MOSCOW — A Russian court on Monday slapped opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza with 25 years in prison for treason and other claimed offenses.
Moscow City Court sentenced Kara-Murza to a penal colony for spreading “fake news” about the army and “cooperation with an undesirable organization,” as Russian President Vladimir Putin steps up his crackdown on dissent and Russian civil society. But the bulk of his sentence had to do with another, third charge: treason, in the first time anyone has been convicted on that count for making public statements containing publicly available information.
On the courthouse steps, British Ambassador Deborah Bronnert called the sentence for Kara-Murza, who holds both Russian and British citizenship, “shocking.” Her U.S. counterpart said the verdict was an attempt “to silence dissent in this country.”
The U.K. summoned the Russian ambassador after the conviction, with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly calling for Kara-Murza’s “immediate release.”
Upon traveling to Russia in April 2022, Kara-Murza was detained for disobeying police orders. From that moment the charges piled up: first for spreading “fake news” about the Russian armed forces, then for his participation in an “undesirable organization,” and last for treason, on account of three public speeches he gave in the U.S., Finland and Portugal. The charges, all of which Kara-Murza denies, were expanded to treason last October.
A close associate of the late opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015, Kara-Murza was one of the last remaining prominent Putin critics still alive and walking free. But over the years he has ruffled many feathers as a main advocate for the Magnitsky Act, which long before the war called upon countries to target Russians involved in human rights violations and corruption.
The defense’s attempts to remove the judge — who is also on the Magnitsky list — were dismissed.
Kara-Murza continued to speak out against the Kremlin despite mounting personal risks, including what he described as poisonings by the Russian security services in 2015 and 2017, where he suddenly became ill, falling into a coma before eventually recovering.
Neither journalists nor high-ranking diplomats were allowed into the courtroom to witness the ruling and instead followed the sentencing on a screen.
Kara-Murza was in a glass cage, dressed in jeans and a gray blazer, with his mother and his lawyer standing outside of the cage. He smiled when the sentence was read out.
After the verdict Oleg Orlov, the co-chair of Russia’s oldest human rights group, Memorial, who himself is facing charges for “discrediting the Russian army,” drew a parallel with the Soviet Union, when “people were also jailed for words.” Kara-Murza compared the legal process to Stalin-era trials, in his appearance at court.
Kara-Murza’s lawyer Maria Eismont said the sentence was “a boost to his self esteem, the highest grade he could have gotten for his work as a politician and active citizen,” but added that there were serious concerns about his health.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
In public comments, Justice Department officials have stressed that a past lack of international cooperation was a major hurdle to pursuing many of the cases.
Despite years of questionable Russian activity in many places, “executing on U.S. requests for search warrants, and subpoenas, and interviews, and other legal process remained a tall order because there is a mismatch in our U.S. and foreign allies’ sanctions regimes,” Andrew Adams, the director of Task Force KleptoCapture, said at the conservative Hudson Institute in January. The exceptional multilateral cooperation now, he stressed, has greatly enhanced sanctions enforcement.
What’s not clear is whether prior to 2022 the Justice Department, or the White House for that matter, put enough pressure on other countries to cooperate. And in many Ukraine-related cases, such as that of some oligarchs, it’s not clear why the U.S. didn’t go ahead and indict people who weren’t in custody anyway, at least to send a signal.
Former U.S. officials — most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because the topic involved sensitive legal issues and, in some cases, their previous employer — offered some theories:
It’s possible that U.S. intelligence agencies were watching the same target and asked the Justice Department not to act. The evidence collected may have involved methods that might not stand up in court, or prosecutors may have felt it wasn’t enough to indict. Prosecutors may have thought that, if they waited long enough, they could arrest someone should that person travel to a country cooperating with the United States. Some may not have wanted to indict on lesser charges even if they only had enough evidence for those. Plus, some prosecutors question the point of charging someone who is unlikely to ever land in U.S. custody — even if such name-and-shame cases can have symbolic value.
Several former officials said much of the department’s actions come down to a question of political will. But pursuing indictments also takes time, money and people — all finite resources. That latter point draws a lot of sympathy from former federal prosecutors.
