Category: New Europe

The Russian media reported that Volkswagen AG could sell its Russian business – including an assembly plant and an internal combustion engine producer – to Austrian business conglomerate Steyr Automotive owned by ex-Magna CEO Siegfried Wolf. According to people familiar with the matter the company aims to resume the production of VW cars in Russia, […]

It is late, but at long last, the world is waking up. “Conflict in Ukraine fuels uncertainty for agriculture” “Ukraine War to compound hunger, poverty in Africa, experts say” “Rising prices increase alarm for food security and political stability”   These are just a few of the newspaper headlines from recent weeks, as the Russian […]

Xenophobia is a global crisis, but in South Africa, it takes a particularly violent form. The day-to-day accumulation of insult and harassment from within the state and society periodically mutates into open-street violence in which people are beaten, hacked and burned to death. If there is a useful point of global comparison, it may be […]

On Saturday, August 6, I proudly stood with Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, and the people of Hiroshima in memory of an unprecedented catastrophe. Seventy-seven years ago, nuclear weapons were dropped on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tens of thousands of women, children and men were killed in the blink of an eye, incinerated […]

The sharp devaluation of the official exchange rate of the hryvnia by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), which occurred on July, 21, was both a long-expected and surprising event. The national exchange rate has been fixed since Russia’s invasion on February 24. Meanwhile, the national economy shrunk by 35-50% during the first months of […]

Though Russia’s war against Ukraine is contained on Ukrainian soil, it would be naïve to interpret the framing of this war as a conflict between just two sovereign nations. Russia’s war on Ukraine is a war upon fundamental and basic universal human values. More specifically, the right of individuals to live in dignity and peace, […]

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the world’s food supply chains had been severely disrupted by the Covid pandemic. Now the war has derailed Ukraine’s agricultural exports, delivered sanctions against Russia, and dramatically driven up the price of food and fertilizer. Governments from India to Argentina have responded by imposing export bans on key crops. This […]

Referring to the Association agreements that the EU is negotiating with a number of countries; New Europe asked if the European Commission envisions an  immediate implementation of an independent authority to regulate the utilities sectors in countries where private economic operators already operate to guarantee their rights and have a voice. A European Commission spokesperson […]

The European Union is in talks about removing sanctions on some 40 Russians. The individuals were sanctioned on the basis of their alleged involvement in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but according to sources cited Bloomberg, the European Council’s legal service has said that some of the penalties were imposed on weak grounds. Apart from the […]

Nearly every corner in Bucha is now a crime scene, and it felt like death was everywhere,” so said Richard Weir, the crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The evidence indicates that Russian forces occupying Bucha showed contempt and disregard for civilian life and the most fundamental principles of the laws of war.” […]