Day: April 7, 2023

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Ukraine agrees to halt grain exports to Poland – official

Poland will temporarily halt imports of Ukrainian grain, in a bid to ease the impact of plummeting prices after cheap produce from the war-torn nation flooded Eastern European markets, Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus said on Friday.

Kiev has “agreed to limit and for now halt exports to Poland,” Telus told reporters after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart, adding that “transit will be allowed but will be closely monitored in both countries, so that Ukraine’s grain doesn’t stay in Poland.”

Telus took office on Thursday, a day after his predecessor Henryk Kowalczyk resigned from his post, amid rising anger among Polish farmers over the glut of cheap Ukrainian crops.

Farmers in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria have suffered substantial losses due to the surge in imports of Ukrainian grain that was initially destined for Africa and the Middle East, but instead has been stuck in Eastern Europe.

On Friday, thousands of Bulgarian and Romanian farmers blocked border crossings into Ukraine, in protest against the influx of supplies.

Last May the EU suspended customs duties on all agricultural produce from Ukraine for one year, to support the nation’s economy. However, the glut of cheap grain left EU producers struggling against what they view as unfair competition.

Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller pledged on Friday that in the coming days, authorities would develop “mechanisms that will stop such grain exports that have led to a destabilization on the Polish food market.”

Last month, the prime ministers of five EU states including Poland wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanding action on Ukrainian agricultural imports, and urging her to reintroduce tariffs to prevent a further influx of Ukrainian grain.

Source: Russia Today

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German religious leader calls out Ukrainian diplomats

The head of the Evangelical Church in Germany has rebuked high-profile Ukrainian officials for attacking a recent public appeal by renowned politicians for work on ending the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

In an interview with newspaper Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger published on Thursday, Annette Kurschus said that she is angered by “this artificial alternative between weapons deliveries and talks.”

While arms deliveries to Kiev are still necessary, in the clergywoman’s eyes, equally important are “efforts [to bring about] talks” between Ukraine and Russia, she pointed out.

According to Kurschus, “negotiations on an equal footing don’t come about on their own, they must be brought about.” She went on to state that she disagrees with Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Alexey Makeev, who characterized calls for a truce as cynical. “I refuse to dismiss the call for negotiations as cynical and naive,” she said.

Her comments came in response to the harsh remarks made last week by Ukraine’s former envoy Andrey Melnyk and by his successor in office.

Taking to Twitter last Saturday, Melnyk, who currently serves as Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister, told former historian Peter Brandt and several prominent German social democrats who’d initiated the call for peace negotiations, to “go to hell with your senile idea to reach a quick ceasefire.” The outspoken diplomat added that the “Ukrainians reject this frippery.”

Echoing his sentiment, Kiev’s current ambassador Makeev told German news agency DPA on Sunday that the appeal for peace in question is “pure cynicism in the face of the numerous victims of the Russian aggression.” The official went on to claim that the authors were merely trying to obfuscate “Russia’s crimes.”

Titled “Make peace!,” the article was authored by Brandt and signed by a number of heavyweights of German and European politics, including ex-EU Commissioner Günter Verheugen, former Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse and former SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti.

The piece warns the German leadership that the continuation of fighting in Ukraine risks spreading the conflict further afield, with the “shadow of a nuclear war” hanging over Europe. The appeal evokes the policy of détente of the Cold War, arguing that it is as relevant as ever.

The author and signatories conclude by calling on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with whom many of them share a party allegiance, to join forces with the likes of France, Brazil, China, India and Indonesia in a bid to bring about a swift cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.

Source: Russia Today

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RT Arabic has huge influence in Middle East – Politico

Politico has sounded the alarm over the growing prominence of RT’s Arabic-language channel and website, warning that its success is all part of an alleged Russian “disinformation war” waged across the Middle East.

In an opinion piece published on Friday, H.A. Hellyer, a Carnegie Endowment scholar and a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and Cambridge University, bemoaned the lack of suppression of Russian media in the region.

Hellyer referred to the Western policy of banning and sanctioning Russian outlets with the “invasion of Ukraine,” praising the “quick and decisive action” taken by the UK, the US and the EU against RT and Sputnik. It did not mention that Western hostility toward the outlets had arguably long preceded the ongoing conflict.

