Investigative journalists have been carrying out their own research to solve the Nord Stream whodunnit, leading to sometimes sensational, if unconfirmed, reports.
Dutch military intelligence warned the CIA of a Ukrainian plan to blow up the pipelines three months before the attack, Dutch broadcaster NOS and Germany’s Die Zeit and ARD reported in June. The Washington Post made a similar claim. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly denied his country was behind the sabotage. “I would never do that,” he told Germany’s Bild newspaper, adding he would “like to see proof”. In March, The New York Times wrote that US officials had seen intelligence indicating a “pro-Ukrainian group” was responsible, without Zelenskyy’s knowledge. German media have focused on the Andromeda, with reporters from Der Spiegel magazine and broadcaster ZDF recreating the journey they believe was made by the six-person crew. According to their reporting, a forged passport used to hire the sailboat leads back to a Ukrainian soldier, while the charter fee was paid by a company registered in Poland with ties to a woman in Kyiv. In June, The Wall Street Journal reported Germany was trying to match DNA samples found on the vessel “to at least one Ukrainian soldier”. The Journal also said evidence found in the investigation included data from Andromeda’s radio and navigation equipment, satellite and mobile phones, and Gmail accounts allegedly used by the perpetrators. Danish media have reported a Russian naval vessel specialised in submarine operations, the SS-750, was photographed near the site of the blasts days before the attack. US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in February the US was behind the blasts and that Norway assisted. It was dismissed as “fiction” by the White House. Was it a false flag operation? Experts have not ruled out a “false flag” operation by Russia, with clues deliberately placed to pin the blame on Ukraine. Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, said he sees Russia as “the most likely” culprit. Any suspected involvement by Kyiv in an attack on Europe’s energy infrastructure could threaten the support of allies, which would benefit Russia. At the same time, the destroyed pipelines could help Gazprom avoid compensation claims for undelivered gas, even though the company was reluctant to keep the taps open before the blasts. Moscow may have sought “to kill two birds with one stone”, Umland said. The Kremlin has strongly denied responsibility. Moscow blames the US Russia has alleged the US was behind the attack, noting the sabotage “occurred after the repeated threats to the Nord Stream by the leadership of the United States”. In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the argument that Kyiv was behind the explosions, instead laying blame on the US. “Who is interested? Theoretically, the United States is interested in stopping the supply of Russian energy to the European market and supplying volumes of its own,” he told an interviewer. “Such an explosion, so powerful and at such depth, could only be conducted by experts backed by the entire potential of a state that has relevant technologies,” said Putin. Diplomatically sensitive investigations ongoing The blasts occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark, so both countries launched investigations into the incident. So far, they say the explosions were deliberate, but they have yet to single out who was behind the blasts. Germany also launched an investigation with federal prosecutors searching a yacht in January that might have been used to transport the explosives. They seized objects from the vessel and found traces of explosives.
0 Comments
The diamond conglomerate Alrosa announced on Monday the discovery of the largest diamond in Russia in the past decade. The gem came from a mine in the Anabar district of the Republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia.
“Experts have yet to study in detail and evaluate the potential and the characteristics of the mined diamond, but without a doubt, this is a record holder both for our company and for the country’s diamond industry,” said Alrosa General Director Pavel Marinychev, calling the find “an excellent finale to the 2023 mining season.” The diamond is 390.7 carats in size and was discovered on September 9 by the Anabar Diamonds company, an Alrosa subsidiary operating the Mayat mine in northeastern Siberia. According to Alrosa, the find happened during the night-time washing of the diamond-bearing sands. A photo posted by Alrosa shows a crystal with an irregular shape and a yellow-brownish halo, which is a very rare combination. The yet-unnamed gem is slightly smaller than the 401-carat diamond found in 2013.Another diamond found in the same batch is a 37.7-carat gem with the classic octahedral shape, Alrosa said. Both have been sent to morphologists for evaluation. Alrosa is the world’s largest diamond producer, accounting for 30% of the $80 billion annual global trade in rough precious stones. It mines the alluvial deposits in Russia’s Arctic, both in Yakutia and Arkhangelsk Region. The work is limited by harsh climate conditions, but accounts for four percent of the world’s production of diamonds in the rough. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un plans to travel to Russia and meet with President Vladimir Putin this month, the New York Times and Associated Press reported on Monday, citing US and “allied” officials.
