Foreign Digest: Latvia, Hong Kong, Italy, Venezuela, Turkey and Russia

Latvia

            Although a pro-Russian party won a plurality of the vote in the Latvian parliamentary elections last week, the overwhelming majority of votes were for other parties across the political spectrum.  Those other parties will be able to form a coalition.  The former Soviet Republic of Latvia is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  A significant ethnic Russian minority reside in Latvia after the conquest of the Baltic States by the Soviets in 1940.

Hong Kong

            The pro-Peking government of the Chinese territory of Hong Kong is limiting the freedom of the press by refusing a visa for a reporter last week.  Communist China has been restricting political freedom in Hong Kong through the local government by either appointing officials or not tolerating the election of pro-democracy or pro-independence representatives, despite China’s promise of maintaining self-rule and a separate system of liberty and the free market since its reversion from control by the United Kingdom in 1997.

            The freedom of the press has been under assault globally during the rise of authoritarianism, even in free states.  In addition to the many killings in the Russian Federation, journalists have been murdered in recent months in three European states: Malta, Slovakia and Bulgaria, while another one who was a permanent resident of the United States disappeared and is feared to have been murdered after visiting the Saudi Consulate in Turkey.

Italy

            In addition to the European Union, which I posted about earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund criticized Italy’s 2019 budget last week.  The populist Government’s budget exceeds EU spending rules because of large increases in domestic spending.

Venezuela

            Venezuela’s Socialist tyrant recently blamed Colombia for a recent attempted assassination of him.  It is typical of him, as with other dictators, to blame foreigners for internal problems.  Also, there were protests last week after the death of a prominent political prisoner.

Turkey

            The authoritarian Turkish President continues mass arrests, for alleged ties to the 2016 attempted military coup, even after the end of the state of emergency, as hundreds of more Turks have recently been arrested.

Russia

           The Russian democratic opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was arrested again this weekend for organizing protests.  The authoritarian and kleptocratic regime of Vladimir Putin does not tolerate the freedom of peaceful assembly, among other violations of liberty.  There have been many mass protests across Russia in recent months against tyranny, corruption and Russian support for Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad, but organizers and even thousands of peaceful demonstrators have been arrested.