Russian media has thrived in the region due to a lack of pressure and bans from Middle Eastern countries, the author writes, claiming the outlets are attempting to wage a disinformation campaign there by “saturating social media with Kremlin talking points and undermining opposition figures.”

“RT Arabic is also one of the most popular news sites in the region, in some months outperforming even Al-Jazeera, while its YouTube channel has more dedicated subscribers than any other RT subsidiary,” Hellyer wrote, adding that its popularity only intensified after the beginning of the ongoing hostilities between Moscow and Kiev.

In total, RT Arabic’s social media platforms have garnered a combined 804 million views – a number that’s risen exponentially since February 2022.

“The goal appears to be to overload the audience with a flurry of information that’s then retweeted and reposted ad nauseam and, thus, also serves to crowd out dissenting voices,” the author wrote, warning that the social media presence is delivering “pro-Kremlin propaganda … directly to younger generations in the Arabic-speaking world.”

The Politico piece is the latest in a series of op-eds published by Western media outlets in recent weeks that have brought attention to the growing prominence of RT Arabic. Late in March, Foreign Policy published a similar piece warning that Russia’s “disinformation machine” had a “Middle East advantage.”

The article, penned by Anna Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, also lamented that “in the Middle East, Russian state-run media have retained full access to airwaves throughout the Ukraine crisis.”

Nathaniel Greenberg, an associate professor of Arabic at George Mason University, wrote a similar piece in Euronews last week, claiming Moscow has been seeking to make Egypt “the linchpin” in the new Cold War with the West. The alleged goal, according to the author, owes much of its success to extensive “propaganda” and the “exploding” popularity of RT Arabic.

Source: Russia Today

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Traces of explosives found on Nord Stream sabotage-linked yacht – NYT

German investigators have discovered traces of explosives on the Andromeda yacht linked to the Nord Stream sabotage last September, the New York Times has reported.

The information came from three unnamed German officials, the newspaper claimed in an article on Friday.

The same sources claimed that two out of the six crew members on the “pleasure” boat had used fake Bulgarian passports during the alleged operation against the gas pipelines.

In early March the Times had reported, citing US officials, that a “pro-Ukrainian group” might’ve been behind the attack that disabled the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which were built to deliver Russian gas to Europe via Germany. The paper’s anonymous sources stressed that “no American or British nationals were involved” in the sabotage of the key energy infrastructure.

The vessel, which had allegedly been rented by the perpetrators to carry out the attack, was soon identified as the yacht Andromeda. The boat is now sitting in dry dock overlooking the Baltic Sea in north-eastern Germany, with “its innards pulled out by investigators,” the NYT said.

Kremlin press-secretary Dmitry Peskov suggested earlier that the articles about Andromeda’s involvement were distributed by the Western media in order to divert attention from the report by veteran American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, which came shortly before the Western media reports and blamed Washington for the sabotage.

According to an informed source who talked with Hersh, explosives were planted on the pipelines in the Baltic Sea back in June 2022 by US Navy divers during a NATO exercise, and detonated remotely two months later on the order of American leader Joe Biden. The White House has rejected as “utterly false and complete fiction” the findings of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

In its report on Friday, the NYT also quoted Johannes Riber, a naval officer and analyst at Denmark’s Institute for Strategy and War Studies, who also questioned claims of a 50-foot (15-meter) yacht being capable of carrying out an attack of such scale, likening them to a “James Bond” theory.

Andromeda could’ve well been a decoy or part of a broader mission, Riber suggested. But planting powerful explosives at the pipelines would’ve likely required an undersea drone or a mini-submarine, and a professional ship to transport it, he pointed out.

However, the article also contained comments by an unnamed pipeline expert and a professional diver, who both claimed that small bombs could’ve been enough to cripple the infrastructure if they were placed near a seam of the pipeline.

Source: Russia Today

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EU nation hit by record-high inflation

Belgian consumer prices have continued to soar, jumping 20.6% in March from a year ago, according to a study by the country’s non-profit consumer organization Test Achats. The spike was mainly attributed to a surge in energy prices.

“Our analysis is based on a basket of more than 3,000 basic products sold in supermarkets, for the stores of Albert Heijn, Carrefour, Colruyt, Cora, Delhaize, Aldi and Lidl. It shows that a two-person household spends an average of €521 [$570] per month at the supermarket, i.e. €89 more than a year ago and €9 more than in February,” the Test Achats statement said.

