Day: May 19, 2023

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Moscow names German chancellor’s ‘biggest mistake’

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will go down in infamy for making light of the suffering of civilians in Donbass at the hands of Ukrainian troops, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

She was referring to comments from February 2022, when Scholz said Russia’s claim that Kiev has been committing genocide in Donbass is “ridiculous.”

“It was the biggest mistake of his life,” Zakharova said in an interview with German author and war correspondent Thomas Roeper. She added that the remark will stain Scholz’s legacy more than any of his “political blunders.”

“Every person is free to form their own opinions, their attitude towards life. Everyone can have doubts and seek the truth. But you cannot make light of the grief of people who are losing their loved ones each year,” Zakharova stated.

The spokeswoman added that Scholz’s words were cynical, given that the Ukraine crisis “has been orchestrated by the West.”

Moscow has accused Western countries of encouraging nationalistic and anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin cited the need to protect the people of Donbass and Kiev’s failure to implement the 2014-15 Minsk peace accords among the reasons for launching the military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian officials have also accused the West of turning a blind eye to civilian deaths in Donbass. According to Moscow, around 5,000 people have been killed and nearly 9,000 wounded by Ukrainian troops since 2014.

Kiev denies killing civilians and has accused Russia of committing genocide in Ukraine. Moscow maintains that its armed forces are only targeting military and military-linked targets.

Source: Russia Today

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Serbia warned of ‘color revolution’ – Vucic

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday that his intelligence contacts tipped him off about the presence of foreign-sponsored revolutionaries at so-called anti-violence rallies in Belgrade. The West, he declared, has been “causing problems” for Serbia ever since Belgrade refused “to hand them Kosovo on a platter.”

Thousands of protesters and a group of opposition politicians marched in Belgrade on Friday, demanding the resignation of Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic and intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin. Successive demonstrations have been held in the Serbian capital since 17 people – including eight children – were killed in a pair of back-to-back mass shootings earlier this month.

According to RT Balkan, some of the demonstrators on Friday demanded that Vucic also step down.

“Today I have received information from our sister services from the East telling us ‘these are attempts at color revolutions’,” Vucic said at a rally. “I told them I don’t know what they’re attempting, I only know that these are disgusting attempts to abuse the tragic deaths of some children.”

Vucic did not state which countries’ intelligence agents had tipped him off about the apparent plot against his government.

“Serbia is fed up with your revolutions,” he declared. “Serbia is fed up with the arrival of those under foreign influence and the destruction of everything that is Serbian.”

“I will not threaten any of them,” he said, referring to Serbian protesters he views as working against the country’s interests. “But we will not allow them to forcefully and illegally lead a policy against our national interests.”

The term ‘color revolution’ describes a protest movement funded and organized by a Western government – usually the United States. Aimed at toppling leaders opposed to US interests, these revolutions are typically backed by American intelligence agencies, and organized by a panoply of US-funded NGOs. While the term became widely known following the 2003 ‘Rose Revolution’ in Georgia, the first successful use of color revolution tactics took place in Yugoslavia in 2000, when a US-backed student movement forced the resignation of Slobodan Milosevic.

Milosevic had fought off a violent secession attempt by ethnic Albanian terrorists in Kosovo a year earlier, relenting with NATO occupation of the province and only after the US-led bloc subjected Serbian cities to a three-month bombing campaign.

Serbia’s continued refusal to acquiesce to the West’s demands and recognize Kosovo’s independence, Vucic said on Friday, has made his country a target for foreign interference ever since.

“They expected us to hand over the Republic of Kosovo to them on a platter and say ‘we have reconciled, you were right to bomb us’,” Vucic said, adding that he would “never surrender,” and “never let them make Kosovo independent.”

Source: Russia Today

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Cops under fire for tasering 95-year-old

Australian police are facing public outrage after an officer tasered a 95-year-old woman in a treatment room at a nursing home, as she was “slowly” walking towards him using a walking frame with a serrated steak knife in her hand. She hit her head on the ground after the jolt and is now reportedly fighting for her life.

The interaction with Clare Nowland, a grandmother from New South Wales, took place on Wednesday morning inside the Yallambee Lodge facility in the town of Cooma. Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter, who spoke to journalists on Friday, said the woman obtained the tool from the kitchen, which prompted a call to police.

