Foreign Digest: Romania, Georgia, Russia, Cyprus, and Afghanistan

Romania: In a dramatic two weeks, there was a presidential election in Romania, followed by a parliamentary election, and then the annulment of the presidential election because of heavy Russian interference. In the presidential election two weeks ago, a little-known far-right fascist-sympathizing pro-Russian candidate with no party or platform came in first, thanks to Russian interference through a social media campaign. The Romanian authorities asked for a recount and a European Union investigation into the Chinese social media platform and blamed Russia. The President of Romania then declassified information and submitted it to the Supreme Court, which annulled the election in an unprecedented move to undo Russian interference that was sufficient to alter the election and thus render the results fraudulent. A reformist center-right party’s candidate came in second, edging out the ruling center-left Prime Minister and would thus have advanced to the run-off election between the top two candidates scheduled for today. Instead, a new election will be scheduled. The President of Romania is responsible for defense and foreign policy and appointments, while the Prime Minister leads the government. Meanwhile, last week in the parliamentary elections, the outcome of which will determine who will be the Prime Minister, the ruling center-left Premier’s party had the most votes of any individual party, while a Christian democratic party came in third and the center-right party whose presidential nominee came in second, did well, but three far-right parties combined for the largest amount of votes, including one that came in second overall, with none of these parties coming close to a majority, as various ethnic and other parties attracting many votes. None of these main parties ran together as a bloc, but even if they had, no coalition would have received a majority of votes and seats. Therefore, a coalition will have to be formed. Georgia: There were protests in Abkhazia against commercial measures adopted by the breakaway Russian puppet-state regarded as too favorable to Russia and thus undermining Abkhazia’s independence. Russia had invaded the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in 2008 and seized separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia and then recognized their independence. But the largest protests in Georgia have been by Georgians against the ruling pro-Russian party after last month’s fraudulent election in which Russia heavily interfered, giving the oligarch-founded party a narrow win. The Georgian Government announced that it was suspending the application process for European Union membership, after the Prime Minister had promised to continue the application process. His government is trying to repress the protests with brute force and arrests of opposition figures. Russia: The McCain Prize was awarded to Russian freedom advocate Vladimir Kara-Murza for his advocacy for human rights in Russia. He was recently freed by the tyrannical regime of Vladimir Putin in a prisoner swap with the West and exiled. The prize for human rights advocacy is named for former United States Senator John McCain of Arizona, who had been tortured as a prisoner of war by the Communist Vietnamese during the Vietnamese War. Cyprus: Cyprus announced its intent to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a marked shift from its closeness with Russia, which is viewed with trepidation because of its imperialism, as Putin seeks to restore the Soviet Union/Russian Empire. The U.S. approves Cyprus’ plan. Finland and Sweden abandoned their longtime neutrality to join NATO, the U.S.-led defensive pact, for the same reason. Afghanistan: There have been more frequent and lethal resistance attacks in Afghanistan against the Taliban militia that is the de facto ruler of the Central Asian State. There are now three armed resistance organizations in Afghanistan. In addition to the National Resistance Front (NRF), which operates in and around the Panjshir Vally, led by the son of the leading anti-Soviet guerilla commander and the former Vice President of Afghanistan before the Taliban militia takeover in 2021, which I have posted about, and a smaller force, a new force led by the most senior General in the Afghan armed forces has entered the fight. It maintains friendly relations with the NRF. It operates mostly in Kabul, where the NRF occasionally raids, while the NRF mostly operates in provinces north of Kabul. The Taliban, who had hosted the Islamist al-Qeada terrorists responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America that killed three thousand people, returned to power in 2021 after the U.S. and an inernational coalition and Afghan allies had overthrown them in 2002, but then abandoned Afghanistan, leaving its allied government to fall. No State in the world recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, but no State has backed the resistance. The Islamist Taliban again are repressive and maintain their cloes ties to terrorists.