains high, amid conflicts and tensions between nuclear powers in Ukraine, Korean peninsula and Middle East.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the shelling of Europe's largest atomic plant over the weekend.
The Kremlin attacked Ukraine because it believed it could afford to. It perceived nuclear deterrence between Russia and the West as reciprocal, and therefore almost a non-issue. It also saw, in military terms, Europe is disappearing from the world map.
Russian president Vladimir Putin would be more likely to wage war against Nato if he won in Ukraine, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has warned.
The escalation of the war in Ukraine has forced more than 10 million people from Ukraine to cross the border into neighbouring countries since late February, the UN reported.
The ship's departure for Lebanon was made possible thanks to an export agreement reached by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN on 22 July.
It comes a day after EU governments approved a watered-down plan to curb gas demand by 15 percent, aimed at lowering consumption, building storage, and sharing supplies if Russia in future cuts all exports.
The EU court in Luxembourg has thrown out Russia's challenge against a ban on propaganda outlet Russia Today imposed after the invasion of Ukraine.
From food policy to climate change, corporate lobbyists are exploiting the Ukraine crisis to try to slash legislation that gets in the way of profit. But this is only making things worse.
Comparisons between post-communist Albania and current-day Ukraine are fascinating — and make many pertinent parallels. Ukrainians have a similar determination to belong to "the rest of Europe" as Albanians.
The EU Parliament needs to take stronger measures against MEPs who serve foreign dictators, such as Putin, on bogus election-monitoring missions.
The meeting comes as the Russian state-controlled Gazprom announced that supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany would drop to just 20 percent of capacity, starting Wednesday.
World leaders have condemned a Russian missile strike on Ukraine's Odessa seaport, after a landmark deal to resume grain exports was reached.
The West must help Ukraine to defeat Russia in order to deter China from invading Taiwan, Britain's intelligence chief has said.
Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán is facing one of his biggest challenges of his more than a decade-long rule, as the economic pressures keep mounting, and EU funds remain suspended due to rule-of-law concerns.
Gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline have restarted after 10 days of maintenance work, despite fears of further gas supply disruptions of a full cut-off next winter.
Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow will consolidate its territorial gains in the south, saying that the West has provided long-range weapons to Ukraine, now Russia must push back.
TV viewers have become familiar with images of bodies in the streets of Ukraine, buildings destroyed, and people crowding onto trains to flee. What has gone mostly unreported is the significant increase in domestic violence, and its grave implications.
The European Commission will unveil a new plan to reduce gas consumption by industry and consumers in a bid to prepare for "a likely deterioration" — or a full cut-off of Russian gas flows this winter.
Many Germans saw the country as a benign power that will always favours diplomacy and peace-making over the use of force. Not any more.
The United Nations Environment Programme has already warned that Ukraine will be left with a toxic environmental legacy for generations to come.
Pro-Kremlin biker gang the Night Wolves will no longer be able to ride around Europe under new Russia sanctions, which also strike at Sberbank and the mayor of Moscow.
EU ambassadors will hold initial talks on new Russian sanctions on Monday, amid proposals to ban gold exports and blacklist more individuals.
An IT expert who stirred up anti-EU hatred, an Orientalist, and biological weapons specialists — the profiles of 19 more spies expelled from Belgium in April show what Russia's embassy to the EU was up to.
High prices of energy, fuels, fertilisers and feed are pushing up agricultural production costs and harming farm profitability in several European markets due to Russia's war on Ukraine, prompting some member states to seek further EU support.
Due to a total capture of the country's institutions and economy by corrupted ethno-nationalist elites, Bosnia & Herzegovina did not advance on key reform areas such as democratisation and improvement of the rule of law — arguably even backsliding.
The EU is preparing to sign a gas-import deal with Azerbaijan to reduce dependence on Russia following cut-offs to Europe.
EU states are in talks on potential visa bans on right-wing extremists in the Western Balkans, amid fears that Russian propaganda is stirring up new threats.