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Germany has publicly announced a plan to reinforce the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) on its main task: defending Germany and its NATO allies.  Military strategy, force structure, capabilities, reserves, and personnel growth are being systematically aligned with the evolving threat environment.  This strategic and very public shift underscores Germany’s intention to assume a leading role within the NATO. The new foundational strategic...

A day after the Social Democrats ended its support for its own government this is what things look like: PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu’s reasons – weak from the get-go and with the occasional lie, or lies by omission – are looking even wetter. The sensation that the PSD wants to shirk its responsibilities is looking more obvious. The PSD...

The former businessman, lawmaker and power broker Vladimir Plahotniuc fled Moldova in 2019, as he faced a series of corruption charges. A court in Moldova sentenced on Wednesday oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison over the disappearance of $1 billion from the country’s banking system. The former businessman and lawmaker controlled Moldova as a "captured state" from 2013 to...

⁠The ​safety of ​Russian citizens in Moldova's breakaway Transnistria ​region ‌is currently ⁠under threat, ‌Sergey Shoigu, secretary of Russia's Security ​Council, has said. Russia appears to be using the same playbook it used in eastern Ukraine and Donbas before it staged its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Moscow will take all steps to protect them, Shoigu was quoted as saying on...

With the region on a knife's edge, Mohammad Khatibi makes the case for Iran. It would be interesting to hear this intelligent would-be apologist once he's free of the regime. The Middle East and the world are at a massive inflection point in the saga of the Iran war. The two-week ceasefire is about to run out, both sides are...

Fourteen months after it was taken to a Dutch museum only to be snatched in a daring heist, a 2,500 year-old golden helmet has been returned to Romania after a dramatic odyssey, recovered with the help of a sleuth specialized in stolen art. The ornate Cotofenesti helmet and three golden bracelets which date back to the pre-Roman Dacia civilization  were...

Christian Orthodoxy is more than pretty icons, long services and lots of gold. A new book contemplates the faith to which 87% of Romanians belong. When Father Nevsky Everett went to the launch of a New Testament translation from Medieval Greek into Romanian in Bucharest, he expected speeches followed by a glass of wine with fellow clergy. Instead, there was pandemonium,...

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has produced the same dilemma in every central bank: inflation rising, growth slowing, and monetary policy caught between the two. But this single shock finds the affected countries at very different levels of preparedness, writes eToro analyst for Romania, Bogdan Maioreanu. The United States, Europe, and Romania now sit on concentric rings of...

In 2017, Sorin Grindeanu, who had just become Prime Minister, was fussing like a mother hen over the country's budget deficit: He accused the previous government of going over the maximum threshold agreed with the EU: "(...) The deficit of 3% was exceeded in 2016. It is an extremely serious matter (...)". Details HERE He then assured Romanian citizens...

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s coalition partners accuse him of destroying “our social base” with cuts. Romania’s Social Democrats have moved to oust Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, triggering a fresh political crisis that threatens to cost the country billions of euros. The PSD, the biggest country in the coaliton on Monday  voted overwhelmingly  to end  political support for the prime minister, a...