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The Rundown

The Rundown: February 3

RFE/RL In The Media

AP story quotes extensively Kazakh Service's interview with Pompeo and NPR reporter tweets out mention of Kazakh Service's interview with the secretary of state

Mike Pompeo's interview with Kazakh Service was cited or used by Politico, Washington Examiner, Huffington Post, Mediate, Radio France, Asia Times, Dailykos, Axios.com, etc.

Seznam Zpravy features a video of the crash of US Bombardier E-11A plane in Afghanistan and a video of a Kyrgyz family living next to a landfill and cemetery

Severpost.ru posted Amos Chapple's photos of Russia's northern city of Murmansk

Eurasia Review reprinted our article "Georgia Extends Lobbying Contract With Trump-Tied Firm Amid Congressional Frustration Over Democracy"

Eurasia Review also picked up Mike Eckel's analysis "On Eve Of Pompeo Visit, A Shakeup In Belarus’s Military And Snap Drills: What Gives?"

Kyiv Post picked up RFE/RL's reports on Pompeo's visit To Belarus and Kazakhstan

Forbes mentions Polygraph's fact checking of Russian domestic news outlets suggesting the United States might be behind the outbreak of coronavirus

SELECTED EDITORIALS & COMMENTARIES

FT
NYT
THE TIMES

Background - Various

Christian Schwarz-Schilling: Dayton made Bosnia and Herzegovina ungovernable DW

Coronavirus

UK/Brexit

Pipa Norris: Brexit Is Just the Beginning Foreign Affairs

Iran

Middle East

Russia

US

UPCOMING EVENTS / SELECTED

US - Iowa caucuses, Feb 3
Ukraine - Turkish President Erdogan visits Kyiv, Feb 4
Russia - ASEAN chief Lim Jock Hoi meets Russian FM Lavrov, Moscow, Feb 3
Poland - French President Emmanuel Macron visits Warsaw, Feb 3-4
Germany - Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz meets Chancellor Angela Merkel, Berlin, Feb 3
WHO releases yearly report on cancer, Geneva, Feb 3 (2301 GMT)
WHO - World Cancer Day, Feb 4
US - Trump to give State of the Union address, Washington, Feb 4
Ukraine - OSCE representative on media freedom Harlem Desir visits Kyiv, Feb 4- 7
Russia - Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde visits Moscow, Feb 4-5
Germany - European Police Congress, Berlin, Feb 4
Poland - President of Northern Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski visits Warsaw, Feb 4
Germany - President Steinmeier meets Austria's Chancellor Kurz, Berlin, Feb 4
German Chancellor Angela Merkel starts visit to South Africa and Angola, Feb 5
UN - International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, Feb 6
Heritage Foundation: Why the US Needs a Strong NATO, Washington, Feb 6
Mexico - Russia's FM Lavrov to visit Mexico, meet counterpart, Feb 6
Heritage Foundation- Why the US Needs a Strong NATO, Washington, Feb 6
Kazakhstan - Italian and US astronauts, Russian cosmonaut return to Earth from ISS, Feb 6
Venezuela - Russia's FM Lavrov to visit Venezuela, meets Maduro, Caracas, Feb 7
Azerbaijan - Early parliamentary elections, Feb 9