“Negotiations commenced with Clare to essentially drop the knife. For whatever reason, Clare did not do that,” the official explained.

Australian media aired family footage showing Nowland skydiving back when she was 80. She had been enjoying her sunset years surrounded by eight children and their children, according to reports, but recently has been suffering from dementia.

Critics have questioned whether zapping Nowland, who weighs just 43 kilograms, is 157cm (5’2”) tall, and quite frail at her advanced age, was justified. The officer who used the taser has been described as a male senior constable with 12 years’ experience in the force.

“She did have a knife in her hand and it is fair to say that she was armed with that knife,” Cotter explained during the press conference. “It is fair to say [she walked] at a slow pace. She had a walking frame. But she had a knife.”

A family friend, Andrew Thaler, told the media that Nowland’s injuries were life-threatening and included a skull fracture and a brain bleed.

The officer involved in the incident is “non-operational” and his duty status has been placed under review, the police leader said. The investigation into the incident has been given the highest-level priority and will be thorough and independently-reviewed, he pledged.

Both officers present at the scene had body cameras, but the footage has not been released to the public, as it was deemed not in the public interest. Cotter described the videos as “confronting” and gave assurances that the responders attempted to deescalate the situation.

He expressed sympathy with the Nowland family and urged journalists to give them time to process what had happened. He explained the delay between the incident and the press briefing by the need to coordinate with the Nowlands, to assess what information can be made public.

Source: Russia Today

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Turkish diaspora to vote at foreign missions, customs gates in run-off vote

Voting for the second round of Türkiye’s presidential election will begin on Saturday at the country’s foreign missions and customs gates.

Ballot boxes will be set up at 167 points by Türkiye’s 151 representatives in 73 countries for the election, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.

Voting overseas will continue until May 24. Those who want to vote at the custom gates will be able to cast a ballot until May 28.

Once the process ends, the ballots will be brought to Türkiye by diplomatic couriers under high security.

Millions of voters went to the polls on May 14 to elect the country’s president and members of its 600-seat parliament.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s People’s Alliance won a majority in parliament, while the presidential race is headed to a second round on May 28.

In the first round held on May 14, no candidate won an outright majority, although Erdogan was leading.

Erdogan will face Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the main opposition CHP and joint candidate for the six-party opposition Nation Alliance, in the run-off vote.

Source: TRTworld.com

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Türkiye celebrates Commemoration of Ataturk, Youth and Sports Day

Türkiye is celebrating the Commemoration of Ataturk, Youth and Sports Day, a milestone marking the beginning of the country’s War of Independence.

19 May 1919 was the day when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – later founder of the Republic of Türkiye – arrived in the Black Sea city of Samsun from Istanbul to launch the war that four years later transformed the nation into modern Türkiye.

Ataturk was assigned the post of Inspector General of the Ottoman Armies to Anatolia when Istanbul, then the Ottoman Empire’s capital, was under occupation by the Allied forces.

He acted against the orders he was given by the Ottoman authorities and started the movement that later turned into the War of Independence. He attached great importance to the date he set foot in Samsun and considered May 19 as his birthday when he was asked to provide an exact date.

In 1938, Ataturk dedicated May 19 to the youth of the Turkish nation as Youth and Sports Day – a national holiday that sees young people take part in sporting and cultural activities with official ceremonies across the country.

Erdogan’s message

Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated the nation.

“I congratulate you with my sincerest feelings on May 19 Commemoration of Ataturk, Youth and Sports Day,” Erdogan said in his message.

“The date of May 19, 1919, gifted to the Turkish youth by Gazi Mustafa Kemal, is the symbol of our ancestors’ revival of the spirit of resistance with great faith and belief, even in the face of impossibilities,” Erdogan said.

“May 19 is the day when the Turkish Nation began to write one of the greatest heroic epics that history has ever seen, shouting that they will not bow to oppression in unity and solidarity against imperialist forces.”

“We trust our youth the most when designing and implementing our country’s democracy and development breakthroughs,” he said.

As Türkiye develops, and grows, “it will give more support to youth so that they can realize their dreams,” Erdogan stressed.

Erdogan will join young people in a picnic in Istanbul later on Friday.

Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoglu will also meet young people coming from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and 81 provinces of Türkiye and will visit Anitkabir.

Other Turkish officials and political figures also mark May 19 and are scheduled to attend various events during the day.