According to the NYT, Kim intends to travel to the city of Vladivostok, on Russia’s Pacific Coast, “probably by armored train,” where both leaders would attend the annual Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), scheduled for September 10-13, adding that Kim plans to visit a Russian naval base. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have commented on the matter. Kim, who rarely leaves the country and mostly travels by train, last met with Putin in Vladivostok in 2019. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu made a surprise visit to Pyongyang in July, where he and Kim attended a military parade, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. Shoigu later said that Moscow was open to holding joint drills with North Korea. Shoigu also delivered “a personal message” from Putin to Kim, according to the Kremlin. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un plans to travel to Russia and meet with President Vladimir Putin this month, the New York Times and Associated Press reported on Monday, citing US and “allied” officials. According to the NYT, Kim intends to travel to the city of Vladivostok, on Russia’s Pacific Coast, “probably by armored train,” where both leaders would attend the annual Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), scheduled for September 10-13, adding that Kim plans to visit a Russian naval base. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have commented on the matter. Kim, who rarely leaves the country and mostly travels by train, last met with Putin in Vladivostok in 2019. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu made a surprise visit to Pyongyang in July, where he and Kim attended a military parade, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. Shoigu later said that Moscow was open to holding joint drills with North Korea. Shoigu also delivered “a personal message” from Putin to Kim, according to the Kremlin. A group of EU nations bordering Belarus has demanded that Minsk expels the Russian Wagner private military company and repatriate illegal migrants allegedly massing in the country at their borders. Speaking on Monday during a joint press conference with his Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian counterparts, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski warned that the countries could shut their borders with Belarus.
“If there is a critical incident, regardless of whether it is at the Polish or Lithuanian border, we will retaliate immediately. All border crossings that have been opened so far will be closed,” Kaminski stated. He branded the Wagner Group an “extremely dangerous” yet “demoralized” force, which he claimed was “capable of anything.” Poland has repeatedly accused Belarus of facilitating illegal migration, alleging that it has deliberately been steering the flow of people from the Middle East and Africa to the EU. “This situation is escalating. For several months, we have been dealing with attempts by migrants to illegally cross [the border],” Kaminski said. According to the Polish border guard, some 19,000 migrants have tried to enter Poland from Belarus thus far this year, compared to 16,000 during all of 2022. The ultimatum to Minsk follows the death of Wagner Group leader Evgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash in Russia last week. Several other senior members of the private military company were also killed in the incident. Thus far, Minsk has not responded to the demands from Poland and the Baltic states. The Wagner Group was re-deployed to Belarus after launching a short-lived insurrection in Russia in late June. The presence of the group in Belarus has fueled the long-standing tensions between Minsk and Warsaw. Poland has claimed that the private military company is active along the border and is waging “hybrid warfare” against it. Minsk has dismissed the allegations, while Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed Warsaw had “gone mad” with speculation surrounding Wagner. According to RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson has been seeking an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“[Carlson] is strongly requesting an interview with Vladimir Putin,” Simonyan said on a talk show aired by the Rossiya-1 TV channel. “It would be great, if someone listens and notifies the president about this.” Carlson has not commented on the matter. Putin rarely gives one-on-one interviews to foreign media. His last lengthy conversation with a Western journalist was with CNBC anchor Hadley Gamble on the sidelines of the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow in October 2021. ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’, which aired on Fox from 2016 to 2023, was the highest-rated show on US cable news. Carlson was abruptly fired from the channel in April. According to the journalist, the termination was a condition of the settlement that Fox News reached with the Dominion Voting Systems, which sued the channel for defamation over its coverage of the US 2020 presidential election. Saudi Arabia and Iran are among six countries to join BRICS as new members next year, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced, on the final day of a summit of the group that considers itself a counterweight to Western powers.The group encompassing five major emerging economies – China, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and India – which makes decisions by consensus, agreed on “the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures of the BRICS expansion process”, during the three-day annual summit held in Johannesburg this week, Ramaphosa said on Thursday. As part of the first phase, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates will join Saudi Arabia and Iran to become full BRICS members in January 2024. Other phases will follow. “This membership expansion is historic,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping. “The expansion is also a new starting point for BRICS cooperation. It will bring new vigour to the BRICS cooperation mechanism and further strengthen the force for world peace and development.”