“These cases take years. They take a lot of resources. A lot of these laws are complicated. They often involved classified information. And, at the end of the day, there may be no arrest. Are you going to take resources away from prosecuting violent crimes to do that?” asked Stephanie Siegmann, a former national security chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
The Justice Department has over the past decade pursued several non-Ukraine cases against Russians, especially those involving cybercrime and interference in America’s 2016 presidential race, some of which fell under Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s purview. With rare exceptions, POLITICO did not include such cases in the 14 it deemed at least partially relevant to the war from 2014 through February 2022. That said, the level of international cooperation on those cases may have been easier to come by, especially if crime syndicates are targeting multiple countries.
In the past, another country may have felt less inclined to help Washington go after a person for violating U.S. sanctions if that other country didn’t have a similar sanctions statute. That concept of “dual criminality” matters because having parallel laws in two countries makes it easier to obtain evidence and extradite people.
Now, better-aligned U.S., British, and other European sanctions regimes have reduced the dual criminality hurdle.
Still, some foreign officials dismiss U.S. attempts to blame a lack of overseas cooperation for a dearth of past Ukraine-related prosecutions.
“When the U.S. really concentrates on getting someone extradited or prosecuting someone, it has a great record of getting countries to cooperate. There’s no reason why any of these cases should have been different,” a European official told POLITICO, speaking on condition of anonymity because the topic was so sensitive.
The former senior department official said that even prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Justice Department was searching for ways to elevate the topic of sanctions evasion.
The official added, however, that one important ingredient for a successful sanctions campaign against Russia is to havecabinet members beyond the attorney general — especially the secretary of State — press foreign governments to cooperate with U.S. investigations. In other words, it needs to be a whole-of-government political priority.
Pressed for comment on its history of pushing other countries to cooperate on investigations, a State Department spokesperson sent a statement focused on its present activities. “We support Department of Justice legal attaché offices at U.S. missions around the world to ensure access to foreign law enforcement entities and judiciaries,” the spokesperson said, having been granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.
Some former U.S. officials argue that the Treasury Department is the more important sanctions enforcer.
Treasury can levy fines on alleged violators; it also can impose new sanctions on people it believes are helping others evade sanctions, thus blocking their access to the U.S. financial system. Such efforts generally require meeting lower legal thresholds than criminal prosecutions.
Treasury has taken some such steps against suspected violators in the case of Russia and its war on Ukraine. But Treasury’s actions arguably lack the public impact of Justice Department moves, especially arrests and indictments, that can truly make wannabe culprits think twice.
“For every person who’s helping an oligarch evade sanctions who gets indicted, there’s a hundred more that are shaking in their shoes right now — it has a very powerful demonstration effect,” Browder said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is jetting off on an ambitious diplomatic mission to woo Beijing away from Moscow. Officials in Washington wish him luck with that.
France hopes to dissuade China’s leader Xi Jinping from getting any cozier with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and wants the Chinese instead to play a mediation role over the war in Ukraine.
However, it is unclear what leverage Macron has — and the backdrop to his three-day trip starting Tuesday isn’t easy. Europe continues to reel from the impact of cutting off trade ties to Russia and geopolitical tensions are ratcheting up between China and the U.S., the world’s two biggest economies.
The French president wants to play a more personal card with his Chinese counterpart, after drawing fierce criticism for hours of fruitless phone calls with Putin last year — an effort that failed to stop Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Macron is expected to spend several hours in discussions with Xi, and the trip includes a visit to a city that holds personal value for the Chinese president.
“You can count with one hand the number of world leaders who could have an in-depth discussion with Xi,” said an Elysée advisor who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
But while expectations in France of a breakthrough are moderate, the view among other Western officials is even bleaker.
Given Macron’s failed attempts at playing a center-stage role in resolving conflicts, such as stopping the war in Ukraine or salvaging the Iran nuclear deal, there are doubts in the U.S. and elsewhere that this trip will deliver major results.
The White House has little expectation that Macron will achieve a breakthrough, according to three administration officials not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations. Xi is unlikely to act on Macron’s requests or curtail any of China’s assertive moves in the Pacific, the officials said.
White House aides ruefully recalled Macron’s failed attempts to insert himself as a peacemaker with Putin on the eve of the invasion more than a year ago and anticipate more of the same this time.
There is also some concern in the Biden administration about France’s potential coziness with China at a time when tensions between Washington and Beijing are at their highest in decades, even though the White House is supportive of the trip, the three officials said. There is no ill will toward Macron’s efforts in Beijing, they stressed.