Source: TRTworld.com

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EU should move from ‘nice words’ to action on enlargement: Romanian ex-minister Negrescu

The European Union sees Romania as one of its frontline states when it comes to the war in Ukraine. The country of 19 million people, a member of both the EU and NATO, has a land and sea border with Ukraine of more than 600 kilometres. It has been a transit hub for weapons supplies to Kyiv. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have passed through Romania, and more than 130,000 have been granted temporary protection in the country, according to the UN. Talking Europe interviews Viktor Negrescu, a Romanian politician from the Social Democratic Party. He is a Member of the European Parliament and he was Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the government of Romania between 2017 and 2018.

Romania’s Negrescu is adamant that the European Political Community, or EPC, should not replace the process of EU accession for countries that want to join the bloc.

“This platform (the upcoming EPC summit in Moldova) will allow us to have a better interaction with the countries that are trying to get into the European Union,” he says. “But this should not replace the process of integration. We have to offer a European perspective for Ukraine, for the Republic of Moldova, for the countries in the Western Balkans. They have to get into the European Union, not into another platform. So we should not create formats that will keep those countries out of the EU.”

Negrescu implies that it’s time to go up a gear in the enlargement of the EU. “We need to move from nice words to concrete elements,” he says. “For instance, we have two new candidate countries; Ukraine and Moldova. Normally they should get access to the EU pre-accession funds. But they don’t have access to those funds yet. There are some countries that are not willing to amend the European budget to provide those countries with the necessary resources so that they can make the reforms that would bring them closer to the European Union.”

Negrescu welcomes the various financial tools that the EU has adopted in the last few years, but he says the bloc needs to go further.

“Our countries are facing important transformations on the digital side, on the green side, and for all of that we need more instruments to be capable of leading the process,” he says. “For example, on the financial support that’s being provided to countries in need, most of the help is in the form of loans, not grants. And if you take the recovery plan (the EU’s post-Covid Recovery and Resilience Facility, or RRF), we don’t have enough common initiatives. Romania has its own recovery plan, but Bulgaria has another recovery plan and they are not linked even though we are neighbouring countries in the region. We are not cooperating with Poland, we are not cooperating with France, and France is not cooperating enough with Germany, despite the good relations that they have. So developing the European dimension when it comes to those challenges is key.”

On the issue of Ukrainian grain exports, Negrescu notes: “Sixty percent of the grain exported by Ukraine goes through Romania. So this is an important issue for us. Romania has joined other EU member states in requesting additional support for our farmers. There have been two financial decisions to support farmers in our region. This support does not fully cover the costs we are currently facing. But we are working with the EU; developing new tools to verify the grains, and also tools to make sure that the grains reach the markets that most need it, especially in Africa.”

Source: France24.com

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Italy flood death toll rises to 14

The death toll from floods that have devastated the Emilia Romagna region in Italy rose to 14 Friday (May 19). FRANCE 24’s Seema Gupta tells us more.

Source: France24.com

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What are the sanctions on Russia and are they hurting its economy?

The UK government is stepping up sanctions on Russia, by banning diamond imports.

It also said more than 60% of President Putin’s war chest – about £275bn – has been “immobilised” .

What are sanctions?

Sanctions are penalties imposed by one country on another, to stop them acting aggressively or breaking international law.

They are among the toughest actions nations can take, short of going to war, and can be imposed at very short notice.

What are the diamond sanctions?

The UK is banning the import of diamonds from Russia. The US set out similar plans to ban Russian diamonds last year and the EU has announced plans to do so.

Russia earned more than £4bn in 2021 from diamond exports, the US says.

However, most Russian diamonds are sent to countries like India to be polished, says Hans Merket of the International Peace Information Service think tank. Once they are re-exported, it is hard to tell that they originated in Russia.

As a result, “US sanctions have not been particularly effective”, Mr Merket says. A solution could be “through laser inscriptions in diamonds, or through 3D scans”, he says.

Gold exports, worth £12.6bn ($15.4bn) to Russia in 2021, were also banned by countries including the UK and US last year.

What other sanctions have been placed on Russia?

Financial measures

Western nations are trying to limit Russia’s access to money.

The European Union (EU), US, UK and Canada have frozen assets of Russia’s central bank in their countries.

Major Russian banks have been removed from the international financial messaging system Swift, delaying payments for Russian oil and gas.