A senior adviser to Iran’s president on Thursday welcomed the country’s admission to the grouping. “Permanent membership in the group of global emerging economies is considered a historic development and a strategic success for the foreign policy of the Islamic republic,” Mohammad Jamshidi wrote on X, which was previously known as Twitter. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed hailed what he called “a great moment” for his country. “Ethiopia stands ready to cooperate with all for an inclusive and prosperous global order,” Abiy said on Twitter. The core group of five BRICS countries has been discussing the issue of expansion for more than a year, Ramaphosa said, and the new members were invited this week after an agreement was reached at the summit. The expansion of the group is part of its plan to build dominance and reshape global governance into a “multipolar” world order that puts voices of the Global South at the centre of the world agenda. The inclusion of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran and Egypt marks the first MENA representation in the group, and the inclusion of Argentina was championed by member Brazil. Expansion was pushed heavily by Russia and China, analysts said, as they are facing pushback from Western nations in the form of sanctions. Other BRICS countries were initially more ambivalent, but leaders came out in vocal support of the plan this week. The grouping of emerging economies has been in formal existence for 15 years. Some experts told Al Jazeera that it has not achieved much and the diffuse nature of their political and social interests means BRICS leaders do not always agree on issues. Some say that has prevented them from becoming a more powerful or effective entity. Russian authorities have confirmed that a private jet with Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin listed as a passenger crashed between Moscow and St. Petersburg on Wednesday, killing all on board. What details have been confirmed? The Russian Emergencies Ministry confirmed that the jet plunged to the ground in Tver Region, and that all three crew and seven passengers on board were killed. The ministry said that the jet, an Embraer 135BJ Legacy 600, was traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg at the time of the incident. Rosaviatsiya, the Russian federal air transport agency, said that Prighozhin was on board, along with several high-ranking Wagner commanders. Was the crash caught on camera? Several short clips of the crash have circulated on social media. Videos published by the Mash and Baza Telegram channels appear to show the jet plummeting toward the ground in a seemingly uncontrolled spin, leaving behind a trail of black smoke. It is unclear from the clips which part of the aircraft had caught fire.
After levelling off at 28,000 feet at 6:10pm (15:10 GMT) Flightradar24 says the aircraft continued in level flight at consistent speed until 6:19pm (15:19GMT) at which point the vertical rate decreased dramatically causing the aircraft to descend briefly before climbing to a maximum altitude of 30,100 feet and then dropping to roughly 27,500 feet. Flightradar24 says the plane then climbed once more reaching 29,300 feet and levelling off once again before eventually spiralling into a fall to the ground.
