Foreign Digest: Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Peru, and Colombia

Ukraine: The United States, Canada, the European Union, several individual European States and Japan imposed sanctions recently on Russia for kidnapping and indoctrinating Ukrainian children, one of many war crimes being committed by the Russian Federation during its aggression against Ukraine since 2014. The International Criminal Court also issued warrants for the arrest of Russians for their role in this crime against humanity. Armenia: The ruling party of Albania won a majority of votes and seats in the Armenian parliamentary elections earlier this month, defeating a pro-Russian party, despite, despite heavy Russian interference on the latter's behalf. Armenia is a former Soviet Republic in the Caucasus that has been moving out of Moscow's orbit, while Russian tyrant Vladmir Putin, a former Soviet intelligence officer, has been attempting to restore the Soviet Union. Despite the 2023 takeover of an ethnic Armenian part (Nagorno-Karabakh) of the neighboring former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan that had been backed by Armenia, and the subsequent exodus of most of its residents to Armenia, Armenians supported their Prime Minister, who has expressed disappointment with the failure of Russian peacekeeping troops to prevent the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia has turned toward Europe and the West, after withdrawing from the Russian-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States that had been formed by the former Soviet Republics after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Moldova: The lower house of the Romanian Parliament voted to enter into negotiations with Moldova for reunification, which is supported by Moldova’s President. Moldova is a former Soviet Republic in which Russian troops have been occupying an area along the Moldovan border with Ukraine populated by ethnic Russians. Moldovans speak Romanian. Romania, a former Soviet satellite state, is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Peru: The right-wing populist daughter of a former President narrowly defeated the far-left candidate in the Peruvian presidential runoff election June 7 for a four-year term. The leftist is alleging fraud, but international observers did not find any. Former Congressman Keiko Fujimori was a presidential candidate three times before. Her late father, Alberto Fujimori was President of Peru from 1990 to 2000, when he implemented market reforms, reduced inflation and was especially successful against the Maoist terrorists Shining Path. But his violations of human rights and corruption led to his prosecution. The conservative late Nobel Prize-winning Mario Vargas Llosa had opposed her first candidacies, but did support her in the previous runoff. As I have observed previously, candidates in Latin America on the right tend more than in America and Europe to be far-right populist and authoritarian, instead of center right. Also, as I have posted, Peru has suffered a series of presidential impeachments and prosecutions for corruption. There had been presidential and parliamentary elections in April, in which no presidential candidate won a majority of votes, thereby necessitating the required runoff. Colombia: A populist far-right candidate won the Colombian presidential runoff election last week, defeating a leftist, socialist and communist coalition backed by the incumbent leftist President. Presidents of Colombia are constitutionally limited to one four-year term. The election for years ago was an exception to the usual election of a conservative. The current President has attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate an end to the guerilla war with the last Marxist narco-terrorist insurgents. Conservative Presidents had successfully defeated the larger groups. as the right-wing candidate promised to do. Colombia has been an ally of the United States, but relations were strained under the leftist President. The defeat of the leftist coalition in Colombia is the latest blow to the Left in Latin America, after its ascendancy began in 2000 in Venezuela with the election of the Socialists, who became authoritarian to hold onto power, and who encouraged socialist candidates in Latin America. In recent years, as I have posted, leftwing candidates have not fared as well as before, because of poor economic performance, authoritarianism and corruption.