Eurotopics.net

Several thousand opponents of Putin demonstrated in Berlin on Sunday, following the call of Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, and Kremlin critics Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who were released from Russian custody at the beginning of August. However, exiled Russians and opposition members are at odds over whether such actions make sense.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke on the phone with Vladimir Putin on Friday. He explained that he had called for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and emphasised that the West stands united behind Kyiv. Europe's commentators criticise the call and discusse it in connection with Scholz's candidacy in the upcoming federal elections.

According to media reports, US President Joe Biden has given Ukraine permission to attack targets in Russia using US long-range missiles, breaking with Washington's policy so far. How will this latest development impact the course of the war?

Following the announcement that Elon Musk has been officially tasked with making US authorities "more efficient" under Donald Trump, the British newspaper The Guardian and the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia have closed their accounts on X. Musk bought X, which was Twitter at the time, in 2022, and has since been accused of doing too little to combat fake news on the platform. Europe's press debates whether leaving X is the right approach.