Is Prigozhin definitely dead? Although Rosaviatsiya listed Prigozhin’s name among those aboard, it did not explicitly pronounce the Wagner chief dead. As of late Wednesday evening, Russian officials said that they had recovered eight bodies, though none had been named by that time. All were described as badly burned. Some Russian outlets identified the plane’s tail number as RA-02795, which is believed to belong to Prigozhin. According to flight-tracking site FlightRadar24, a second plane linked to Prigozhin with the tail number RA-02878 departed Moscow shortly after the first, but returned to land after news of the crash broke. None of these reports have been officially confirmed. Who else was on board? In addition to Prigozhin, Rosaviatsiya said Dmitry Utkin – a former Russian special forces operator and alleged co-founder of the PMC – was also traveling on the jet, as was Valery Chekalov, whom the US considers to be the deputy head of Wagner. The remaining passengers listed were Sergey Propustin, Evgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin, and Nikolay Matuseev, identified by Russian news outlets as Wagner. Who is Evgeny Prigozhin? A successful businessman in the catering industry and a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin founded the Wagner Group, a private military company (PMC), in 2014. Although the Wagner Group was founded in 2014 and took part in hostilities in the formerly Ukrainian Donbass region, Prigozhin refused to confirm his role in the company until last year. Wagner troops have operated in multiple African countries and in Syria, where they reportedly clashed with US forces in 2018. With his troops fighting in the months-long battle for the city of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), Prigozhin made regular statements to the media and publicly feuded with the Russian Defense Ministry earlier this year, accusing top officials of mismanaging the conflict and denying him adequate ammunition. How did Wagner’s mutiny play out? Prigozhin claimed in June that Russian forces shelled a Wagner field camp, where the PMC’s troops had been resting and rearming following the capture of Artyomovsk the previous month. The Wagner founder then announced that he would lead his forces in a march on Moscow to remove allegedly corrupt military officials. Putin described the mutiny as a “stab in the back” and promised “decisive actions” to restore order. However, less than a day after it began, the rebellion was defused thanks to mediation by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Prigozhin agreed that the men who took part in the mutiny would be redeployed to Belarus, while those who refused would be incorporated into units under the control of the Russian Defense Ministry. The Netherlands and Denmark said on Sunday that they would give Ukraine long-demanded F-16 fighter jets. The move was announced during a meeting between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as the leaders toured an airbase in Eindhoven.
“Today we can announce that the Netherlands and Denmark commit to the transfer of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine and the Ukrainian Air Force, including cooperation with the United States and other partners once the conditions for such a transfer have been met,” Rutte said during a joint press conference with Zelensky. The prime minister noted that his country has 42 aircraft of this type, but that it is too early to say how many will be donated to Kiev. At least 12 of the aircraft had been up for sale, with the Netherlands and Argentina negotiating a potential deal for the planes for several years. Zelensky hailed the decision as a “historic” breakthrough, and implied that Amsterdam would hand over its entire F-16 inventory to Ukraine. “Mark Rutte and I agreed on the number of F-16s that will be provided to Ukraine – after training our pilots and engineers. 42 planes. And this is just the beginning,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. Simultaneously, the Danish Defense Ministry released a statement, confirming the country will provide Kiev with F-16s. The ministry did not disclose the exact number of planes to be sent, confirming the aircraft will be supplied under certain “conditions,” which “include, but are not limited to, successfully selected, tested and trained Ukrainian F-16 personnel as well as necessary authorizations, infrastructure and logistics.” “Denmark’s support for Ukraine is unwavering, and with the donation of F16 aircraft, Denmark is now leading the way,” Defense Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen stated. Both the Netherlands and Denmark are in the process of phasing out older US-made F-16 fighter jets and replacing them with modern F-35s. Denmark has around 40 aircraft of the older type in its inventory. Kiev has long demanded combat aircraft from its Western backers, arguing that F-16s – and, potentially, planes of other types – would help turn the tide in the conflict with Russia. Moscow has repeatedly urged the West to stop “pumping” Ukraine with sophisticated weaponry, arguing that it will only prolong the hostilities without changing the outcome.
Why? Because Kissinger was one of the key figures in the construction of the US-China diplomatic relationship which followed on from Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit to the country in 1972 and his meeting with Mao Zedong. This marked one of the biggest geopolitical shifts of the 20th century, leading to the opening up of China and its integration into the global economy. For this legacy, Beijing is extraordinarily grateful to Kissinger and treats him as an “old friend.” This of course, provides the backdrop as to precisely why he is visiting now, and what this means politically.
