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MENASource

May 20, 2014

Top News: As Expat Polls Close, Sisi Appears to be Big Winner

By EgyptSource

According to the Presidential Elections Committee, more than 315,000 Egyptians living outside the country voted in the Egypt’s presidential elections exceeding the number of those who voted in the 2012 poll.

MENASource

May 20, 2014

Top News: Libyan Special Forces Commander Says His Forces Join Renegade General

By MENASource

The Saiqa Special Forces in Benghazi has allied itself with retired General Khalifa Haftar in his campaign against militant Islamists. Citing the failure of the central government in Tripoli to assert its authority and the suffering members of his brigade have suffered at the hands of Islamists, Commander Wanis Bukhamada announced his forces will join […]

MENASource

May 20, 2014

Libya: Beyond the Islamist vs. non-Islamist Divide

By Karim Mezran

Over the weekend, Libya experienced some of the worst violence since the 2011 uprising. Headlines about inter-militia clashes, evacuating families, and a mounting death toll do little to paint a clear picture of the dynamics at play.

Libya

New Atlanticist

May 19, 2014

Ukraine News Roundup | May 19

By Irena Chalupa

A Paradigm Shift in Russia’s Foreign Policy from The Moscow Times Ukraine’s Vigilante Peacemakers from The Daily Beast Loved and Hated: Can Tymoshenko Still Lead Ukraine? From Der Spiegel Behind Putin’s Cynicism and Hypocrisy from the Wall Street Journal Back to Balancing? Ukraine, the Status Quo, and American Grand Strategy in 2014 from The National […]

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

May 19, 2014

Journalism is a Crime In Crimea

By Volodymyr Prytula

Under Russian Control, Vigilantes and Police Detain, Beat, Threaten Reporters Osman Pashaev, 37, is one of the most popular television reporters in Crimea. Pashaev, an ethnic Tatar, worked for years for the region’s Tatar channel ATR and recently founded his own internet channel. Yesterday, Pashaev joined other Crimea journalists in covering the Tatar community’s public […]

Russia Ukraine

MENASource

May 19, 2014

Short-Term Stability in Sinai Will Exacerbate Tensions for Egypt’s Next President

By Zack Gold

The Egyptian governorate of North Sinai is a volatile region in which and from which violent actors have lashed out at the country’s military and security forces since even before the 2011 fall of Hosni Mubarak. From the summer of 2011, the Egyptian armed forces and police have worked to reestablish stability in the Sinai […]

Elections North Africa

New Atlanticist

May 19, 2014

Russian Separatist Commander Appeals for Volunteers, Says He is Short of Fighters

By Irena Chalupa

Colonel Igor Girkin, in Video, Laments Failure of Ukrainians to Rally to His Secessionist Uprising The Russian armed forces colonel commanding eastern Ukraine’s secessionist militias can’t recruit enough local men as fighters, and that doesn’t make him happy.  Igor Girkin has been away from his family and his apartment in Moscow for months now, leading […]

Russia Ukraine
BAE found malicious code in ten countries

NATOSource

May 19, 2014

Russian Cyber Campaign Continues to Penetrate NATO Ministries

By Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg View

It shouldn’t be easy to shut down a European ministry for days, depriving bureaucrats of access to e-mail and the web. Someone, however, has managed to do just that to Belgium’s foreign ministry, which had to quarantine its entire computer system last Saturday

NATO Russia
REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

New Atlanticist

May 19, 2014

Russian Campaign in Eastern Ukraine is Losing Steam, ex-US Ambassador Says

By James Rupert

Atlantic Council’s John Herbst Cites Putin Pullbacks, Statements by Russian Leaders in Ukraine Insurgency Today’s announcement by Russia’s government that President Vladimir Putin has ordered a pullback of Russian troops from Ukraine’s border is the latest of a half-dozen signals that “the Russian effort to destabilize eastern Ukraine is losing steam,” according to the director […]

Russia Ukraine
Latvian soldier participating in Steadfast Jazz exercise

NATOSource

May 19, 2014

Unprotected in the East: NATO Appears Toothless in Russia Crisis

By Spiegel

According to information SPIEGEL obtained by SPIEGEL, a draft version of a comprehensive, restricted internal NATO assessment of the situation reads: “Russia’s ability to undertake significant military action with little warning presents a wider threat to the maintenance of security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.

Germany NATO