RFE/RL in the Media
# YahooNews uses RFE/RL Balkans video of flooding in Serbia
# The Blaze uses Li Luo’s map of foreign fighter’s in Syria
Ukraine
# Moscow calls eastern Ukraine special status laws “a step in the right direction”
# One million civil servants to be screened for corruption
# “Ghosts of the Maidan” – Michael Weiss, Foreign Policy
# “Time to Give Ukraine Defensive Weapons”- Steven Pifer and Strobe Talbott, CNN
Russia
# Russia and Egypt sign preliminary $3.5 billion arms deal
# How Bulgaria and Interpol are helping Vladimir Putin imprison European citizens
# Russia “extremism” cases double, largely Internet-related
# “Russia is Our Most Dangerous Neighbor” – Martin Wolf, “Financial Times”
# “Tycoon’s Arrest Sends Shock Wave Through Russia” – Nataliya Vasilyeva, AP
Eastern Europe
# “Food fest” in Belarus following sanctions
# “Belarus And Poland: Brought Together By Russian Sanctions?” – Paula Borowska, Belarus Digest
Iraq/Syria
# Kurds retake seven Christian villages
# Rand Paul spreads McCain/IS meeting hoax
# Obama plans to tightly control strikes in Syria (counterinsurgency in Iraq/counterterrorism in Syria?)
# Militants under growing pressure
Iran
# “Happy” dancers sentenced to six months and 91 lashes
# Iran detains UK citizen over ban on women watching sports alongside men
# Breakthrough in New York nuclear talks “unlikely”
# Zarif says any deal is better than nothing
Afghanistan/Pakistan
# “Washington Post” editorial: Afghanistan stability depends on Abdullah-Ghani deal
# Seventh journalist killed in Afghanistan this year
# An interview with a Taliban insider
# Pakistan airstrikes kill 40 militants near border with Afghanistan
# Pakistan economy battered by floods and political unrest
Balkans
# Kosovo imams held in raids on IS recruitment
# Footage of Bosnian children in Syria
# Sarajevo creates unit to catch stray dogs
Of Interest
# Scotland was once “Europe’s Afghanistan,” says Niall Ferguson
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