But what might further complicate Macron’s endeavors is an emerging feud between the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is traveling with the president, and the Chinese.
Last Thursday, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen delivered a keynote address on EU-China relations at the European Policy Centre in Brussels | Valeria Mongelli/AFP via Getty Images
In a high-profile speech on EU-China relations Thursday, von der Leyen urged EU countries to “de-risk” from overdependency on China. She also implied that the EU could terminate the pursuit of a landmark trade deal with China, which was clinched in 2020 but subsequently stalled. Her remarks sparked swift blowback from Chinese diplomats. Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the European Union, said Friday he was “a little bit disappointed.”
“That speech contained a lot of misrepresentation and misinterpretation of Chinese policies and the Chinese positions,” Fu told state-owned broadcaster CGTN.
The Europeans’ visit will also be scrutinized from a human rights perspective given China’s authoritarian pivot and alleged human rights abuses across the nation.
“President Macron and von der Leyen should not sweep the Chinese government’s deepening authoritarianism under the rug during their visit to Beijing,” said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch. “They should use their public appearances with Xi Jinping to express strong concerns over widespread rights abuses across China, heightened oppression in Hong Kong and Tibet, and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.”
Macron’s playbook
Speaking ahead of the visit to Beijing, the French leader said his aim was to “try and involve China as much as possible to put pressure on Russia” on topics such as nuclear weapons.
But will Macron’s charm work on Putin’s “best friend” Xi?
China has sought to position itself as a neutral party on the conflict, even as it has burnished its ties with the nation, importing energy from Russia at a discount. Despite massive international pressure on Moscow, Xi decided to make the Kremlin his first destination for a state visit after he secured a norm-breaking third term as Chinese leader. Meanwhile, POLITICO and other media have reported that the Chinese have made shipments of assault weapons and body armor to Russia.
Western European leaders that were cozy with Moscow just before the war started are now calling for engagement with China, including Macron himself. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was in China just days before Macron’s arrival, saying that the world “must listen to its voice” on Russia and Ukraine.
During his visit, which aides have been discussing since at least November last year, Macron will spend several hours with Xi in Beijing, and accompany him to the city of Guangzhou. The Chinese leader’s father, Xi Zhongxun used to work there as Guangdong province governor.
“Altogether the president will spend six to seven hours in discussions with the Chinese leader. The fact that he will be the first French president to visit Guangzhou is also a personal touch, since President Xi’s father used to be a party leader there,” said the Elysee official cited earlier.
The French are hoping the time Macron spends privately with Xi will help win Chinese support on issues such as stopping Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine or halting the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children.
It’s also expected that Macron will try to test Xi’s reaction to Russia’s threat to host nuclear missiles in Belarus, a decision that flies in the face of China’s non-proliferation stance, barely a month after Beijing revealed its 12-point plan for resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
Despite massive international pressure on Moscow, Xi decided to make the Kremlin his first destination for a state visit after he secured a norm-breaking third term as Chinese leader | Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images
“It’s absolutely fundamental to have moments of private encounters,” said Sylvie Bermann, France’s former ambassador to China. “Diplomacy is about playing the long game …With China, I don’t think it is easy to strike up relationships as Westerners. But maybe it means that we’ll be able to talk when the time comes.”
Despite the show of goodwill however, the French president will not hold back from sending “some messages” to Beijing on supporting Russia, particularly when it comes to arms deliveries, a senior French official said.
“We aren’t going to threaten, but send some warnings: The Chinese need to understand that [sending weapons] would have consequences for Europe, for us … We need to remind them of our security interests.” The official said Macron would steer clear of threatening sanctions.
Antoine Bondaz, China specialist at Paris’ Foundation for Strategic Research, questioned the emphasis on trying to bond with Xi. “That’s not how things work in China. It’s not France’s ‘small fry’ president, who spends two hours walking with Xi who will change things, China only understands the balance of power,” he said. “Maybe it works with Putin, who has spent over 400 hours with Xi in the last ten years, but Macron doesn’t know Xi.”
EU unity on show as trade takes center stage
Trade will also feature high on Macron’s priorities as he brings with him a large delegation of business leaders including representatives from EDF, Alstom, Veolia and the aerospace giant Airbus. According to an Elysée official speaking on condition of anonymity, a potential deal with European plane maker Airbus may be in the works, which would come after China ordered 300 planes for €30 billion in 2019.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna are also traveling with the president.
