Foreign Digest: European Union, Russia and Ukraine, and Iran

European Union: Several European Union States officially formed a disinformation response agency, together with media services, to counter disinformation by the Russian Federation, led by tyrant Vladimir Putin, an ex-Soviet intelligence officer trying to restore the Soviet Union. Russia has been interfering in the elections in foreign States, especially Europe, and also the United States. Russia and Ukraine: After Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive against invading Russian troops and heavy Russian losses in the Russo-Ukrainian War begun six months ago when Russia committed aggression against the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine, Russian leader Putin initiated conscription into the military. There have been protests across Russia against mobilization. Russian authorities, as usual, have not been tolerating the freedom of peaceful assembly, or other basic freedoms, and have arrested several hundred Russians. Today, ethnic Russian breakaway parts of eastern Ukraine, which have been backed by Russia since Russia invaded part of Ukraine in 2014, are conducting referendums on joining Russia, absent any free debate. The international community, including the U.S., will not recognize such sham referendums. Iran: There have been demonstrations against the Islamist Iranian regime because of the death of a female prisoner who had been arrested for not abiding by the Islamic Republic’s strict requirement for covering in public. The Islamist theocracy responded with deadly force, as usual.