Saturday, March 25, 2023
HomeColumnsZero Tolerance

Zero Tolerance

Sanctions, sanctions everywhere

On February 24, 2023, the US Government alongside G-7 leaders announced via a White House statement a new set of trade and economic measures...

Eclipsed by Ukraine concerns, Blinken visits Turkey and Greece

After attending the Munich Security Conference on February on 17-19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed for a brief regional mission to Turkey...

US & Philippines agree to ramp up defense cooperation

The US and Philippines announced on February 2 a substantial expansion of their existing military cooperation arrangements, increasing the number of facilities that American...

Bulgaria again heads towards elections

Bulgaria is now moving towards its fifth parliamentary election in two years as a result of the failure of the latest group of elected...

Croatia advances to the EU mainstream

 Croatia took a decisive step January 1 towards the mainstream of the European project by adopting the Euro as its currency while at the...

EU Tirana Summit: Enlargement must go on

The summit's generic one size fits all “membership perspective” statement was seen as good news by most after the topic of EU Enlargement had become a highly controversial subject.

Miami morphs into a global business hub, can it last?

Due to Florida’s less stringent COVID restrictions, a political strategy driven by the state’s Republican governor, Florida became a vastly more attractive location for individuals able to work remotely.

Washington sanctions BiH officials undermining Dayton Agreement

On October 3, the US Department of State announced the designation of two individuals and one commercial entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) for...

Biden’s choice takes the reins at the American Embassy in Athens

US President Joe Biden’s nominee as next Ambassador to Greece George Tsunis arrived in Athens May 7, a day after his career diplomat predecessor...

Moscow drains dwindling reserves to avert default

With most of its foreign currency reserves held abroad frozen by Western sanctions and inaccessible, Moscow was forced to tap its precious domestically held...

After Macron victory, Enlargement diplomacy back on the radar

With the war in Ukraine and the noise surrounding the French presidential elections, the subject of EU Enlargement into the Western Balkans had almost...

Sanctions expand as Russia approaches major default

No American President ever travels to Europe without a bag full of so-called “deliverables” and US President Joe Biden duly arrived in Brussels last...

Pressed by sanctions, Russia narrowly escapes default

While the global sanctions campaign against Russia is not yet a month old, investors and sanctioneers held their breath this week as Russia struggled...

Russia sanctions – Now comes the hard part

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine moves into the third week, a broad network of financial, travel and trade sanctions has been established in fairly...

As the global sanctions net tightens, weak spots emerge

After the second phase of heavy western economic sanctions on Russia was announced in the final days of February, new coordination mechanisms are being...

EU Russia sanctions close in on finance, trade, aviation, media

Russia’s military advance across Ukraine has galvanized global public opinion to the point that timid EU governments and the Brussels bureaucracy have been forced...

Ukraine – First wave of sanctions fails to deter Moscow

Over the past few days, practically everyone in the public media has become a Ukraine sanctions expert, regardless of actual experience in this field. ...

Will the EU order sanctions on the Republika Srpksa?

In the latest phase of Bosnia’s seemingly never-ending battle over competencies, members of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska in Banja Luka voted on...

Sofia and Skopje begin joint effort to resolve conflict

Hoping to generate enough material to prevent Sofia’s cadre of Balkan reporters from decamping to nearby ski resorts, the governments of North Macedonia and...

Petkov’s underwhelming Skopje visit opens a door

Bulgaria’s new Prime Minister Kiril Petkov visited Skopje January 18, after completing a bit more than a month in his new job. The only...

Biden’s Greece nominee survives Senate hearing

George Tsunis, President Joe Biden’s nominee as next ambassador to Greece, survived his January 12 hearing with the Democratic-majority Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC),...

Biden’s Greece nominee survives Senate hearing

George Tsunis, President Joe Biden’s nominee as next ambassador to Greece, survived his January 12 hearing with the Democratic-majority Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC),...

Mitsotakis lightning Bulgaria visit has regional focus

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited Sofia December 20, opening contacts with the new Bulgarian government through meetings with newly elected Bulgarian PM Kiril...

Bulgaria’s new government maintains Enlargement veto

While Bulgaria’s November 14 elections managed to break the political logjam that had paralyzed the country for most of 2021, which required three consecutive...

Tales of mystery and imagination in Skopje – Part 2

North Macedonia’s conservative opposition failed in its November 11 bid to topple Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s government. This happened only because ruling coalition lawmakers...