The UK has frozen the assets of other Russian banks and banned Russian firms from borrowing money.

The EU has placed limits on deposits Russians can make at banks.

The UK government said the financial sanctions of Western nations had cut off $350bn (£275bn) of Russia’s $604bn foreign currency reserves.

Oil and gas

Western nations have tried to cut Russia’s income from oil and gas. Measures include:

The EU stopped importing Russian coal and banned refined oil imports

The US and UK banned all Russian oil and gas imports

Germany stopped the opening of the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline from Russia

In December 2022, the EU and G7 set a maximum price of $60 a barrel for Russian crude oil.

They warned importers that insurers will not underwrite oil shipments if they pay more.

The EU has not imposed sanctions on Russian gas because it relies on it for about 40% of its gas needs.

Can the world cope without Russian oil and gas?

Targeting individuals

More than 1,000 Russian businesses and individuals have been targeted by the US, EU, UK and other countries.

They include oligarchs – wealthy business leaders who are thought to be close to the Kremlin – such as former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.

Assets belonging to President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have been frozen.

At least 16 superyachts linked to sanctioned Russians have been seized.

In New York, Russian aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska has been charged with violating US sanctions.

The UK has stopped the sale of “golden visas”, which allowed wealthy Russians to get British residency rights.

No longer plain sailing in world of megayachts

Russian shoppers and businesses hit

More than 1,000 international companies, including McDonald’s, PepsiCo, H&M and Adidas, have stopped working in Russia,

Other measures include:

A ban on the export of dual-use goods – items with both a civilian and military purpose, such as vehicle parts – by the UK, EU and US

A ban on all Russian flights from US, UK, EU and Canadian airspace

A ban on the export of luxury goods to Russia

Are sanctions hurting Russia?

Western leaders predicted Russia’s economy would collapse. After the invasion of Ukraine and first sanctions, prices rose sharply and people took their money out of banks.

But the International Monetary Fund believes Russia’s economy could grow by 0.7% in 2023.

This is because Russia is exporting 8.3 million barrels of oil a day – the highest level since April 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The biggest importers are India and China.

However, the IEA says that Russia’s earnings from oil and gas exports fell to £6.5bn ($8.1bn) a month in April 2023, from £18.2bn ($22.5bn) because of Western sanctions.

How has Russia reacted?

Russia has banned exports of more than 200 goods from the West, including telecoms, medical, vehicle, agricultural, electrical equipment and timber products.

It is blocking interest payments to foreign holders of government bonds, and banning Russian firms from paying overseas shareholders.

Foreign investors, who hold billions of dollars worth of Russian investments, are banned from selling them.

Source: BBC

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Will a Russian diamond ban be effective?

The UK has announced a ban on Russian diamonds as it tightens sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Countries in the G7 bloc also want to be able to trace the gemstones to block Russian exports as they try to limit cash flowing into Russia’s war chest.

But how effective will these schemes be, and could there be unintended consequences?

How important are Russian diamond exports?

Russia’s diamond trade, worth about $4bn (£3.2bn) per year, makes up a small proportion of its overall exports.

Before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s total exports reached $489.8bn in 2021, according to the central bank, with oil and gas making up $240.7bn of that.

Nevertheless, Russia is the world’s biggest diamond exporter by volume, followed by African countries.

A state-owned company called Alrosa dominates Russian diamond mining – and it mined almost a third of the world’s diamonds in 2021.

Profits from Alrosa do flow into the Kremlin war chest, according to Hans Merket, a researcher with the International Peace Information Service – but it is nowhere near as important as oil and gas.

Why does the G7 want to track Russian diamonds?

Western countries want to cut off this revenue stream as part of efforts to hamper Russia’s war.

However, the world’s diamond trade is complex, and lacks transparency.

Diamonds can change hands 20 to 30 times between mine and market, Mr Merket said.

Typically the gemstones pass through the main global hubs of Antwerp, Dubai, Mumbai and Ramat Gan, which is near Tel Aviv.

Traders grade the stones for carat (weight), colour, clarity and cut – with different traders looking for different attributes.

They then take the remaining gemstones, mix them up, and sell them on – and the process is repeated.

Traders and firms jealously guard where they source their diamonds – it’s their “secret sauce”, according to Tobias Kormind, managing director of online jeweller 77 Diamonds.

But the major industry players could restrict the trade of Russian diamonds if they pulled together, he said.