European Parliament plenary session, Strasbourg, Feb 10-13
UN - World Radio Day, Feb 13
Global - Valentine's Day, Feb 14
Serbia's National Day, Feb 15
EU - Foreign Affairs Council, Brussels, Feb 17
Germany - Berlinale Film Festival, Feb 20-29
Iran - Parliamentary election, Feb 21
G20 finance ministers, central bank governors meeting, Riyadh, Feb 22-23
US - Nevada Democratic caucuses, Feb 22
Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Feb 24-27
EU General Affairs Council meeting, Brussels, Feb 25
US - South Carolina Democratic primary, Feb 29
Freedom House: Freedom in the World 2020, Mar 4
China’s National People’s Congress, Beijing, Mar 5
UN - World Water Day, Mar 22
EU - Foreign Affairs Council, Brussels, Mar 23
European Council, Brussels, Mar 26-27
Global - Earth Hour, Mar 28
WHO - World Health Day, Apr 7
Russian constitutional referendum slated for Apr 12
Easter 2020, Apr 12
North Macedonia - Snap parliamentary election, Apr 12
World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, Washington, Apr 17 –19
Orthodox Easter 2020, Apr 19
World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, Washington, Apr 17 –19
EU - General Affairs Council, Luxembourg, Apr 21
EU - Foreign Affairs Council, Luxembourg, Apr 22
Armenia marks Genocide Remembrance Day, Apr 24
EU - Foreign Affairs Council, Brussels, May 11
Eurovision Song Contest 2020, Rotterdam, May 12-16
Pope Francis is inviting world leaders and young people to an event called “Reinventing the Global Educational Alliance”, Vatican, May 14
EU - Foreign Affairs Council, Luxembourg, June 15
The UEFA Euro 2020, June 12-July 12
European Council, Brussels, June 18-19
UN - World Refugee Day, June 20
GMF - Brussels Forum, June 25-27
Germany's EU Presidency, July 1- Dec 31
US - Independence Day, July 4
Czech Republic - Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day, July 5
Czech Republic - Jan Hus Day, July 6
UN - World Population Day, July 11
Salzburg Festival 2020 (100th anniversary), July 18-Aug 30
Russia - SCO summit, Chelyabinsk, July 22-23
2020 Olympic Games, Tokyo, July 24-Aug 9
Hiroshima marks the anniversary of 1945 nuclear attack, Aug 6
Venice Film Festival, Aug 26-Sept 5
Belarus - Presidential election of 2020, Aug 30
EU-China Summit in Leipzig, September
Bulgaria - Unification Day, Sept 6
The 75th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 75), New York, Sep 15-30
China - National Day, Oct 1
Kyrgyzstan - Parliamentary elections, Oct 4
WEF - Global Competitiveness Report 2020-21, Oct 7
US - Columbus Day, Oct 12
UN - World Food Day, Oct 16
European Council, Brussels, Oct 15-16
UN - World Food Day, Oct 16
The 2020 World Expo will open in Dubai, Oct 20
Climate Conference, COP 26, Glasgow, November
US - Election Day, Nov 3
Tajikistan - Presidential election November, 2020 TBD
Georgia - Parliamentary elections, November, 2020
Saudi Arabia - 2020 G20 Summit, Riyadh, Nov 21-22
European Council, Brussels, Dec 10-11

