Russian President Vladimir Putin taking on the rotating monthly presidency of the 15-member United Nations Security Council came just after a young boy was killed by artillery launched by Moscow’s invading forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Saturday.
“Unfortunately, we … have news that is obviously absurd and destructive,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday night. “Today, the terrorist state began to chair the U.N. Security Council.”
The Ukrainian leader announced that a five-month-old child named Danylo had been killed by Russian munitions in Donbas on Friday. “One of the hundreds of artillery strikes that the terrorist state launches every day,” the Ukrainian leader said. “And at the same time, Russia chairs the U.N. Security Council.”
Even though the position at the top of the Security Council is largely ceremonial, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called Russia’s presidency a “slap in the face to the international community” given the ongoing conflict.
The last time Russia held the rotating monthly presidency was in February 2022, when Putin ordered the brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
At present, in addition to the five permanent members, the U.N. Security Council also includes countries supportive of Ukraine such as Japan, Ghana, Malta and Albania, along with others such as the United Arab Emirates, Mozambique and Brazil which take a more neutral approach to the conflict.
In his Saturday address, Zelenskyy also said he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron for an hour on Saturday. He also welcomed Switzerland’s decision — as another temporary U.N. Security Council member — to join the 10th sanctions package against the Russian state.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Ukrainian investigators are searching the home of Metropolitan Pavel Lebed, an Orthodox Church leader, who they accuse of justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and inciting inter-religious hatred.
Ukraine’s security service (SBU) confirmed on Saturday that Pavel, who runs Ukraine’s most important monastery, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, is suspected of violating the country’s criminal code.
Pavel “in his public speeches repeatedly insulted the religious feelings of Ukrainians, humiliated the views of believers of other denominations and tried to form hostile sentiments towards them,” said the SBU, which also published what it alleges are phone intercepts from Pavel’s sermons. He also “made statements that justified or denied the actions of the aggressor country,” according to the service.
“Today, the enemy is trying to use the church environment to promote its propaganda and split Ukrainian society,” the SBU’s head Vasyl Malyuk said.
Pavel’s branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was previously under control of Moscow clergy, but declared its independence in May last year.
But Kyiv argues that the church needs to be closed down due to its pre-war ties to Moscow and has been trying to evict Pavel and his fellow worshippers from his monastery.
Pavel has denied the allegations, arguing that Kyiv has no legal grounds for the eviction, according to the BBC. During a court hearing on Saturday, he said he has “never been on the side of aggression,” describing his current status as “house arrest.”
The SBU has arrested dozens of clerics, accusing them of collaboration with Russia. Last year, the service raided the Lavra monastery and other buildings belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The church denies that there is evidence to support the charges.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
An explosion in St. Petersburg killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky on Sunday, according to media reports.
The Russian Interior Ministry confirmed the incident, the BBC reported. It is not clear who was responsible for the blast.
At least 16 people were injured in the attack at the Street Bar Cafe, according to the reports.
Videos posted on social media show an explosion and injured people on the street.
Reuters reported that a St. Petersburg website said that the cafe where the explosion occurred had at one time belonged to Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, the Russian paramilitary operation that is fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
If Tatarsky was deliberately targeted, it would be the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure associated with the war in Ukraine. Russia blamed Ukraine for the killing of Darya Dugina — daughter of Alexander Dugin, a Russian ideologue and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — in an attack near Moscow last summer. Kyiv denied involvement.
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 )
Russian law enforcement on Monday detained a young woman suspected of bombing a St. Petersburg cafe, in which a pro-Kremlin military blogger was killed and dozens injured on Sunday, according to media reports.
In a video from the interior ministry published by state news agency TASS, a woman presented as Darya Trepova can be heard saying she “brought a statuette” inside the cafe, which “later exploded.”
She said she had been arrested for “being present at the place” where the bombing occurred.
POLITICO was not able to independently verify whether Trepova’s statement was made under duress.
Trepova was reportedly detained for several days last year for taking part in a protest against the war in Ukraine on the day Russia’s full-scale invasion started.
Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed by the St. Petersburg cafe blast, which also injured 25 people according to Reuters.
Tatarsky — whose real name was Maxim Fomin — was part of a group of high-profile influencers filing reports on the Ukraine war. He had more than half a million followers on Telegram.
According to AP, Tatarsky utilized “ardent pro-war rhetoric” in favor of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Russia’s top investigative body announced Monday it had opened a probe into the bombing, which it labeled a “high-profile murder.”
The state-controlled Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee called the bombing a “terrorist act” and accused Ukraine’s special service of planning the attack.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, tweeted that Russia had “returned to the Soviet classics: isolation … espionage … political repression.”
This is the second time a pro-Kremlin media figure has been killed on Russian soil since the invasion began.
Last August, Darya Dugina — who was under U.S. sanctions for spreading misinformation about the war — was killed in a car bombing.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Finland will formally become a full-fledged NATO ally on Tuesday, the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday.