Basil Coronakis challenged the EU bureaucrats fearlessly

It is rather common these days to label people as “great thinkers” or even “pioneers,” in fact these terms have almost become clichés. My...

Third Bulgarian election in 2021 appears to break the logjam

In Bulgaria’s November 14 elections, the tough anti-corruption oriented “We Continue the Change” party (PP), won 25.7% of the vote, based on a nearly-complete...

Tales of mystery and imagination in Skopje

The November 11 no-confidence vote in Zoran Zaev's government was stopped after an extremely difficult day for lack of a quorum. Extraordinary events during...

Fluid dynamics: Turmoil in Skopje after Zaev ally defects

Late on November 5, the political situation in North Macedonia took a new twist as the main opposition party claimed it had pulled together...

Following election flop, Zaev announces resignation plans

North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced his planned resignation on November 1 after his social-democratic party massively lost the second round of municipal...

Uzbekistan re-elects President Mirziyoyev to second term

Uzbekistan held presidential elections on October 24, in a peaceful and secure atmosphere, with incumbent President Shavkat Mirziyoyev handily taking first place with 80.1%...

Greece again agrees to expand US defense cooperation

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias traveled to Washington October 13-14 to participate in a scheduled session of the US-Greece Strategic Dialogue, where he met...

Athens rocked by Biden’s nomination of political operative

After an extended period of uncertainty over who would be tapped, on October 8 US President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate influential...

Enlargement: EU’s turgid Brdo Declaration seen as a “fail”

The two EU candidate countries hoping for a major jump-start to their long-delayed EU accession procedures suffered a major setback on October 6 at...

Kosovo-Serbia tensions fading after deal reached

The slow-motion crisis between Kosovo and Serbia over automobile license plates that began with little notice on September 20 escalated into a tense show...

President Biden’s short UN General Assembly visit raises questions

President Joe Biden’s first address to the 76th UN General Assembly (UNGA) on September 21 provided the world with an almost infinite supply of...

Greek Foreign Minister Dendias chasing shadows in Skopje?

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias traveled to North Macedonia August 31, for a hastily scheduled official visit to the country while his own capital...

US Balkan allies to host Afghan refugee processing operations

Even before the Taliban had completed its occupation of Kabul, American allies Albania and Kosovo told Washington that they would serve as transit countries...

Bulgaria begins slide toward new elections

The Bulgarian political world was shocked into action on August 10 when the party that won the country’s July 11 elections, There is Such...

Balkan rumblings: Setbacks on enlargement and new Prespes violations

Against the backdrop of another EU presidency (Portugal) failing to move ahead this month on the Enlargement issue as well as a generally slow...

Washington gets tough on “destabilizers” in the Western Balkans

On June 8, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) intended to update US sanctions policy regarding Balkan corruption and political destabilization activities,...

Washington zeroes in on corrupt Bulgarian officials

On June 2, the US Department of State announced the designation of four former Bulgarian public officials as well as one current official for involvement...

Is EU Enlargement on hold yet again?

As Portugal’s EU presidency is reaching its final month, additional pressure is expected on Bulgaria to press it to resolve its ongoing dispute with...

Washington designates corrupt former Albanian officials

On May 19, the US Department of State announced the designation of former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and his family members for involvement...

Mid-East turmoil eclipses Greece’s latest Balkan initiatives

Greek officials found time to engage in several rounds of Balkan diplomacy this week, once again taking advantage of the presence in Greece of...

COVID-19 vaccine supplies trickle into Southeast Europe

In line with global trends, deliveries of COVID-19 vaccine supplies to Southeast Europe increased in April, but the record to-date shows it was anything...

Slovenia provokes with non-paper supporting Balkan partitions

A non-paper purported to be of Slovenian authorship has drawn increasing attention over the last weeks that it has been circulating because it appears...

Southeast Europe begins to tackle COVID-19 immunization delays

In terms of Covid-19 vaccinations, the gap between Europe’s haves and have nots finally appears to be narrowing, after many months where much of...

The Eastern Mediterranean sideshow

We have just been through a week in which the world focused its attention completely on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  Second place went to Afghanistan...

US sanctions for Turkey’s S-400 procurement come into effect

The State Department revealed on April 5 that previously announced US sanctions on Turkey’s military-industrial sector would come into effect on April 7 with...

Must read