President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus keeps arresting political opponents, but analysts wonder if a string of unusual pardons is a bid to get sanctions eased.
Prime Minister Robert Fico’s surprise visit to Moscow on Sunday, reportedly to discuss natural gas and Ukraine, was a blow to European unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Many in the West have applauded the annulling of the first round of the presidential election, won by a Moscow-friendly candidate, but even his critics say it raises troubling questions about Romanian democracy.
Lithuania’s national opera house had stopped showing Tchaikovsky’s 1892 masterpiece in solidarity with Ukraine over the war with Russia. Then a new minister expressed fondness for the Russian composer, igniting a furor.