Soviet Union

‘A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood’ by Ian Johnson (Mariner Books, 336 pages, $16)

Polish ex-president: Putin declared war on world

WARSAW -- Former Polish president Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "declaring war on the world."

Walesa believes that Putin does not respect the international obligations of Russia to Ukraine and territorial integrity guarantees it provided.

BELGRADE - Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic spoke to Belarusian Ambassador to Serbia Vladimir Chushev on Tuesday about joint activities for the marking of the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Serbia and Belarus.

Dacic and Chushev also discussed other current bilateral matters, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The Israeli cabinet approved a new law Sunday that would enable easier conversions to Judaism, a move advocates hope will encourage hundreds of thousands of "religionless" Israelis to become Jewish.
      

Swept along by the excitement as the Berlin Wall was torn down, former top Soviet officials now say, 25 years on, they feel stabbed in the back by the West.
      
Igor Maximychev watched with trepidation from the Soviet embassy in Berlin as East Germans streamed towards the Wall the night it came down.        

Armenian and Azeri leaders have agreed to pursue talks over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region after resuming direct contacts at a meeting in Paris on Monday, the French government said.
   

Bulgaria's armed forces must soon reduce their dependence of Russian equipment and maintenance or face the risk of ‘catastrophic consequences,' Velizar Shalamanov has told the BBC.

The US Navy will formally commission its new missile defence base in southern Romania on Friday, according to media sources.

The base in Deveselu is one of the two European land-based interceptor sites for a NATO missile shield, a scheme which is viewed with deep suspicion by Russia.

According to the report published by research group Conflict Armament Research, Serbia is the fifth leading country of origin of IS ammunition, after China, the Soviet Union, the United States and Russia.

...

U.S. ambassador has poor grasp of history - Yakunin

BELGRADE -- Vladimir Yakunin says the U.S. ambassador to Serbia has demonstrated that he "does not know the history of the Soviet Union and WW2."