Chivalry

Kazakhstan?s veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev celebrates his 75th birthday today, in good shape and vastly popular, but the expected fireworks and fanfare mask uncomfortable questions about the future of the second-largest post-Soviet economy. 

A day before the crucial referendum in Greece, there are smoke signals from the European Commission. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s senior advisor, Martin Selmayr, has been tweeting thoughts on Greece with links to a Der Spiegel interview that is more than two weeks old.

Preparation of last rival rallies is underway ahead of the referendum Greece is due to hold Sunday on bailout conditions proposed by international lenders.

Both the referendum itself and the "campaigns" led by Greek and EU officials have left Greeks divided, but many politicians, business leaders and academicians have started calling in the past few days for a "yes".

A former employee of Bulgaria's State Agency Technical Operations (DATO), a special entity at the Council of Ministers in charge of the use of special surveillance equipment, has been sentenced to two years of imprisonment, according to a media statement of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office.

It will be crucial for the Greek government to properly manage a probable chaotic situation stemming from a "no" result in the July 5 referendum, former Prime Minister George Papandreou has told daily Hürriyet. 

“Important events for which you are not prepared are going on in Athens, with results which probably won’t match articles you wrote,” EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told a reporters covering the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, while European Parliament president Martin Schulz added that “what is happening today is historic”.

Serbia's Privatization Agency has announced a call for bids for 38 state-owned media outlets, including the Tanjug news agency.

The 38 media outlets, mostly regional radio stations, will be sold via public auctions.

The acquisition of 100% ownership of the Tanjug news agency is estimated at EUR 760, 935.74, according to the online version of Serbian daily Kurir.

Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) State Minister Nikos Pappas, one of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras closest associates, denied that the government was using the referendum as a ploy and would back down at the last minute. “The referendum will be held as scheduled,” he said during his address to parliament on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had telephone contact with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in an effort to find a mutually viable compromise solution to the Greek problem by Tuesday night. Sources state that Tsipras has made a proposal that would be of mutual benefit to both sides and that would solve the country’s credit problems.

Despite government sources leaking the existence of a new improved proposal submitted to Greece by international creditors, there was exclusive information that there was no new proposal made to the Greek government.