How could the flow of Russian diamonds be restricted?

The US has already brought in sanctions to try to ban Russian diamond exports.

However, there is a “massive loophole” here, Mr Kormind said.

The restrictions apply to rough diamonds – but once they have been cut and polished, the country of origin no longer matters.

People in G7 countries buy about 70% of the world’s diamonds – so a G7 ban could have an effect, if the diamonds can be traced, Mr Merket said.

However, a G7 ban would mean diamonds are likely to flow to other markets in China and India, Mr Kormind said.

Tracing the diamonds would make restricting that flow easier.

How could diamonds be traced?

There is already a scheme to try to restrict “blood diamonds” used to fuel conflict, called the Kimberley Process, where states certify that diamonds are “conflict free”.

However, this does not allow the diamonds to be traced to the country of origin.

Mr Merket said the simplest way of tracing diamonds would be to extend this process to include documentation of where the stones come from.

There are also technologies that mark stones, and one is being developed that can scan them to check their geographical origin.

What effects would a ban have?

The majority of Russian diamonds end up in India, where there is a major cutting and polishing centre in Surat.

Smaller diamond businesses in the city have already suffered, in part due to the US ban.

In Africa, local mining operations benefitted after US sanctions hit Russian exports. However, many African mining producers are not ready to feed into a traceability scheme, Mr Merket said, and could be excluded if one is brought in.

In Angola, Russia’s Alrosa has a significant stake in mining, and tightening sanctions could hit local firms.

For Europe, traceability needs to be “watertight, scientific, [and] international”, said Tom Neys, head of media relations at the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.

If not, Europe risks losing $40bn in trade annually to places that don’t have the frameworks to deal with money laundering and terrorism, he said.

He added that UK sanctions “will have no impact on the sale of Russian diamonds” because the UK represents less than 1% of the global diamond trade.

A UK government spokesperson said it would work with key partners to help restrict the Russian diamond trade, “including through tracing technologies”.

Source: BBC

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Marian Kocner: Businessman cleared of ordering murders that rocked Slovakia

A businessman has been found innocent for a second time of masterminding a double murder that rocked Slovakia and brought down the prime minister.

While Marian Kocner was cleared, his associate Alena Zsuzsova was convicted.

The murders of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova stand out as unprecedented in modern Slovak history.

Kuciak, 27, had been covering alleged government corruption when the couple were shot dead at their home.

Shortly after they were murdered at Velka Maca near the capital Bratislava in February 2018, his final story was published.

It revealed the presence of notorious ‘Ndrangheta mobsters from Italy in Slovakia and alleged business links between a mafia member and two senior government advisers.

The shootings prompted the biggest protests since the fall of communism in 1989. They ultimately brought down nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico and his government.

A former soldier called Miroslav Marcek was jailed after confessing to the attack. Two other men were convicted of acting as a driver and a go-between.

Marian Kocner was first found innocent in 2020 of being the mastermind behind the murder plot, while Zsuzsova was acquitted of being an accomplice. The Slovak supreme court then quashed the verdicts and ordered a retrial.

Both Kocner and Zsuzsova were already in jail for other crimes but had denied involvement in the murders of Jan Kuciak and his partner. Prosecutors sought 25 years in jail for both of them.

As part of the same trial the pair were also charged with planning to murder prosecutors Maros Zilinka and Petr Sufliarske.

The man convicted of acting as a go-between, Zoltan Andrusko, told their trial that Zsuzsova had told him the murder had been ordered by Kocner.

The panel of three judges found Zsuzsova guilty of involvement in both plots but Kocner was cleared of all charges. He is already serving 19 years in jail for unrelated fraud. She is entitled to appeal against the verdict.

Relatives of the murdered couple expressed their disbelief at Kocner’s second acquittal. They said Zsuzsova had no motive to order the killings on her own, and it had been proved that she was working directly for the businessman.

Slovakia is currently undergoing further political turbulence after Eduard Heger resigned this month as prime minister because he lost a vote of no confidence.

Although Robert Fico was forced to stand down as prime minister in the wake of the 2018 murders, his Smer party has since regained its popularity and he is eyeing a return to the top of Slovak politics.

He has been highly critical of sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine and recently targeted President Zuzana Caputova with false claims that she was a US agent, which she said prompted death threats against her family.

Source: BBC