Foreign Digest: Russia, Nicaragua and Spain

Russia: The Russian Federation’s tyrannical regime of ex-Soviet intelligence officer, Vladimir Putin, has closed the Sakharov Foundation, one of the last centers for the exchange of political ideas. Named for the nuclear scientist and Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, the center had opened after the fall of the Soviet Union, which Putin wishes to restore. Putin, who has been in power for 23 years, does not permit dissent against him and increasingly does not tolerate independent organizations. Nicaragua: The tyrant of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, continues not only to eliminate all civic organizations, including religious ones, the Red Cross, and even organizations for collectors and the like, but also academic ones, recently taking over a well-regarded Catholic university that was a bastion for freedom of thought. Ortega, now in his presidential fourth term after arresting all opponents ahead of the last election, had been the dictator under the Marxist Sandinista regime that took over Nicaragua in 1979 and ruled until losing a free and fair election it tolerated in 1991. Public protests were put down with violence and over a hundred Nicaraguan supporters of freedom, including some clergy, were forced into exile. Spain: The ruling Socialists managed to win the Spanish parliamentary elections, even though the conservatives won the most votes and seats, after a by-election assured the center-left party of having enough seats to form a coalition majority government with regional parties who won a significant number of seats. Instead of winning an expected majority for their bloc of parties, the conservatives were dragged down by their election alliance with a far-right party that lost seats. Spain is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.