HISTORICAL CALENDAR / SELECTED

Feb 4-11, 1945 - The Yalta Conference, Crimea. US President Roosevelt, British PM Churchill, and Soviet leader Stalin met to plan the final defeat of Nazi Germany (75th anniversary).
Feb 6, 2000 - The Battle of Grozny ended (part of the Second Chechen War) - 20th anniversary.
Feb 7, 1990 - The Communist Party of the Soviet Union agreed to give up its 70-year monopoly on political power (30th anniversary).
Feb 10, 1890 - Birth of Russian writer Boris Pasternak. He was awarded and declined the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature (130th anniversary).
Feb 12, 1990 - Soviet Union’s special forces dispersed banned protests in Dushanbe, killing dozens of protesters (30th anniversary).
Feb 12, 2010 - Death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, Georgian luger (crashed during a training run at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, aged 21) - 10th anniversary.
Feb 13-15, 1945 - The Bombing of Dresden. The Allies carried out 4 massive bombing raids, completely destroying the inner city and killing about 25,000 people (75th anniversary).
Feb 14, 1920 - The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago (100th anniversary).
Feb 14, 1945 - The Bombing of Prague. The US Air Force carried out a bombing raid on the city after mistaking it for Dresden (75th anniversary).
Feb 14, 2005 - The popular video-sharing website YouTube was founded (15th anniversary).
Feb 16, 2005 - Kyoto Protocol came into force (15th anniversary).
Feb 18, 2010 - An IAEA report suggests, bluntly and for the first time, that Iran is actively pursuing a nuclear weapons capability (10th anniversary).
Feb 24, 1955 - Turkey and Iraq form the Baghdad Pact. The UK, Pakistan and Iran join later that year (65th anniversary).
Feb 27, 2015 - Death of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov (5th anniversary).
March
Mar 5, 1940 - The Katyn Massacre. The Soviet Politburo approved the execution of 22,000 captured Polish army officers, police officers and members of the intelligentsia (the massacre was discovered about 3 years later) - 80th anniversary.
Mar 5, 1970 - The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons came into effect (50th anniversary).
Mar 6, 1945 - Petru Groza became Prime Minister of Romania. This marked the beginning of the Communist regime in Romania (75th anniversary).
Mar 11, 1990 - Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare its independence from the Soviet Union (30th anniversary).
Mar 15, 1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev become the President of the Soviet Union (30th anniversary).
Mar 18, 1980 - 48 people were killed at Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia when a Vostok-2M rocket exploded on its launch pad during a fueling operation (40th anniversary).
Mar 21, 1980 - US President Jimmy Carter announced that the US would boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (40th anniversary).
Mar 22-24, 1940 - The Lahore Resolution is adopted by the All-India Muslim League (80th anniversary).
Mar 24, 2005 - Kyrgyzstan - Tulip Revolution (which ousted long-time President Askar Akaev) - 15th anniversary.
Mar 26, 2000 - Vladimir Putin was elected President of the Russian Federation (20th anniversary).
April
Apr 4, 2005 - Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev formally resigned from the office (15th anniversary).
Apr 6, 1945 - Sarajevo was liberated from Nazi occupation (75th anniversary).
Apr 6, 2010 - The uprising in Kyrgyzstan - a series of riots across the country - ultimately led to the ousting of President Bakiyev (10th anniversary).
Apr 8, 2010 - The US and Russia signed a landmark nuclear arms treaty in Prague (10th anniversary).
Apr 10, 2010 - The Smolensk plane crash killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 96 others in Russia (10th anniversary).
Apr 13, 1990 - The Soviet Union accepted responsibility for the WWII murders of thousands of Polish army officers in Katyn Forest. They had previously blamed the massacre on the Nazis (30th anniversary).
Apr 22, 1870 - Birth of Vladimir Lenin, Russian communist politician and revolutionary (150th anniversary).
Apr 22, 1945 - WW II: Hitler admitted defeat. He committed suicide on Apr 30 (75th anniversary).
Apr 22, 1945 - 600 prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia revolt; 520 are killed, 80 escape (75th anniversary).
April 30 to May 5, 1980 - UK: The Iranian Embassy siege took place (40th anniversary).
May
May 1, 1960 - The Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane near the Russian city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) and captured pilot Gary Powers, sparking a diplomatic crisis. In August, Powers was sentenced to 10 years in prison (he was released in 1962 in exchange for a Soviet spy) - 60th anniversary.
May 4, 1980 - Death of Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia (40th anniversary).
May 4, 1990 - Latvia declared its independence from the Soviet Union (independence was officially restored on 21st August 1991) - 30th anniversary.
May 7, 1945 - WW II: Germany signed the official unconditional surrender document in Reims and again the following day in Berlin, because Soviet leader Joseph Stalin refused to recognize the first one. The document stated that all hostilities would cease as of 12:01 am on May 9, ending the war in Europe (75th anniversary).