“This is an historic week,” the NATO chief told reporters. “Tomorrow, we will welcome Finland as the 31st member of NATO, making Finland safer and our alliance stronger.”
A ceremony marking Finland’s accession is set to take place Tuesday afternoon.
“We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at the NATO headquarters,” Stoltenberg said, adding: “It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security, and for NATO as a whole.”
The move comes after Hungary and Turkey ratified Finland’s membership bid last week, removing the last hurdles to Helsinki’s accession.
Sweden’s membership aspiration, however, remains in limbo as Budapest and Ankara continue to withhold support.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Stoltenberg reiterated that he believes Stockholm is still on its way to ultimately joining the alliance as well.
“All allies,” he said, “agree that Sweden’s accession should be completed quickly.”
At their meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, ministers will discuss the alliance’s defense spending goals and future relationship with Kyiv.
They will also attend a session of the NATO-Ukraine Commission together with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and meet with partners from Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
In his press conference, the NATO chief also addressed multiple challenges facing the transatlantic alliance, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent announcement that Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Putin’s announcement is “part of a pattern of dangerous, reckless nuclear rhetoric” and an effort to use nuclear weapons as “intimidation, coercion to stop NATO allies and partners from supporting Ukraine.”
“We will not be intimidated,” the NATO boss said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland | Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images
The alliance “remains vigilant, we monitor very closely what Russia does,” he said. “But so far,” he added, “we haven’t seen any changes in their nuclear posture” that require any change in NATO’s nuclear stance.
In a statement Monday, the Finnish president’s office said that, “Finland will deposit its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the U.S. State Department in Brussels on Tuesday” before the start of NATO foreign ministers’ session.
Sanna Marin, the prime minister when Finland applied to join NATO, suffered defeat in a national election on Sunday. Her Social Democrats finished third, with the center-right National Coalition Party coming out on top.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
MOSCOW — Jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is “cheerful” and doing well as he sits in pre-trial detention, a Russian prison watchdog claimed Monday — the first report on his condition since his arrest on espionage charges.
“At the time of my visit, he was cheerful, there were a lot of jokes during our conversation,” Alexei Melnikov, a member of the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission (ONK), wrote in a post on Telegram late Monday.
Melnikov is the first outsider to have been granted access to the American journalist since his arrest last Wednesday while on an assignment in Yekaterinburg, accused of collecting classified information on a defense company for “the American side.”
No other foreign journalist has been arrested in Russia since the Cold War, and Gershkovich’s case marks a new low for the increasingly fraught relationship between Russia and the United States. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has claimed without evidence that Gershkovich was “caught red-handed,” while the White House has dismissed the case as “ridiculous.” Gershkovich’s employer, the Wall Street Journal, has called the allegations “utter nonsense.”
If found guilty of spying, Gershkovich faces a sentence of 20 years in a penal colony.
The journalist is currently being held alone in a two-person cell while undergoing a period of quarantine to rule out coronavirus infection, according to Melnikov, whose ONK was set up as an independent prison monitoring group, though in recent years it has been purged of its most vocal and Kremlin-critical members.
Melnikov said the cell contains a television with 20 channels, as well as a radio and a fridge. “Meals meet the established standards. Yesterday, for example, for lunch there was cabbage soup, potatoes and chicken, and for breakfast there was porridge,” Melnikov said.
Gershkovich has also been allowed to go for daily walks, according to Melnikov, adding that the journalist had not expressed any complaints and was reading Vasily Grossman’s novel “Life and Fate” from the prison’s library.
The reporter is set to be held in Moscow’s high-security Lefortovo prison pending trial until May 29.
Cases of espionage and treason, their domestic equivalent, are conducted under a veil of secrecy, sheltering them from public scrutiny.
But the general assumption among independent Russia experts is that Gershkovich is being used to boost Russia’s negotiating position in a possible future prisoner swap for Russian citizens jailed in the United States.
In December, American basketball player Brittney Griner, jailed in Russia on drug charges, was exchanged for arms dealer Viktor Bout. Though hailed by Griner’s supporters, the deal brokered by Joe Biden’s administration also drew criticism for potentially encouraging Russia to use American citizens as a negotiating tool.
Earlier on Monday, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the government was “pushing hard” for Gershkovich’s release and was following the case closely.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
New Delhi: Russia on Friday described India and China as “friendly sovereign global centres of power” and vowed to give particular importance to comprehensive deepening of ties and enhancement of coordination with them.
Unveiling its new concept of foreign policy, approved by President Vladimir Putin, Moscow also asserted that its attitude towards other countries and multilateral bodies is contingent on the constructive, neutral or unfriendly character of their policies with respect to it.
Russia also said it places special emphasis on increasing the volume of bilateral trade with India, strengthening investment and technological ties, and ensuring resistance to destructive actions of “unfriendly states and their alliances”.