The study shows that vegetable prices peaked last month, while production was also much lower in winter due to soaring energy prices which made heating greenhouses unprofitable. The supply has therefore been reduced, resulting in a surge in prices, according to Test Achats.

The report states that vegetable prices jumped 31% on average in March year-on-year. Prices for iceberg salad (+53%), cucumbers (+51%) and onions (+50%) have risen most of all.

The price of bread rose 22% on average, while fish and fruit costs were up 14%.

“Faced with these figures, we can only evoke a situation of food insecurity, especially since we do not expect a drop in prices in April,” Test Achats spokesperson Julie Frère stated. She called on the government to think about ways to help households, including the introduction of an anti-inflation basket of products like the one that has been set up in France.

Source: Russia Today

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EU country increasingly against sanctions on Russia

The percentage of Austrians who want the EU sanctions against Russia to be lifted has overtaken the embargo’s supporters, but the residents of the central European country are polarized on the issue by age, income and political affiliation.

According to the INSA opinion research institute survey published on Friday in the outlet eXXpress, 41% of Austrians want sanctions to end, 37% want them to continue, while 22% wouldn’t say or didn’t care – a much higher percentage than usual.

Support for the embargo came mainly from richer, older and left-wing Austrians. The 60 and up age group favored the sanctions by a 12-point spread, 49% to 37%. The youngest group surveyed, 16-29, showed only 22% in favor of the embargo to 39% opposed. The strongest opposition to the sanctions was among the 40-49 cohort, with 47% wanting them lifted.

Only 24% of those with a monthly income of €1,000 ($1100) or less wanted the sanctions to continue, compared to 51% of the €4,000 bracket.

The divide was also noticeable across the political spectrum. Whereas 73% of the Green voters wanted the sanctions to continue, 72% of the Freedom Party voters wanted them lifted. On the political left, only 31% opposed the sanctions, while that percentage rose to 59% on the political right.

The telephone and online survey was conducted on a representative sample of 1,000 Austrians, on April 3-4.

The EU has imposed ten rounds of sanctions against Moscow starting in February 2022, citing the escalating conflict in Ukraine. The expected collapse of the Russian economy failed to materialize, however, while the blowback in the form of skyrocketing energy prices has caused a wave of bankruptcies and social unrest across the bloc.

Source: Russia Today

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Protesters set Macron’s favorite Paris restaurant on fire

Demonstrators protesting against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform have set fire to the French president’s favorite Paris restaurant, La Rotonde.

Some 300 rioters clashed with police outside the posh eatery on the iconic Boulevard du Montparnasse in Paris on Thursday, local media reported, citing authorities.

Stones, bottles and flares were tossed at the security forces, eventually leading to the branded red awnings on the front of La Rotonde catching fire. Firefighters, who were swift to arrive on the scene, did not allow the flames to spread further and extinguished the blaze, according to the media.

Macron chose La Rotonde to celebrate his victory in the presidential election in 2017. He has also visited the expensive restaurant on many other occasions, occasionally dining there with foreign leaders. The French president previously told reporters that he developed a fondness for the place during his student years.

Recently, the bistro has become a frequent target of Macron’s opponents, who accuse him of being “the president of the rich.”

In January 2020, a fire on the restaurant’s terrace lead to the arrest of a member of the Yellow Vests protest movement on suspicion of arson.

La Rotonde was opened in 1903 and became popular among the creative intellectuals in Paris between the two world wars. It has been visited by the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Jean Cocteau, Guillaume Apollinaire, and others.

Since January, France has been gripped by large-scale and often violent protests over the government’s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Tensions escalated further last month after Macron used executive privilege to pass the pension reform bill without a parliamentary vote.

According to the French Interior Ministry, some 57,000 people rallied in Paris on Thursday, which was the eleventh day of nationwide protests. The General Labor Confederation (CGT) trade union put the attendance much higher – at around 400,000.

Source: Russia Today

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NATO member claims Russians sabotaged its fighter jets

Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets belonging to the Slovak army may have been intentionally sabotaged by Russian engineers who worked on them before they were given to Ukraine, the country’s Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad’ claimed on Friday.

As reported by Euractiv, Nad’s statement came after former Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico criticized the government in Bratislava for giving up the valuable aircraft to Kiev.

