Tag: Vladimir Putin
Happy Sunday! How about that Emmanuelle Macron moment at the family photo? Apparently they thought they could make him stand in the back row and they were wrong. I bet all the others were thinking “huh, who knew you could do that?”. The G20 had more memorable moments of course, as this BBC collection shows, poor Chancellor Merkel must have had a hard time handling all these difficult men (wouldn’t it be much simpler if women ruled the world?). LOL at her eye-rolling at Putin. I hope your summer is going well so far, here’s some reading for today. Can this Woman…
Happy Sunday, everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful week. Mine was especially great and exciting. Check out my Instagram for a clue. 🙂 Let’s see what I have been reading, mostly during my travels this week… Putin’s Announcement on Russia: Unexpected but not Surprising The Russian announcement about them leaving the Syrian war scene met as much astonishment as the one about them entering it. The important question though is what will happen in Geneva now? First Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy to the Human Rights Council I posted several times last…
Happy Sunday, all! In Hungary we are past a nice long weekend that I have spent in the countryside. I am typing these words on a train back to Budapest, that was delayed 70 (!) minutes (Edit: departure time was delayed 70 minutes, and another 60 minutes was added during the train ride, so I got home more than two hours later than planned, I’m not one to complain, but I wish I could say this is not typical in Hungary…). That means I had more than enough time to catch up with my reading for this post. Hope you’ll…
A promise, now overdue, but better late than never. I will post my review of the general debate in two parts and of miscellaneous events of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly so far in a third. This year I followed more speeches than in previous years, as the refugee crisis in Europe puts many countries in the spotlight that otherwise would not be of interest in terms of world affairs. The theme of the general debate of the 70th session was „The United Nations at 70 – a new commitment to action”, but besides the theme, the…
It’s been a long time since the last time when I could not manage to post anything between two Sunday Smacks, sorry about that. Amazingly enough, although I have even failed to mark yesterday’s International Mother Language Day, this post of mine from two years ago got very popular yesterday. Thanks to everybody for still keeping it in circulation! Now let’s see a couple of interesting posts from not so far back. The Budapest Memorandum and Beyond: Have the Western Parties Breached a Legal Obligation? The Ukrainian crisis looks even more troublesome when international treaty interpretation comes into play. The…
Happy Easter to all those who are celebrating this weekend and all of you who are not, just have a wonderful weekend! 🙂 Should you wish to check out what’s been going on in the world this past week, here’s what I recommend to read: Major Powers Reach Deal To Lower Tensions In Ukraine I’ll admit I am a bit sceptical about this deal and find it hard to believe that any piece of it will be capable of “lowering tensions”. Let’s hope for the best though. Ukraine Calls in the International Criminal Court Now the case is in the…
Snowden Called in to Putin’s Telethon. Does That Really Make Him a Kremlin Pawn? One of the pleasures in writing about Edward Snowden is his predilection for the absurd. The NSA whistleblower abandons his dancer girlfriend for a life in exile, hides in airports, studies Dostoyevsky, appears by teleconference at a technology conference in Texas, and even attempts to learn Russian to acclimate to his new home in Moscow. It’s a delicious story, and on Thursday, Snowden delivered his latest morsel: He called in to Vladimir Putin’s televised Q&A session with the Russian public. Too bad Snowden’s English is not…
Welcome to the 50th Sunday Smack! That’s right, the 50th! 🙂 How great that this one is the first Sunday Smack I get to write on my new laptop! Yes, that of course means I have no excuse anymore not to act on all my great ideas regarding this blog (and everything else). Minus two weeks, I have been doing this for a whole year. It is unbelievable, really, and I have to say I’ve really enjoyed every bit of it, it helps me keep my professional reading in order. I can only hope it’s also useful to at least…
Happy first weekend of spring and happy Oscars night everybody! So many things to be excited about! There are a lot of exciting (although worrisome) news in world affairs as well thes days… “Maidan” v. Yanukovych et al.: Ukraine and the ICC? While Ukraine never even signed the Rome Statute, one of the first decisions of the new leadership was to prosecute Yanukovych and a few of his men at the ICC. Whether it will be possible to put him on trial (at the ICC or anywhere) is another question. Obama to Putin: ‘There Will Be Costs’ To Invading Crimea…
I hope everybody’s weekends are going well! Here are some great reads for you to look back on this past week. Olympic Game: Washington Hopes Sochi Will Force Putin’s Hand on Syria I don’t know about that… It certainly doesn’t seem that way. Russia is again paralyzing the Security Council on a crucial Syria resolution. CAR is Falling Apart. And Everyone Knows Why Despite the Security Council resolutions, the peacekeeping troops on ground, and the new president elected, things don’t seem to improve in the CAR. Why Bosnians Are Protesting Great piece on Bosnia after the Dayton Peace Accords and…