May 7, 1960 - Leonid Brezhnev became Leader of the Soviet Union (60th anniversary).
May 7, 2000 - Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as President of Russia (20th anniversary).
May 8, 1945 - VE day (Victory in Europe) – celebrated as a public holiday (75th anniversary).
May 9, 1950 - French FM Robert Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe. The Schuman Declaration is now celebrated annually in the EU as “Europe Day” (70th anniversary).
May 14, 1955 - The Warsaw Pact was established. It was a Soviet-led mutual defense treaty between eight communist European states during the Cold War (65th anniversary).
May 17, 1990 - The WHO removed homosexuality from its International Classification of Diseases. May 17 is now marked as the International Day Against Homophobia (30th anniversary).
May 20 1940 - The first prisoners arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. The first mass transport of prisoners arrived on June 14 (80th anniversary).
May 20, 1990 - The first post-communist elections were held in Romania. Ion Iliescu was elected president (30th anniversary).
May 24, 1940 - Birth of the poet and Nobel Prize winner in literature Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky (80th anniversary).
May 24, 2000 - Israel withdrew its troops from South Lebanon, ending 22 years of occupation (20th anniversary).
May 28, 1995 - An earthquake destroyed the town of Neftegorsk on Sakhalin Island, eastern Russia. 2,000 people were killed (25th anniversary).
May 30, 1960 - Death of Boris Pasternak (60th anniversary).
June
June 1, 1990 - US President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement to end the production of chemical weapons (30th anniversary).
June 2, 1955 - The Baikonur cosmodrome was founded in Kazakhstan (65th anniversary).
June 9, 1870 - Death of Charles Dickens, British novelist (150th anniversary).
June 10, 2010 - Violent clashes between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbek groups erupted in Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city of Osh (10th anniversary).
June 12,1990 - The Russian Federation formally declared its sovereignty. This day is now celebrated annually as Russia Day (30th anniversary),
June 14, 1995 - Chechen terrorists led by Shamil Basayev took several hundred people hostage in the Budyonnovsk hospital (25th anniversary).
June 15, 1940 - The Soviet Union invaded and occupied Lithuania (80th anniversary).
June 16, 1940 - The Soviet Union invaded and occupied Estonia and Latvia (80th anniversary).
June 17, 2005 - Protesters in Bishkek stormed government headquarters in the biggest unrest in Kyrgyzstan (15th anniversary).
June 18, 1940 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave his “Finest Hour” speech (80th anniversary).
June 23, 1990 - The Sovereignty Declaration is signed by the first Moldovan Parliament (30th anniversary).
June 28, 1940 - Bessarabia and Bukovina were annexed from Romania by USSR (Soviet Occupation Day).
July
July 4, 1950 - Radio Free Europe made its first broadcast (to Czechoslovakia) - 70th anniversary.
July 5, 2010 - Russian-Kazakh-Belarusian customs union came into effect (10th anniversary).
July 7, 2005 - Four suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system during the morning rush hour (15th anniversary),
July 11, 1995 - The Bosnian Serb Army seized control of Srebrenica and massacred 8,000 men and boys (25th anniversary).
July 12, 1990 - Boris Yeltsin resigned from the Soviet Communist Party (30th anniversary).
July 16, 1945 - The first atomic bomb was exploded by the US in the desert in New Mexico, marking the start of the atomic age (75th anniversary).
July 16, 1990 - The Ukrainian SSR declared its state sovereignty (30th anniversary).
July 17 to Aug 2, 1945 - US, British and Soviet leaders met at Potsdam to settle the post-WWII future of Europe (75th anniversary).
July 19 to Aug 3, 1980 - Summer Olympic Games were held in Moscow. Dozens of nations boycotted the games because of Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan (40th anniversary).
July 25, 1980 - Death of Russian singer and song writer Vladimir Vysotsky (40th anniversary).
July 27, 1980 - Death of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the deposed Shah of Iran (40th anniversary).
August
Aug 2, 1990 to Feb 28, 1991 - Gulf War. Iraq invaded Kuwait (30th anniversary).
Aug 6, 1945 - WWII: The US Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima (75th anniversary).
Aug 9, 1945 - The US Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki (75th anniversary).
Aug 12, 1970 - The Treaty of Moscow. It was signed by Willy Brandt and Walter Scheel from the FRG side and by Alexei Kosygin and Andrei Gromyko from the USSR side (50th anniversary).
Aug 12, 2000 - The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea when its hull was damaged by a series of explosions. All 118 crew members were killed (20th anniversary).
Aug 14, 1980 - Lech Walesa led a strike by shipyard workers in Gdansk, to protest against the dismissal of a trade union activist (40th anniversary)
Aug 19. 1960 - The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 5 with the dogs Belka and Strelka on board. They were the first animals to survive orbital flight (60th anniversary).
Aug 21, 1940 - The exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was fatally attacked near Mexico City (80th anniversary).
Aug 23, 1990 - Armenia declared its independence from the Soviet Union (It gained full independence on Sept 21, 1991) - 30th anniversary.
