Foreign Digest: Ukraine, Slovakia and Moldova; the European Union and Hungary

Ukraine, Slovakia and Moldova: Ukraine last week cut off the last flow of Russian natural gas to the rest of Europe that had transited through its pipelines, despite a threat from Slovakia’s populist leftwing pro-Russian President to cut off defensive aid to Ukraine against Russian aggression. The pipeline flowed from Ukraine to Slovakia. Meanwhile, Russia cut off Moldova from its supply of gas, but the former Soviet Republic will be able to purchase electricity from Ukraine, although the pro-Russian separatist Transnistria region, where Russia keeps troops against Moldova’s wishes, has been left in the cold. Europeans have been largely successful of weaning themselves off Russian energy, which Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin uses for extortion. The Transnistrian separatists, like Armenia and Syria’s Assad regime, have been let down by their alliance with Russia. The European Union and Hungary: The six-month duty presidency of the European Union’s European Commission (the body of the heads of government of each of the 27 members) is passing from the far-right anti-migrant pro-Russian autocratic Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to the center-right pro-American pro-Ukrainian Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. As I had posted, EU leaders had boycotted Orban’s official meetings and distanced the body from his personal diplomatic efforts of appeasement of Russia, which is trying to restore the Soviet Union/Russian Empire Meanwhile, the EU cut off additional funds to Hungary for its backsliding on liberty and representative government.