With the EU facing an emerging trade war between China and the U.S., the presence of von der Leyen, will add yet another layer of complexity to the mix. The French president said in March that he had “suggested to von der Leyen that she accompany him to China” so they could speak “with a unified voice.”
“I don’t have a European mandate, as France has its independent diplomacy — but I’m attached to European coordination,” he said.
A joint trip with the EU head sets him apart from Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor whom French officials criticized in private for hurrying to China for a day trip with Xi last year, focusing more on German rather than EU interests.
With von der Leyen by his side, Macron may well hope to be seen as the EU’s leading voice. In the U.S., the French president had tried that tactic and obtained some concessions on America’s green subsidies plan for the bloc.
In China, that card may be harder to play.
Clea Caulcutt reported in Paris, Stuart Lau in Brussels and Jonathan Lemire in Washington.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
The officials said they have not seen any indication — such as satellite imagery or other intelligence — that shows Russia is moving forward with an immediate plan to deploy nuclear weapons. The officials represent both U.S. and European governments and were granted anonymity to speak freely about a sensitive national security issue.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby made similar comments to reporters on Monday.
“We haven’t seen any movement of any tactical nuclear weapons or anything of that kind since this announcement, and we certainly haven’t seen any indication that Mr. Putin has made some sort of decision to use weapons of mass destruction, let alone nuclear weapons inside Ukraine,” he said.
The assessment and comments by U.S. and European officials underscore the degree to which Western governments are batting down Putin’s messaging despite previously warning about the Russian president’s potential use of nuclear weapons earlier on in the conflict.
John Bolton, a national security adviser during the Trump administration, said on Monday that even if Putin made good on moving the weapons, “it really wouldn’t make that much difference in my view.”
During an appearance on CNN, Bolton noted that Russia has already staged nuclear missiles and other weaponry in the exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea.
“That’s a place which has long been basically a Russian military facility,” he said. “So the capabilities Russia already has in the Kaliningrad enclave are the ones that could be most threatening. I don’t think the idea of moving some tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus changes that balance.”
Belarus is among Russia’s closest allies and is a supporter of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Leaders from the two countries have previously spoken about staging advanced weaponry, including nuclear weapons, in Belarus. Putin’s comments follow previous statements he made during a December press briefing in Minsk in which he said that Russia was training pilots from Belarus to fly aircraft capable of carrying a “special warhead.”
The Russian president’s most recent comments come as the Russians and Ukrainians are locked in an intense battle in the city of Bakhmut. Both sides have lost a significant number of troops and ammunition in recent weeks.
One of the Western officials described the fighting as a battle of yards and one that is likely to continue for weeks if not months. Putin’s threats about sending nuclear weapons to Belarus are “meant to distract from Russia’s failures on the battlefield,” that official said.
An adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said the country’s intelligence services are monitoring Moscow’s activities closely, but said Ukrainian troops would continue to focus their efforts on countering the Russian forces in the eastern part of the country.
Western officials have not completely ruled out the possibility that Putin could resort to not only sending nuclear weapons to Belarus but also using those weapons if his forces continue to lose ground.
Over the past year, Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons on several occasions.
In a September speech, he claimed NATO and the West were engaging in “nuclear blackmail.” “To those who allow themselves to make such statements about Russia, I would like to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction,” he said. “And if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff. ”In the weeks that followed, Western officials scrambled behind the scenes to respond to the threat. U.S. officials discussed with allies the validity of Putin’s remarks, warned about Russia’s increasing threats and pushed back against Moscow’s messaging. Since then, warnings about Russia’s potential use of nuclear weapons have quieted, and concerns among Western officials about Moscow’s threats have also dissipated.
One of the European officials described the reaction among their country’s national security officials as “calm.” “It’s being seen as another scare tactic by Putin,” the official said.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, officials are focused on continuing to push its Western allies for additional funding and weapons to fund its operations in Bakhmut and elsewhere in the country. A delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians is in the United Kingdom lobbying officials there for additional resources, including jets, according to a person with direct knowledge of those conversations.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s marathon three-day visit to Moscow was hailed by the Kremlin as the dawn of a new age of “deeper” ties between the two countries, as Russia races to plug gaping holes left in its finances by Western energy sanctions.
