Eurotopics.net

Alexei Navalny announced his return to Russia on Sunday, after having recovered almost completely from the poison attack. The Kremlin critic was flown to Berlin in August and has remained in Germany for treatment and recovery. Commentators speculate about Moscow's reaction to his return and how much of a threat Navalny actually poses to Putin.

Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (of the Centre Party) has tended his resignation amid a corruption scandal. Ratas' party faces allegations of corruption in connection with the granting of a state loan of nearly 40 million euros for a real estate project. The leader of the liberal Reform Party, Kaja Kallas, has been tasked with forming a new government.

The Ice Hockey World Championship is scheduled to start in Riga and Minsk in May, but for political reasons there are strong reservations about Belarus hosting the event. Observers had speculated that the International Ice Hockey Federation might use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to cancel the event in Minsk. But after the organisation's president René Fasel travelled to Minsk for a meeting with Lukashenka, he has come under heavy fire in the press.

After a brief sense of relief that the coronavirus vaccines had been approved, uncertainty about how long the pandemic will last is again on the rise, fuelled by ongoing high infection rates and the emergence of new, more contagious strains of the virus. This makes it all the more important, commentators say, to ensure that vaccination programmes are well organised and to gain the trust of the population.

A report has been released in Ireland by a commission investigating the conditions in homes for unmarried mothers and their babies between 1922 and 1998. It showed that the child mortality rate in the homes was 15 percent. The Irish government has issued an official apology that speaks of "an oppressive and brutally misogynistic culture." Irish media are now debating the role of the Church.

Three days after the storming of the Capitol, Twitter permanently blocked Donald Trump's private account in a bid to stop the president from inciting further violence. But for Europe's press, this is not the end of the matter. The question now is whether constructive debate on social media is a pipe dream.