Foreign Digest: Russia and Sweden

Russia: One of the leading Russian supporters of liberty and representative government, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was awarded the European Union’s Vaclav Havel award last week. The award is named for the Czechoslovakian playwright and dissident during the Communist era who later became the President of Czechoslovakia after the Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Russia is a similar tyranny under ex-Soviet intelligence officer, Vladimir Putin. Sweden: Two center-right parties have formed a new center-right coalition government for Sweden, after ousting the center-left coalition following recent parliamentary elections. They were able to keep an upstart far-right anti-migrant party out of power, relying on the neo-fascists only for external support. Sweden’s application for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is being approved by all NATO members, as the United States has already done, ending longstanding Swedish neutrality after the Russian aggression against Ukraine.