In the document, Russia underlined that it will build on a privileged strategic partnership with India with a view to enhance and expand cooperation in all areas on a mutually beneficial basis.
“A comprehensive deepening of ties and enhancement of coordination with friendly sovereign global centres of power and development, which are located on the Eurasian continent and committed to approaches which coincide in principle with the Russian approaches to a future world order and solutions for key problems of the world politics, is particularly important for achieving strategic goals and major objectives of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation,” the policy statement said in its sub-section on China and India.
Russia aims at further strengthening the comprehensive partnership and the strategic cooperation with China and focuses on the development of a mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas as well as enhancement of coordination in the international arena to ensure security, stability and sustainable development at the global and regional levels, both in Eurasia and in other parts of the world, said the policy document titled ‘The Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation’.
It said it seeks to transform Eurasia into a continental common space of peace, stability, mutual trust, development and prosperity.
Achieving this goal implies comprehensive strengthening of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) potential and role in ensuring security in Eurasia and promoting its sustainable development by enhancing the organisation’s activities in the light of current geopolitical realities, the document said.
The goal also implies establishment of the broad Greater Eurasian Partnership integration contour by combining the potential of all the states, regional organisations and Eurasian associations, based on the EAEU, the SCO and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the conjunction of the Eurasian Economic Union development plans and the Chinese initiative “One Belt One Road”.
Russia also called for strengthening the economic and transport inter-connectivity in Eurasia, including through modernisation.
It also sought a comprehensive settlement in Afghanistan, assistance in building it as a sovereign, peaceful and neutral state with stable economy and political system which meets the interests of all the ethnic groups living there and opens up prospects for integrating Afghanistan into the Eurasian space for cooperation.
In the document, Moscow also sought enhancing the capacity and international role of the interstate association of BRICS, the SCO, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the RIC (Russia, India, China) and other interstate associations and international organisations.
“We remain concerned that North Korea will provide further support and Russia’s military operations against Ukraine and we have new information that Russia is actively seeking to acquire additional munitions from North Korea,” he said.
Russia is exhausting its stores of ammunition while locked in an inch-by-inch battle for territory in Ukraine’s south and east. The battle for Bakhmut, a town in the Donbas, has slowed any Russian advances, requiring forces to expend their ammo and artillery before reaching more consequential areas.
The assistance from North Korea would help Moscow’s forces refill its stockpiles ahead of an expected offensive by Ukraine in the spring.
In December, the Biden administration accused Pyongyang of providing battlefield rockets and missiles to the Wagner Group, a pro-Russian mercenary outfit that’s conducted the bulk of the fighting in Bakhmut.
The possible Russia-North Korea deal was allegedly brokered by Slovakian arms dealer Ashot Mkrtychev, leading the administration to sanction him on Thursday.
“Schemes like the arms deal pursued by this individual show that Putin is turning to suppliers of last resort like Iran and the DPRK,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement, using an acronym for the official name of North Korea: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The Turkish parliament on Thursday unanimously ratified Finland’s accession to NATO, effectively allowing Helsinki to join the military alliance but leaving Sweden out in the cold.
Finland could now become a formal member of NATO within days.
“All 30 NATO members have now ratified Finland’s membership,” Finnish President Sauli Niinistö tweeted. “I want to thank every one of them for their trust and support. Finland will be a strong and capable Ally, committed to the security of the Alliance,” he said.
His country, the president added, “is now ready to join NATO.”
The Turkish vote, occurring minutes before midnight in Ankara, comes after months of delays.
Finland and Sweden initially applied for membership last May, prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And while the two countries were formally invited to join the alliance last summer, both Turkey and Hungary have been stalling on ratifying their memberships.
Ankara has raised concerns about the countries’ support of Kurdish groups and limitations on arms exports. But despite striking a deal with both Helsinki and Stockholm that spurred policy changes, Ankara ultimately decided to greenlight Finland while holding Sweden back.
Hungary’s parliament on Monday also ratified Finland’s membership but like Turkey has yet to schedule a vote on Sweden.
Western officials had hoped that both countries would become full members before a summit of NATO leaders scheduled to take place in Vilnius in July, but it remains uncertain whether Sweden could still become a member before the gathering.
Turkey is set to hold elections in May, fuelling speculation that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is withholding support for Sweden for domestic political reasons and could change his mind at a later stage.
Niinistö, the Finnish president, said in his tweet late Thursday that “we look forward to welcoming Sweden to join us as soon as possible.”
Now that Finland has Turkey’s formal support, only procedural steps are left before Helsinki officially joins NATO.
Finland will soon get a formal invitation from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and then give the U.S. its so-called instrument of accession. The U.S. will then issue a statement that Finland is now part of the North Atlantic Treaty.
The NATO chief welcomed Turkey’s vote.
“This,” Stoltenberg tweeted, “will make the whole NATO family stronger & safer.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
