Free Republic

Slovakia is the last EU Member State without a single mosque, TRT World reports. Previous attempts to build have been halted by politicians.The country does not recognise Islam as a religion and only have a few thousand Muslim residents. Islam must not be taught in schools and the 5,000 Muslims, mostly European ones, who reside in the country are not officially recognised. They account for only 0.1% of the population. In 2007, politicians changed the country’s laws so that 20,000 signatures from members were required to be recognised by the state. In 2017 they more than doubled the number of...

Dream on you loopians, just don't expect me to fund your crazy ideas! There is a new company, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) that intends to revolutionize high speed continental travel. It’s CEO, Dirk Ahlborn, recently announced an agreement with the Slovakian government to build Hyperloops from Vienna, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia, and from Bratislava to Budapest, Hungary. Its competitor, Hyperloop One, recently tested an open air propulsion test of a vehicle with its “Blade Runner” test rig. The Japanese “bullet trains” going at 200 mph are like snails in comparison. The new hyper-things are envisaged to do about 760 mph....

Adopted just before the financial crisis hit, the single currency is still seen as the recipe for prosperity by most Slovaks. But many economists are beginning to wonder if Bratislava made the right choice. Over the past few months Slovak politicians have been confronted by problems that not even the worst-case scenario had envisaged in the lead-in to Slovakia’s entry into the eurozone. The government of Iveta Radičová, although refusing to take part in the loan to Greece, afterwards did have to contribute to the loans to Ireland and Portugal, since Slovakia is a member of the euro bulwark –...

ON THE SIDELINE of this week's G8 Summit at Gleneagles, US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet one on one. Atop their agenda will be commitments they made four months ago in Bratislava to address an issue even more important to the well-being of Russian and American citizens than African aid and climate change, the issues that will headline the G8. Recall the first televised presidential debate last fall when the moderator asked both President Bush and Senator John Kerry: ''What is the single most serious threat to American national security?" Both answered: nuclear terrorism....

An American Traitor: Guilty As Charged By Henry Mark Holzer and Erika HolzerFrontPageMagazine.com | June 10, 2005For three decades Jane Fonda obfuscated, distorted and lied about virtually everything connected with her wartime trip to North Vietnam: her motive, her acts, her intent, and her contribution to the Communists’ war effort.  With the aid of clever handlers, she so successfully suppressed and spun her conduct in Hanoi that many Americans didn’t know what she had done there, and, more important, the legal significance. Three years ago, our book, “Aid and Comfort”: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam (McFarland & Co.), laid bare...

The failed summit between Bush and Putin can haunt the world for years to come Staff Reporter Mar. 1, 2005 Putin heard a solid lecture on democracy from Bush last week. Putin came out and said “Russia’s path to democracy cannot be reversed.” Then in a two day time frame Russia sold nuclear reactors to Iran and finalized sophisticated missile deal with the Baathist regime of Syria. What does that tell you? Well it is simple. Russians could not be rude with Bush. They just showed their response through their action in Syria and Iran. Russians are fed up of...

Five days that shook world politicsBy M K Bhadrakumar There is no Cold War ahead. Yet the period between February 20 and 24 was extraordinary. Seldom have fault-lines in world politics surfaced with such clarity. If the principal objective of President George Bush's European tour (February 20-24) was to heal trans-Atlantic rifts stemming from the great differences over the Iraq war, it was a success. Europe was willing to let bygones be bygones. But it became apparent during Bush's harmonious tour of "Old Europe" that profound differences remained between the European vision and the neo-conservative world view that the Bush...

The Presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States of America stressed that there are more points in common than differences at a time when the international policy of Washington has put a strain on its relations with the international community. Furthermore, unnecessary provocation by George W. Bush regarding internal affairs in the Russian Federation created a wholly avoidable climate of tension around this Summit, which was dispersed through the goodwill of both Heads of State. Nevertheless, the Russian President was firm and resolute in refuting the veiled criticism leveled against Russia by the President of the USA. By...

George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush's four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin's crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed, TIME magazine will report on Monday. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. "Putin thought we'd fired Dan Rather," says...

