Belarus

Hackers wanted to gain access to information for blackmail, according to Warsaw.

The Baltic state passed details of the incident to NATO, following news of a Shahed drone crossing into Romania overnight.

The Ryanair flight was forced to to land in Minsk, where opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich and his partner were arrested.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said the episode demonstrated the widening reach of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Kyiv delivers blunt warning to Minsk.

EU ambitions face new blow as analyst warns the government’s move “would be the end of Georgia’s democracy.”

Tina Bokuchava told POLITICO the EU and U.S. should impose sanctions on the ruling party over human rights breaches.

Putin ally Aleksandr Lukashenko says, “Let’s sit down at the negotiating table” to end the conflict.

Polish drugs regulator blamed cyberattack linking top athletes with banned drugs on “a group supported by the services of an enemy state.”

An investigation by Belarusian journalists has identified a Cypriot company as being at the center of a contract markup scheme.

The largest prisoner swap since the Cold War freed several leading members of the Russian opposition.

The deal could incentivize Russia to imprison more innocent people, critics say.

In exchange, Moscow received eight Russians who had been imprisoned in five different countries.

In exchange, Moscow received eight Russians who had been imprisoned in five different countries.

It was not clear who is part of the swap.

Putin may see the advantages of a historic exchange with Biden rather than Trump, who says he will give Moscow “nothing” in any deal.

Fallout from a policy that grants Russians and Belarusians fast-track access to the European Union could threaten Hungary’s Schengen membership.

Lukashenko may team up with Putin on large-scale prisoner exchange, observers believe.

“There’s a serious problem” with enforcement of wartime bans, Foreign Minister Baiba Braže tells POLITICO.

Among thousands of applications, a few dozen were rejected on suspicion of foreign interference, French Interior Minister Darmanin says.

As the Belarusian dictator marks three decades in power, his enabling of Russia’s war in Ukraine and reliance on Kremlin money make him vulnerable, say regime insiders.

Vietnam and Malaysia are the next destinations on EU envoy David O’Sullivan’s mission to stop Russia from beating EU sanctions.

The Chinese-Belarusian anti-terrorism exercises, conducted not far from the border with NATO ally Poland, coincide with the NATO summit.

“We have to be honest and tell ourselves that the Cold War situation is back and it’s not due to the actions of the United States,” Andrzej Duda said.