Slovakia retired its fleet of MiG-29s last summer as most of the planes were not operational. Last month, the Slovak government announced that it would be giving 10 MiGs with engines and another three without engines to Ukraine’s forces. Four of the jets have already been delivered and are patrolling the skies over Kharkov, according to Ukrainian officials, while the other nine are expected to arrive in the near future.

However, Nad’ now suggests that the jets may have been intentionally damaged by Russian technicians who had worked on the planes at the Sliac air base in Slovakia until last year.

“Even the police were investigating it, based on our suspicions. There were parts in the engines of the aircraft that Slovak technicians accessed, and then there were parts that Russian technicians only accessed. The defects appeared only in those parts accessed by Russians,” Nad said.

He added that while the investigation has failed to prove any ill intent on the part of the engineers, the defense ministry “felt a loss of confidence in the Russian technicians” because mistakes kept appearing “in places only they could get to.”

Slovakia’s former highest-ranking pilot, Lubomir Svoboda, also suggested there was “poor” workmanship on the jets. “We took over an engine from them that was supposed to last 350 hours. And in the end, it only flew 70 hours. What can we make of that?” he said.

Russia’s embassy in Slovakia, meanwhile, has criticized officials for sending the jets to Ukraine, arguing that the move was “illegal” because it required Moscow’s approval under bilateral agreements. It also warned that such deliveries could lead to “an unpredictable and dangerous escalation of the conflict.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated that the MiG-29s would be destroyed by Russian forces just like any other Western weapons sent to the country. Peskov also said he had the impression that Kiev’s allies were using Ukraine to simply “dispose of old hardware that they do not need anymore.”

Source: Russia Today

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US resumes biolabs program in Ukraine – Russian MOD

The US has quietly resumed its controversial biolabs program in Ukraine and is focusing on the construction of secretive new facilities and the training of personnel, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed.

A new trove of documents on alleged US-funded biological programs in Ukraine was presented by the commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, during a media briefing on Friday.

Kirillov cited the protocol from a meeting dated October 20, 2022, which was attended by representatives of the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and multiple Ukrainian officials, as well as figures from the Jacobs/CH2M engineering company. The meeting reportedly focused on the resumption of biological research in Ukraine, which was “paused” due to the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev.

“Now, the project has been resumed with focus on renewal of legislative support, revision of training schedule, as well as conclusion and resumption of construction work,” the Ukrainian-language protocol stated, citing Jacobs/CH2M’s David Smith.

The program was previously known as ‘Joint biological research’ but has been rebranded as ‘Biological control research’, the document indicated. It cited concerns over an alleged “Russian disinformation campaign” on the issue.

The US has engaged in damage control efforts to prevent potential leaks from Ukrainian specialists on the true nature of the biological research programs, Kirillov asserted.

“Hiding from responsibility for participating in military biological projects, many suspects left the territory of Ukraine. To prevent a possible leak of information about the illegal activities of the Pentagon, the US administration is taking emergency measures to search for and return them,” the commander argued.

US damage control began shortly after the outbreak of the conflict in February 2022, another document suggested. The Russian military presented a draft memo titled ‘Reducing the Threat of Ukrainian Expertise Proliferating to US Adversaries’, penned by Laura Denlinger, a senior counterproliferation adviser with the US State Department.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has resulted in… the exodus of highly capable technical experts from Ukrainian facilities that produce missile components and advanced conventional weapons (ACW), as well as those with expertise that could be redirected and exploited by others for a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) weapon,” reads the memo, dated March 11, 2022.

Moscow raised allegations of a sprawling network of secretive US-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine early in the conflict, and has since frequently published troves of documents on the matter. Russia took the issue of biolabs to the UN last October, requesting an international probe. The motion, however, was turned down by the UN Security Council, with the US, UK, and France voting against it.

Source: Russia Today

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RT News – April 7 2023 (20:00 MSK)

Sergey Lavrov underlines the collective west’s true agenda of targeting Moscow and Beijing, as the Russian diplomat meets with top officials in Ankara. Two Israeli civilians are killed and one critically wounded following a shooting in the West Bank, which comes after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, in response to rocket attacks by militants from southern Lebanon. Tunisia’s President says his country will not yield to ‘a foreign diktat’, as he rejects the IMF’s demands on a 2-billion-dollar loan. The French President leaves China empty-handed, after Emmanuel Macron fails to convince Beijing to change its commitment on partnership with Russia and neutrality on Ukraine.

Source: Russia Today