Aug 28, 1995 - 43 Sarajevo citizens were killed and 75 wounded in the explosion of a mortar shell fired from the Bosnian Serbs' positions (25th anniversary).
September
Sept 6, 1620 - 102 English Puritans set sail aboard the Mayflower from Plymouth, England for a new life in America (400th anniversary).
Sept 14, 1960 - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was created at the Baghdad Conference (60th anniversary).
Sept 16, 2000 - Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze was murdered (20th anniversary).
Sept 27, 1940 - The Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy. This military alliance marked the founding of the Axis Powers (80th anniversary).
Sept 22, 1980 - The Solidarity movement was created in Poland with Lech Walesa as its leader (40th anniversary).
Sept 30, 2005 - The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 editorial cartoons featuring the Islamic prophet Muhammad. This sparked international protests, and violent demonstrations. At least 140 people were killed (15th anniversary).
October
Oct 3, 1990 - Reunification of Germany (30th anniversary).
Oct 5, 2000 - Protesters stormed Yugoslav parliament proclaiming Vojislav Kostunica as the new Yugoslav president (20th anniversary).
Oct 6, 2000 - Slobodan Milosevic was forced to resign after protestors storm parliament (20th anniversary).
Oct 7, 1950 - China invaded Tibet (70th anniversary).
Oct 8, 1970 - Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature (50th anniversary).
Oct 8, 2005 - About 80,000 people were killed in the earthquake which affected Kashmir, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, western China and Tajikistan (15th anniversary).
Oct 10, 1960 - East Pakistan was hit by a cyclone that killed 6,000 people and devastated coastal communities, leaving 100,000 homeless. An even more devastating cyclone hit the same area on Oct 31 (60th anniversary).
Oct 10, 2000 - Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan signed the treaty creating the Eurasian Economic Community (20th anniversary).
Oct 12, 1960 - UNGA - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on his delegate desk reacting to a speech by a Philippine delegate who accused the Soviet Union of "swallowing up" Eastern Europe (60th anniversary).
Oct 13, 1990 - The Lebanese Civil War ended (30th anniversary).
Oct 15, 1990 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded Nobel Peace Prize (30th anniversary).
Oct 16, 1940 - The Warsaw Ghetto was established in Poland (80th anniversary).
Oct 22, 1870 - Birth of Ivan Bunin, Russian writer and poet. The first Russian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1933) - 150th anniversary.
Oct 24, 1945 - The United Nations was formally established and began operating. It replaced the League of Nations (75th anniversary).
Oct 28, 1995 - Baku Metro fire, Azerbaijan. About 300 people were killed and 265 injured in the world’s deadliest subway fire (25th anniversary).
November
Nov 6, 1960 - The first (Svyatoshino-Brovarska) metro line was opened in Kyiv (60th anniversary).
Nov 10, 1970 - The Soviet Union launched Luna 17 on an unmanned mission to the Moon (50th anniversary).
Nov 15, 1920 - The League of Nations Assembly holds its first meeting in Geneva (100th anniversary).
Nov 19, 1990 - The Cold War ended as leaders of NATO and the Warsaw Pact states signed the Charter of Paris and a treaty on conventional forces in Europe (30th anniversary).
Nov 20, 1910 - Death of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (110th anniversary).
Nov 20, 1945 to Oct 1, 1946 - The first Nuremberg trial was held in Germany (75th anniversary).
Nov 21, 1995 - The civil war in Bosnia -Herzegovina ended with the initialing of the Dayton Peace Agreement (25th anniversary).
Nov 22, 2005 - Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany (15th anniversary).
Nov 29, 1945 - Yugoslavia abolished its monarchy and became the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (75th anniversary).
December
Dec 8, 1980 - Death of John Lennon, British rock musician, singer, songwriter, and peace activist (40th anniversary).
Dec 9, 1990 - Slobodan Milosovic was elected President of Serbia in the first free elections for 50 years (30th anniversary).
Dec 9, 1990 - Lech Walesa, leader of the once outlawed Solidarity labor movement, was elected President of Poland (He took office on Dec. 22) - 30th anniversary.
Dec 11, 2010 - The intergovernmental agreement on the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline (TAPI) was signed in Ashgabat (10th anniversary).
Dec 14, 1995 - The Bosnian War ended with the ratification of the Dayton Accords in Paris (25th anniversary).
Dec 16, 1770 - Birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (250th anniversary).
Dec 18, 1980 - Death of Alexei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union (1964–80) - 40th anniversary.
Dec 18, 2010 - Protests in Tunisia that lead to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali 28 days later (10th anniversary).
Dec 19, 2010 - Police in Belarus rounded up opposition leaders in a violent crackdown after an election that returns President Alexander Lukashenko for a fourth term (10th anniversary).
Dec 23, 1990 - Elections in Yugoslavia ended, with four of its six republics now having non communist governments (30th anniversary).

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