But while Vladimir Putin insisted a new deal struck during the negotiations on Wednesday will ensure Russia can weather the consequences of its invasion of Ukraine, analysts and European lawmakers say he’s overestimating just how much Beijing can help him balance the books.
Prior to the full-blown invasion, Russia’s oil and gas sector accounted for almost half of its federal budget, but embargoes and restrictions imposed by Western countries have since created a multi-billion dollar deficit.
With the country’s ever-influential oligarchs estimated to be out of pocket to the tune of 20 percent of their wealth — and industry tycoon Oleg Deripaska warning the state could run out of money as soon as next year — Putin is seeking to reassure them he’s opened up a massive new market.
“Russian business is able to meet China’s growing demand for energy,” Putin declared Tuesday, ahead of an opulent state banquet.
But analysts and Ukrainian officials have been quick to point out that actually stepping up exports of oil and gas to China will be a technical challenge for Moscow, given most of its energy infrastructure runs to the West, not the East.
Putin on Wednesday announced a major new pipeline, Power-of-Siberia 2, that will carry 50 billion cubic meters of gas to China via Mongolia to fix that problem.
But “in reality, it’s pretty unclear what has actually been agreed,” said Jade McGlynn, a Russia expert at King’s College London. “When it comes to terms and pricing, Beijing drives a hard bargain at the best of times — right now they know Russia’s not got a strong hand.”
Details of the financing and construction of the project have not yet been revealed.
And with predictions of a financial downturn swirling, Beijing may not need more energy to power sluggish industries, McGlynn added.
Yuri Shafranik, a former energy minister under Boris Yeltsin who now heads Russia’s Union of Oil and Gas Producers, suggested China’s appetite for natural gas “will certainly increase” in the coming years, and pointed out that Beijing would not have signed a pipeline agreement if it didn’t need the resources.
But, if the Kremlin was hoping to replace Europe as a reliable customer, it may end up disappointed, said Nathalie Loiseau, a French MEP who serves as chair of the Parliament’s subcommittee on security and defense.
“They chose to use energy to blackmail Europe even before the war,” she said. “Now, Russia has to find new markets and must accept terms and conditions imposed by others. China is taking advantage of the situation.”
In a bid to sweeten the terms, Putin invited all of Asia, Africa and Latin America to buy Russian oil and gas in China’s domestic currency, the renminbi, at the close of Xi’s speech on Tuesday. This came after Xi had already indicated at the China-Arab Summit in December in Riyadh that he would welcome the opportunity to trade oil and gas with Saudi Arabia on similar terms.
The outreach is a nod to the 1974 pact between then-U.S. President Richard Nixon and the Saudi kingdom to accept dollars in exchange for oil, which would in turn be spent on Western goods, assets and services. Non-Western nations have, however, been threatening to move away from dollar pricing in energy markets for years to no effect.
Still, Russia’s efforts to peel away from Western-dominated energy markets are unlikely to make much difference to its fortunes in the long run, according to Simone Tagliapietra, a research fellow at the Bruegel think tank.
“What we are seeing is it’s proving extremely difficult for Russia to diversify away from Europe, and they’ve been forced to become a junior partner of China,” Tagliapietra said. “After this, Moscow won’t be an oil and gas superpower as it was before, not just because of sanctions but also because of the green transition.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday called for the “immediate cessation” of the war in Ukraine during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Erdoğan also “thanked President Putin for his positive stance regarding the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative” and added that the two countries “could take further steps” when it comes to economic cooperation, the Turkish presidency’s communications directorate said in a statement on Saturday.
The Black Sea grain deal, which allowed the export of foodstuffs from Ukraine to resume after Moscow’s unlawful invasion of the country blocked several ports, was extended last weekend. The grain agreement was originally signed last summer by Kyiv and Moscow under the auspices of the United Nations.
The Kremlin said in a statement following the Putin-Erdoğan phone call that the two leaders also discussed the situation in Syria.
They emphasized “the need to continue the process of normalizing relations between Turkey and Syria” and “Russia’s constructive role as a mediator,” according to the statement.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Moscow would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russian state media reported.
