Sunday, January 28, 2018

Foreign Digest: Zimbabwe, Czech Republic, Russia


Zimbabwe
            The new President, who replaced longtime dictator Robert Mugabe, announced elections will be held by July.  However, the ruling party has a history of intolerance of freedom of dissent and of rigging elections. 

Update: Czech Republic
            The pro-Russian President narrowly won reelection over a pro-Western challenger, with support from the Russian FederationRussia orchestrated a smear campaign against the challenger while financially supporting the campaign manager for the incumbent.  Russia has been interfering in foreign elections and referendums throughout Europe and even in the United States presidential election of 2016.

Russia
           Thousands of protestors took the streets in several cities across Russia this weekend, attempting to exercise the freedom of peaceful assembly, which is not tolerated by Vladimir Putin’s regime.  Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested, including the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, whom the dictatorship prohibited from participating in the presidential elections scheduled for this spring.  Some of the arrests even took place in raids targeting the opposition before the protests began.  The protests were in opposition to corruption and the loss of liberty, including the banning of Navalny.

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