Kissinger’s legacy paved the way for an open, stable, and cooperative relationship between the US and China which lasted over 40 years, but that era is now gone. In fact, the mood among some in Washington is to try and dismantle this legacy, framing US engagement with China as a mistake which emboldened a hostile power. That is the message Mike Pompeo sought to convey in 2020 when he was secretary of state. Attempting to reset the US-China relationship into a new “epoch,” Pompeo gave a provocative speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential library in California titled ‘Communist China and the Free World’s Future’. Since the Trump administration, US-China ties have been going steadily downhill, as strategic competition in the fields of military, diplomacy, and technology have accelerated. The Biden presidency has arguably been more aggressive than its predecessor in some of the measures it has taken. It is little surprise that US politicians see engagement with China as a form of appeasement and politically unfavorable. Therefore, while officials talk of so-called ‘guardrails’ in dialogue with China, their strategic intentions do not change, and neither do they make any concessions in the diplomacy they pursue. Given this, China is courting Henry Kissinger for a critical reason. He is a living symbol of the relationship Beijing would like to have with Washington, and of what diplomatic ties ought to be like. His presence in Beijing is a political statement. China is displeased with the actions of the US, but ultimately continues to seek engagement, stability, cooperation and openness in its relationship, and nobody is a bigger representation of that than the man with whom it all began, who now believes the US and China must find a path to co-existence to avoid conflict. In doing so, Beijing calculates that it is a waste of time to try to engage with US politicians directly. The mudslinging and paranoia such attempts are met with is of such a scale that it is damaging for anyone, especially at the level of Congress. Instead, it has utilized a pragmatic strategy of targeting individuals that it believes can promote stability in the relationship, and inviting them on highly publicized visits. This has included businessmen and public figures such as Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates, who have all visited China in recent months. They are used to convey a message that China is open and still willing to do business, and that ties with the US do not have to be the way they currently are. In addition, these individuals act as back channels. They may not have direct political power, but through their networks and ties they wield influence, especially when it comes to lobbying. Kissinger is elderly, but he is a highly respected member of the foreign policy community. Despite the geopolitical competition with the US, China is above all cautious of rocking the boat. It is aware that the US political class cannot be swayed in its disposition, but Beijing seeks to contain and minimize its influence through diplomacy, as opposed to confrontation. Empowering Washington’s hawks is one of the worst strategic mistakes China can make. Thus, it is critical to Beijing’s objectives to slow down the ‘decoupling’ and prevent the US from gaining political capital to force other countries, in both Europe and Asia, to get on board with its agenda. Beijing does not see this as a sprint, but as a marathon. From its perspective, the use of Kissinger sends a message of hope and reconciliation, an idealistic perspective on how US-China ties should be. Of course, there is no turning back the clock, and stability might be all there is to hope for at this stage.
In an undated video shared on Sunday by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, President Vladimir Zelensky is seen signing a missile attached to a Su-24 jet. The projectile is marked as SCALP-EG with the French flag and a mix of the Ukrainian coat of arms with the Eiffel Tower inside. It remains unclear how many French missiles were delivered and when. Ukraine's Defense Ministry referred to the missiles by their British name Storm Shadow, and hinted that the Zelensky-signed projectile was used in a recent strike on two bridges connecting the Crimean Peninsula to Russia’s Kherson Region.
The British-French Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG is an air-launched cruise missile with a firing range of around 250 kilometers (155 miles). It was developed in the 1990s and used in a number of Western military operations, including the NATO intervention in Libya and a strike in Syria that the US, the UK and France conducted jointly in 2018. Kiev has repeatedly used the missiles to target civilian facilities, since receiving an unspecified number of Storm Shadows from the UK. According to Russian officials, they were fired at two civilian plants in the Russian city of Lugansk in May, injuring several people, including six children. On Saturday, Ukraine launched some 12 Storm Shadows / SCALP-EGs at bridges connecting Crimea to the Kherson Region. At least three missiles made it through Russian-air defenses, according to local authorities, damaging two bridges across the Strait of Chongar and the Tonkiy Strait. The attack also damaged a rural school and ruptured a local gas pipeline, leaving the nearby town of Genichesk without supply, according to the Kherson region’s acting governor, Vladimir Saldo. The damaged bridges have also hardly been used for military needs and are purely civilian infrastructure installations, he stressed. One of the leaders of last week’s coup in Niger has reportedly sought the assistance of Russian defense contractor Wagner Group PMC as the junta nears a deadline to either return the ousted president to power or face a possible military intervention by neighboring states.
