‘Every journalist has spare clothes in his or her backpack. Because we are never sure we will make it home again.’ For more than a month now, Belarusian President Lukashenko has been waging a war on journalists. ‘But we keep on writing. That is our responsibility.’

In recent years, more wood was exported from Ukraine than officially logged. This can only be explained by illegal logging of wood that ends up in our printing paper, our clothing, IKEA furniture and other furniture. MO* went out into the Ukrainian woods.

The coronavirus is a magnifying glass that allows us to see the fault lines and changes in the world more sharply than ever. In the early days of the crisis, the EU showed a great inability to react in a coordinated manner, which in turn gave China and Russia much extra room to increase their influence in Eastern Europe. Are we bringing in the ...

Primeval forests are increasingly included in plans to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis. They are the best carbon sinks, but they are disappearing rapidly. In the European Union, they are mainly located in Romania, where only 13 per cent are protected. The rest has already been turned into or is threatened to be turned into production for ...

The businessman who helped Ukrainian president Zelensky to the top, wants to build Europe’s largest ski area in Europe’s last great wilderness: the Carpathians. Logging in primeval forests near the protected mountain range of Svydovets has begun, but is confronted with unexpected civil activism. An ordinary citizen is dragging some the most po ...

A confidential report by the European Commission, which MO* received, found that billionaire Andrej Babiš, during several years, received millions of euros in European subsidies illegally. As a prime minister who distributes the subsidies and as a company manager who receives the most subsidies, he is in a conflict of interest. Babiš ...

An audit report by the European Commission would show that Czech Prime Minister and businessman Andrej Babiš abused his political power to obtain millions of euros of European subsidies for his company. The Commission is delaying transparency until after the European elections. The Czech Pirate Party is taking the European Commission to court. &lsq ...

Hundreds of Romanian businessmen and politicians who were convicted for corruption are working on an unprecedented PR-operation to get amnesty. The trail leads from social-democrats in Bucharest, consultants of the right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu and Viktor Orbán, Israeli private espionage companies of ex-Mossad agents, to neoconservative t ...

The European Parliament historically voted to launch a sanction procedure against Hungary. A similar procedure against Poland for undermining the rule of law is already launched. This time it was the parliament that launched it. Members of Orbán’s own European People’s Party voted against him. Would the Social Democrats in the Euro ...

Forced by poverty, a population transfers its decision-making power over the European granary to foreign shareholders of subsidized, wealthy investment groups. Local residents work in paid employment of the companies to whom they sell their land, move to the city or emigrate. Landgrabbing, by the international market.

In their lives, these youngsters saw no other state leader besides Vladimir Putin. These are their life stories of poverty and exclusion. They are products of Russia’s turbulent past, and while they are powerless to shape Russian politics in 2018, they could grow into a force capable of shaping Russia’s future by 2024. ‘The real r ...

The presidential election campaign in Russia saw no real political competition. Putin’s only effective challenger Alexei Navalny was excluded from participation. But Navalny's “non-campaign” speaks volumes about the Russia Putin will lead over the next six years. MO* investigated Russia’s only real political campaign and wha ...