Russia will “complete construction of a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus on July 1,” Putin said, according to a report by Ria Novosti.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has agreed to the deployment, which won’t violate obligations under nuclear nonproliferation agreements, Putin was quoted as saying. Moscow would not transfer control of the nuclear arms to Minsk, according to the reports.
“We agreed with Lukashenko that we would place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus without violating the nonproliferation regime,” Putin said, according to Tass.
“The United States has been doing this for decades,” Putin was quoted as saying. “They deployed their tactical nuclear weapons long ago on the territories of their allies, NATO countries, in Europe,” he said.
“We have agreed [with Belarus] that we will do the same. I stress that this will not violate our international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation,” Putin said.
Russia has already stationed 10 aircraft in Belarus capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons, he said.
The U.S. said it would “monitor the implications” of Putin’s plan but would not adjust its nuclear weapons strategy.
“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture nor any indications Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said. “We remain committed to the collective defense of the NATO alliance.”
The development came as intense fighting continued around the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying to capture for months. The Russian forces’ assault on the town has “largely stalled,” the British Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Saturday evening that Moscow “must lose” in its war of aggression against Ukraine. “We are doing everything possible and everywhere so that Russian revanchism loses in every element of its aggression against Ukraine and the freedom of nations in general,” he said.
“Russia must lose on the battlefield, in the economy, in international relations, and in its attempts to replace the historical truth with some imperial myths,” Zelenskyy said. “It is the full-scale defeat of Russia that will be a reliable guarantee against new aggressions and crises.”
The U.K. Defense Ministry said there was “extreme attrition” on the Russian side around Bakhmut, but that “Ukraine has also suffered heavy casualties” in its defense of the area, which has become a focal point of the war.
Moscow may be shifting its operational focus following “inconclusive results from its attempts to conduct a general offensive since January 2023,” the ministry said.
Gabriel Gavin contributed reporting.
This story has been updated.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
But during an interview with Morgan set to air this week, DeSantis called Putin a “a gas station with a bunch of nuclear weapons,” repeating a similar line he had used in early March to describe the Russian leader. Both lines echoed a 2014 quip from then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in which he said, “Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.”
“I think [Putin’s] hostile to the United States, but I think the thing that we’ve seen is he doesn’t have the conventional capability to realize his ambitions,” DeSantis said, according to Fox News. “And so, he’s basically a gas station with a bunch of nuclear weapons and one of the things we could be doing better is utilizing our own energy resources in the U.S.”
DeSantis, who is widely expected to jump into the 2024 presidential race after Florida’s Legislative sessions in May, has faced increasing attacks from Donald Trump and other Republicans for his comments on Ukraine and his perceived disloyalty to the former president, who declared in November that he’s running for president.
Trump supporters have also targeted DeSantis after the governor said he wouldn’t intervene in Trump’s likely indictment in connection with hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Under Florida law, DeSantis could intervene in any extradition attempt if it is disputed.
“I’ve got real issues I’ve got to deal with here in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said earlier this week during a press conference. “We’re not getting involved in it in any way.”
His comments to Morgan, however, represent a pivot of sorts for DeSantis, who until this week only mildly pushed back against Trump’s repeated criticism on Truth Social and elsewhere.
In a portion of the Morgan interview, DeSantis said that “you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner” in response to Trump calling the Florida governor “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Beijing: China on Tuesday hit out at Japan after its Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit to Ukraine and overshadowed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow, saying Tokyo should do more to de-escalate the situation rather than aggravating it.
Beijing was caught by surprise as Kishida, who was on an official visit to New Delhi from March 19-21, entered Poland from India using a secretly chartered plane instead of the standard government aircraft, Japanese TV channel NHK reported.
The chartered plane left Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at around 8 pm on Sunday, about three hours before a government plane carrying Kishida departed for India.
After wrapping up his scheduled events in India, the prime minister secretly boarded the waiting plane in the early morning hours of Tuesday, the Japan Times daily quoted an NHK report.
Kishida’s visit to Ukraine and his scheduled meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv stole the limelight of Xi’s Moscow visit aimed at projecting himself as a global peacemaker after Beijing successfully brokered a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to end their hostilities.
In a statement on Kishida’s visit to Ukraine, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said he will express to President Zelenskyy his respect for the courage and perseverance of the Ukrainian people standing up to defend their homeland under Zelenskyy’s leadership.
