· October, 2013

Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from October, 2013

Meetup with Global Voices!

Rising Voices  31 October 2013

Throughout the months of November and December, we are organizing six global in-person 'meetups' led and facilitated by Global Voices members.

Russia's Demagogues Just Can't Get Along

RuNet Echo  30 October 2013

Nationalist MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky ranted about natives of the North Caucasus on the popular debate show “The Duel” - Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov took offence.

Construction of 1 Billion Euro Resort Begins in Montenegro

  28 October 2013

Luštica Bay, near Tivat on the Montenegrin coast, is being developed by Swiss Orascom Development into a large-scale resort bay and marina. The resort is a colossal undertaking in the small Adriatic country and will spread across a 6.8 million square meter coastal area. The total value of the project...

Opposition MPs Suspect Foul Play as Croatia Airlines Prepares for Privatization

  28 October 2013

Some members of the Croatian parliament, all of different opposition parties, have voiced their concern in past days regarding safety issues that Croatia Airlines has had in recent weeks and, in particular, the unusual media attention these incidents have received. Croatia Airlines is currently being prepared for a long-awaited privatization...

Hungarian Student Bloggers Win Lawsuit Against University

  27 October 2013

Bloggers of Átlátszó Oktatás (Transparent Education) sued the largest Hungarian university ELTE's Law Faculty in winter 2012, in order to obtain documents on how state scholarships and bonus payments were distributed by the members of the faculty's student union. Because the university is entirely state-funded, the students demanded through a...

Wearing Putin's Insult as the Badge of Honor

RuNet Echo  25 October 2013

The Greenpeace activists locked up in Murmansk may be suffering the worst luck of anyone in the ongoing scandal surrounding Russia's Arctic drilling, but they aren't the only ones hurting.

Overwhelmed by Syrian Refugees, Bulgaria Seeks EU Aid

  23 October 2013

Bulgaria, as the closest EU country to Syria, is seeing more than its fair share of the average 5,000 refugees that are fleeing Syria every day. Unprepared and inexperienced in dealing with this influx of refugees seeking shelter, food and protection, Bulgaria has requested assistance and financial aid from the...

The Suspended Martyrdom of Russia's Alexey Navalny

RuNet Echo  23 October 2013

After his tumultuous guilty verdict and five-year prison sentence last July, a court recently suspended Alexey Navalny's sentence, leaving the Russian opposition's most prominent leader on probation but free.

Tajiks Note that “Moscow Has Changed”

  22 October 2013

As Russians try to make sense of ethnic riots rocking Moscow, these developments are also carefully watched in Tajikistan where more than half of the population depends on money that their relatives working in Russia send home. Halil Qayumzod who lived in Moscow in the 1990s suggests [tj] that over...

About our Eastern & Central Europe coverage

Filip Stojanovski
Filip Stojanovski is the Central Europe editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.

Daria Dergacheva
Daria Dergacheva is the Eastern Europe editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.