General Salifou Moody allegedly made the request during a visit to Mali, where he met with a Wagner representative, the Associated Press reported on Saturday, citing French journalist Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center. The meeting was first reported by France 24, and Nasr said he had confirmed the talks with a French diplomat and three people familiar with the matter in Mali. “They need (Wagner) because they will become their guarantee to hold onto power,” Nasr told AP, claiming that Wagner is considering the request. Neither Wagner nor Russian government officials have commented on the junta’s alleged request for help from the contractor. The Kremlin said on Friday that any interference in Niger from powers outside the region would be unlikely to improve the situation. “We continue to favor a swift return to constitutional normality without endangering human lives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has called the coup a “justified rebellion of the people against Western exploitation.” The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has threatened to send troops into Niger if the coup leaders don’t return President Mohamed Bazoum to power by Sunday. Bazoum has been under house arrest since his ouster and has asked the US “and the entire international community” to restore his government. The militaries of several ECOWAS members, including Nigeria, have agreed on a plan for their intervention in Niger. Wagner has become a major player in the African security landscape, though it’s unclear how its influence on the continent stands after its mutiny against Moscow in June. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the future of the contracts Wagner signed with various African countries is a matter for those client governments to decide. The firm’s troops have reportedly operated in such countries as Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Mozambique and the Central African Republic. Mali and Burkina Faso are among the ECOWAS member states that have sided with the Niger junta following the coup. Bazoum accused the two neighbors of employing “criminal Russian mercenaries.” African Freedom Institute President Franklin Nyamsi warned in an RT interview on Thursday that if ECOWAS carried out its threat to send troops into Niger, it would be seen as a declaration of war on the junta’s allies, including Mali and Burkina Faso. Such a conflict could escalate dramatically as the warring factions seek help from the world’s leading military powers, he said, adding, “We are now at the door of a world African war.” NATO leaders met Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Lithuanian capital as they wrap up a summit that has included an emphasis on supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion and discussion of Ukraine’s future within the alliance.Zelenskyy said at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that he understands that some allies do not want to consider Ukraine joining the alliance right now because of fears of a world war, and that it is clear that Ukraine cannot join during the conflict . with Russia in progress.
NATO leaders said in a written declaration on Tuesday that the bloc “will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met,” reiterating its position that it supports Ukraine’s membership but does not pass any specific commitments or timeline Zelenskyy has sought. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he understood the statement to mean that the conditions will be met once Ukraine’s territory is secure. Stoltenberg highlighted a three-pronged package to more closely integrate Ukraine with NATO, including work on interoperability between Ukrainian and NATO forces, a new NATO-Ukraine Council that held its first meeting on Wednesday and removing the requirement for Ukraine to complete an action plan for membership about its path to becoming a member. “Today we meet as equals,” Stoltenberg said. “I look forward to the day we meet as allies.” Russia has made several statements during the summit that security assistance to Ukraine and NATO’s expansion pose a threat to Russia. Asked if that could engulf the situation, Stoltenberg said there is already a “total war in Europe” and there is no risk-free alternative. He said the “biggest risk is about the president [Vladimir] Putin wins.” Stoltenberg reiterated NATO’s position that it is only for Ukraine and NATO allies to decide whether Ukraine should join the alliance and that “Moscow does not have a veto.” Britain said members of the Group of Seven, or G7, leading industrialized nations plan to announce a new framework for allies providing long-term security support to Ukraine. Zelenskyy welcomed the move, saying that while the best security guarantee for Ukraine would be NATO membership, the G7 action would be a concrete step in support of Ukraine’s security. He added that Ukraine has already spoken to nations outside the G7 that are also interested in joining. Stoltenberg said that while guarantees, documents and meetings are important, the most urgent task for allies is to provide Ukraine with enough weapons. Zelenskyy was also scheduled to hold separate talks with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday. The US leader is scheduled to deliver a speech that “highlights how the United States, together with our allies and partners, is supporting Ukraine, defending democratic values and taking action to address global challenges,” the White House said. After the two-day summit, Biden will travel to Helsinki on Thursday to meet with leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. When Sweden has joined NATO, all five Nordic countries will be members of the military alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on winning a third term in office on Sunday. Putin thanked Erdogan for his “personal contribution” to strengthening relations between Russia and Türkiye.