“At a summit meeting with President Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Kishida will resolutely reject Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and unilateral changing of the status quo by force, and reconfirm his determination to uphold the international order based on the rule of law,” it said.
Kishida will “directly convey our solidarity and unwavering support for Ukraine” as Prime Minister of Japan and the current chair of G7 countries, it said.
Asked about Kishida’s visit, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the international community “should keep to the right direction to promote the peace talks and create conditions for a political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis”.
“We hope the Japanese side will do more to de-escalate the situation instead of the opposite,” he told a media briefing here.
“China’s position boils down to promoting peace talks and China will continue to uphold an objective, just position and work with the world to play a constructive role in the political settlement,” he said.
On whether Xi will speak to Zelenskyy, he said: “Our position is consistent and clear. We keep communication with all parties”.
He shot back when asked whether China will work with the US to stop the war, saying the US should be asked whether it would like to promote peace talks and stop the war.
“China would like to work with the international community to play a constructive role in the Ukraine crisis,” he said.
On US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s assertion that the world should not be fooled by the Russian-Chinese peace plan for Ukraine, Wang said China’s peace plan covers all aspects including respect for sovereignty, ceasefire and stopping of unilateral sanctions.
He claimed that many countries support China’s peace plan as they want de-escalation.
“China is not a creator of the Ukraine crisis, not a party to the crisis and does not provide weapons to any side of the conflict and the US is in no position to point fingers at China and blame it,” he said in response to Blinken’s assertion that Beijing is providing a “diplomatic cover” for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The US should see China’s efforts more objectively than holding on to the Cold War mentality and stop escalating tensions,” he said.
In Tokyo, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel tweeted that Prime Minister Kishida is making a “historic visit” to Ukraine to protect the Ukrainian people and promote the universal values enshrined in the UN Charter.
“Approximately 900 kilometres away, a different and more nefarious partnership is taking shape in Moscow,” Emanuel said.
The coincidental timing of Xi and Kishida trips “does indeed create a stark contrast,” James D J Brown, said political science professor at Temple University in Japan.
“It presents the image of two blocs, with Japan and Ukraine on the side of democracy, and Russia and China representing an axis of authoritarianism,” he told the Japan Times.
In Moscow, Xi and Putin held a “restricted session” of talks on the second day of the Chinese leader’s three-day visit, following up on their four-hour talks on Monday. Xi said on Tuesday that he has invited Putin to travel to China for the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation to be held this year.
While meeting Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Xi said that the invitation was made in his informal meeting with Putin.
It fits the historical logic that Chinese leaders take Russia as a primary choice for their overseas visits, Xi said, referring to his visit, his first overseas trip after getting endorsed for an unprecedented third term as president and head of the military by the Chinese Parliament this month.
He said China and Russia are each other’s biggest neighbours and comprehensive strategic partners of coordination, and that such a relationship has withstood the test of the world’s profound changes.
Xi also called for continuous regular meetings between the Chinese premier and Russian prime minister, and invited Mishustin to visit China, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Moscow: The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor and judges, who issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, have become the targets of a criminal case, Russias Investigative Committee announced on Monday, according to a media report.
In a Telegram post, the committee said that it has opened cases against ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan, as well as judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez, RT reported.
Khan had sent a petition on February 22 to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber to obtain warrants for the arrest of Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, whom he accused of being responsible for the “illegal deportation of children from Ukraine”.
The petition was approved by the aforementioned judges, RT reported.
Russia’s investigative committee has described the ICC prosecutions as “obviously illegal, since there are no grounds for criminal liability”. It also pointed to the 1973 UN Protection of Diplomats Convention, which grants heads of states absolute immunity from the jurisdiction of foreign countries.
The committee considers Khan’s actions a crime under Russian law for “knowingly bringing an innocent person to criminal liability, combined with unlawfully accusing a person of committing a grave or especially grave crime”.
He is also charged with preparing an attack on a representative of a foreign state “with the intention of complicating international relations”, RT reported.
The three judges are being accused of attacking a foreign state representative as well as attempting a “deliberately unlawful detention”.
Russia has disregarded the ICC warrant as having no legal basis, with ex-President Dmitry Medvedev suggesting that it was a sign of the collapse of international law. He also described the ICC as “s**tty and wanted by nobody” and said it had a poor record of holding high-profile suspects accountable, explicit pro-Western bias and had failed to investigate US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, RT reported.