# NEW YORK, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- When George W. Bush confronted Vladimir Putin last week about the freedom of the press in Russia, Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe reports, Putin shot back with an attack of his own: "We didn't criticize you when you fired those reporters at CBS." Details of the meeting, which included just the two presidents and their translators inside the historic castle that overlooks the Slovak capital of Bratislava, are reported in the March 7 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 28). It's not clear how well Putin understands the controversy that led...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia The popular uprisings in Georgia and Ukraine have raised the morale of the small opposition movements in Belarus and Moldova, and they said Wednesday that they were more determined than ever to continue the struggle for democracy. . "It will take time, but it will come," said Andrei Safonov, a political analyst and journalist from Transnistria, a separatist and internationally unrecognized enclave in eastern Moldova that is ruled by an authoritarian group backed by Moscow. . Civil society groups attending a conference in Bratislava on Wednesday, the day before President George W. Bush was to meet with President...

President Bush and Russian President Putin seemed to get along famously last Thursday in Bratislava. And at their post-meeting press conference, President Bush was visibly pleased when Putin stated publicly that Russia’s choice of democracy will never be reversed. Unfortunately, there is no connection between what Putin says and what he does. In the last few years he has steadily eroded Russia’s democracy; today that country is, in fact, the only major country that is less democratic today than it was when President Bush took office in January 2001. And Putin’s recent decisions to go ahead with its sale of...

Bratislava (Slovakia), Feb. 25 (Reuters): Incensed by US talk of a lack of press freedom in Russia, two Russian reporters tried to turn the tables on President George W. Bush during his summit news conference with Vladimir Putin yesterday. After Bush said he had raised concerns about Russia’s democracy in talks with the Russian President and felt reassured, he suddenly found himself on the defensive. “What is that lack of freedom all about?” a reporter from the Russian news agency Interfax asked the US President. Before Bush could answer, the reporter then turned on Putin and demanded to know why...

Equipped with idealistic rhetoric and armed with a mandated reelection, President Bush trekked his way through Europe this week with a pocket full of political bargaining chips. This is a multi-tiered trip with layered intentions. At face value, it is an effort to strengthen the diplomatic and political ties that have been weakened in the last four years. However there are deeper motivations in play. There are very particular issues that need a political coalition to confront, namely the Iran/Syria axis, and the hazy role that Russia is playing in the matter. However, deep in some of our hearts, we...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Slovakia leader hits media on Bush slantBy Bill SammonTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished February 25, 2005 BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- The prime minister of Slovakia yesterday blamed the media for unfairly turning the European public against President Bush by negatively slanting coverage on Iraq.     After meeting with Mr. Bush twice in less than a week, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda told reporters that the president also blamed the press for portraying him as eager to invade Iran to eradicate its nuclear program.     "President Bush told me in Brussels: 'I am so unhappy that media creates the picture that Bush wants...

US President Bush's love fest with Europe continued on Thursday in Bratislava. Sort of. Leading up to the US-Russia summit, Bush fired off some heavy critiques in the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The partnership, however, remains strong. Could Europe learn from Bush's heavy-handedness? The post-meeting press conference in Bratislava on Thursday evening featuring US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin was more or less exactly what was expected. Indeed, it was a lot like the atmosphere Bush had sought to create throughout his five-day trip through Europe. Friendly. Positive. Stressing areas of agreement. Indeed, while...

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President Bush’s moral-high-ground, idea-driven foreign policy was well represented in an uber-speech he delivered in Brussels and throughout his trip to Old and New Europe this week. He again pulled from Natan Sharansky’s big thought on the transforming power of democracy and freedom, stating in Brussels that “Regimes that terrorize their own people will not hesitate to support terror abroad,” that “the false stability of dictatorship and stagnation can only lead to deeper resentment,” and that “Lasting successful reform in a broader Middle East will not be imposed from the outside. It must be chosen from within.” So, while...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a glowing assessment Friday of his meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush, calling it very positive and saying it set an agenda for cooperation in the coming years. "We are satisfied with the talks and their results. I have the feeling that our American partners would have the same assessment," Putin said at a news conference with Slovakia's president a day after his summit with Bush. "The meeting went in a very positive way, in its character and in the chosen themes." Putin said he spoke to Bush for at...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryFebruary 24, 2005 President and President Putin Discuss Strong U.S.-Russian Partnership Constitution HallBratislava CastleBratislava, Slovakia 5:50 P.M. (Local) PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all. I've just had a very important and constructive dialogue with my friend. It's great to see -- I know Laura was pleased to see Lyudmila Putin, as well. We have had, over the past four years, very constructive relations, and that's the way I'm going to keep it for the next four years, as well. We've had an open and candid exchange of views and positions. In our meeting earlier...