“Your victory in the elections was a natural result of your selfless work as head of the Republic of Türkiye, and is clear evidence of the Turkish people's support for your efforts to strengthen state sovereignty and pursue an independent foreign policy,” Putin wrote in a message to Erdogan. “We highly appreciate your personal contribution to the strengthening of friendly Russian-Turkish relations and mutually beneficial cooperation,” Putin continued, noting the construction of Türkiye’s first nuclear power plant and the creation of a new gas hub as two significant joint projects. “From the bottom of my heart I wish you new successes…as well as good health and well-being” Putin concluded. Erdogan declared victory on Sunday night after beating challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a runoff election for the presidency. With more than 99% of ballots counted, Erdogan led Kilicdaroglu by 55.12% of the vote to 47.88%, according to the latest tally from Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency. The Turkish president’s foreign policy – described by Putin as “independent” and Erdogan himself as “balanced” – has seen Türkiye strengthen ties with Russia and China while pushing its NATO allies for concessions, as Erdogan did when he demanded Sweden and Finland lift arms embargoes on his country and deport terror suspects before he would sign off on their accession to the alliance. Türkiye is the sole NATO member that has not imposed sanctions on Russia over its military operation in Ukraine, and Erdogan has taken a neutral stance on the conflict. Under his leadership, Türkiye hosted peace talks between Moscow and Kiev last year, and brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative. The relationship has not been without its difficulties. Despite Erdogan’s declaration that Türkiye wants a peace deal in Ukraine “as soon as possible,” Ankara has sold Bayraktar TB2 strike and reconnaissance drones and Kipri mine-resistant armored vehicles to Kiev, prompting a rebuke from Moscow this week. One of the world’s biggest snack companies, Mondelez International, has been labeled an enemy of Ukraine due to its reluctance to exit Russia, Ukrainian media reported on Thursday.
The Ukrainian National Corruption Prevention Agency (NCPA) has designated the producer of Milka and Alpen Gold chocolate, Oreo and Barni biscuits, Picnic bars and Dirol chewing gum an “international sponsor of war” in an effort to “put pressure on those involved in the war.” Headquartered in Chicago, Mondelez is among the largest foreign companies still operating in Russia. The US company is the Russian market leader in chocolate, sweets, and biscuits and is also ranked second in the chewing gum and lollipops categories. In March 2022, Mondelez CEO Dirk Van De Put declared the company would be “scaling back all non-essential activities in Russia while helping maintain continuity of the food supply during the challenging times ahead.” In 2022 alone, the firm’s Russian subsidiary paid more than $61 million in taxes to the Russian budget, according to the NCPA. Mondelez has three large production facilities in the country employing some 3,200 people. The Ukrainian agency claimed that the “company continues to promote its products in Russia and import new products to this market” and by doing so is indirectly involved in financing the conflict. The Oreo manufacturer has been branded an enemy of Ukraine along with Raiffeisen Bank International, Auchan, Metro, Procter & Gamble, Bonduelle, Leroy Merlin, Xiaomi and many other international companies. |
Thank you for choosing to make a difference through your donation. We appreciate your support.
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesCategories
All
Archives
April 2024
|