Here's an interesting story from Bloomberg on how a Dutch satirical site could disrupt EU relations with Ukraine:
Ah, democracy.
In the Netherlands citizens don’t even directly elect their city mayors and yet a new rule may just have given a satirical website the power to disrupt a treaty between the European Union and Ukraine.
Backed by a blog best known for its confrontational political commentary, a group called GeenPeil collected more than 450,000 signatures calling for a non-binding referendum on a 2014 pact that establishes closer economic ties between the EU and the former Soviet state. Should enough signatures be declared valid by inspectors Wednesday, a plebiscite will have to be called within six months on whether the Netherlands should veto the agreement.
The vote would be another sign of the disconnect that has opened up between EU leaders and their 503 million inhabitants as officials try to forge a coherent body politic to punch its weight on the global stage.
A vote on the Ukraine deal would be the first test of a July regulation in the Netherlands that allows anyone who can gather enough signatures to call a non-binding referendum on almost any new law or treaty that hasn’t yet taken effect. Off limits: the constitution, the budget and the royal family. Fair game: the EU-Ukraine pact approved in 2014 and ratified by the Dutch Senate in July.
Read the entire article here
Good morning. We'll get the live blog rolling today with an update on the Savchenko trial from our news desk:
Russian authorities on October 13 prevented the sister of Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko from testifying in her defense in her controversial murder trial.
Savchenko's sister Vira was meant to appear this week as the main witness for the defense against charges of murdering two Russian reporters, which could bring a 20-year jail term for the Ukrainian servicewoman.
The case has been condemned as a miscarriage of justice by human rights groups.
Vira Savchenko wrote on Facebook that Russian authorities told her at the border that she had been banned from entering the country until 2020, by orders of the Russian Federal Security Service.
A spokesman for the FSB in Moscow refused to comment.
The 34-year-old helicopter pilot has denied accusations that she helped direct an artillery strike that killed two Russian state television reporters in eastern Ukraine in June 2014.
Her lawyer Mark Feigin tweeted that "Nadia Savchenko has now been deprived of her right to a defense." He vowed to appeal the FSB decision.
(AFP, TASS, Interfax)
We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume again tomorrow morning, you can keep up with all our ongoing Ukraine coverage here.