Foreign Digest: Italy, Russia and Cambodia

Italy

            The populist Italian Government continues to attract warnings from international organizations, especially European ones, like the European Union.  A European human rights commission expressed concern about human rights violations because of the Government’s new hard-line policy against migrants.  In addition to the EU’s objection to the budget for the Italian Republic, which exceeds EU rules, the head of the European Central Bank has warned against such overspending.  The populist Government usually objects to any criticism from the European Union, even though it wants to maintain the benefits of membership in the EU and the euro and despite the fact that the President of the European Parliament and the head of the central bank chief are Italian.

Russia

The European Court of Human Rights ruled the Russian Federation’s repeated arrests of democratic opposition leader Alexei Navalny for peaceful protests violated human rights and limited political pluralism.  It imposed a fine on the authoritarian and kleptocratic regime of Vladimir Putin.  Over the last several months, the opposition has been protesting corruption, tyranny and Russian involvement in wars in Ukraine and Syria.  Thousands of peaceful protestors have been arrested across Russia.

Cambodia

           The last two surviving members of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge Maoist tyrannical regime were sentenced to life imprisonment after their conviction by an international tribunal for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.  The Communist Khmer Rouge killed more than a million and a half people from 1975-1979, as well as committed various other gross human rights abuses, such as mass incarceration, slavery, torture and forced removal of the entire population of the capital city.  Cambodia became known as the “Killing Fields” as the regime targeted Vietnamese and Muslim minorities, as well as anyone suspected of being an intellectual (e.g. for wearing eyeglasses) out of suspicion of western influence in order to impose an agrarian socialist regime.  Others have also been convicted, although the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in captivity before his trial.  The kingdom is currently ruled by a relatively less repressive Communist despot.