The European Union will launch a new platform to counter disinformation campaigns by Russia and China amid growing worries, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said today.
A so-called Information Sharing and Analysis Center within the EU’s foreign services —the European External Action Service (EEAS) — will seek to track information manipulation by foreign actors and coordinate with the 27 EU countries and the wider community of NGOs.
“We need to understand how these disinformation campaigns are organized … to identify the actors of the manipulation,” said Borrell.
One EEAS official said it would be a decentralized platform to exchange information in real-time with NGOs, countries and cybersecurity agencies, enabling better understanding of emerging disinformation threats and narratives and quicker action to tackle such problems.
Almost a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU continues to fend off Russian attempts to manipulate and distort information about the war. Kremlin-led propaganda seeking to blame the EU for a global food crisis due to its sanctions has also spread to countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Borrell also warned of a “new wave” of disinformation of fabricated images, videos and websites posing as media outlets spreading “five times the speed of light across social networks and messaging services.”
The EU’s existing disinformation unit, the Stratcom division, in a first-ever report, noted that most of the foreign information manipulation in 2022 had centered on narratives supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian and Chinese diplomatic channels were particularly involved.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
“Russia’s desperate attempts to utilize proxies to circumvent U.S. sanctions demonstrate that sanctions have made it much harder and costlier for Russia’s military-industrial complex to re-supply Putin’s war machine,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said. | Nathan Howard/AP Photo
The Treasury announced sanctions on Wednesday against 22 people it says have helped Russia obtain weapons and evade sanctions imposed on the Kremlin and its allies since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.
The sanctions target the network’s leader, Russian arms dealer Igor Zimenkov, as well as his son and several members of their network, for supplying Russia with “high-technology devices.” Zimenkov and his associates have “been involved in multiple deals for Russian cybersecurity and helicopter sales” and maintain close relationships with the Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport, according to the Treasury.
“Russia’s desperate attempts to utilize proxies to circumvent U.S. sanctions demonstrate that sanctions have made it much harder and costlier for Russia’s military-industrial complex to re-supply Putin’s war machine,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement. “Targeting proxies is one of many steps that Treasury and our coalition of partners have taken, and continue to take, to tighten sanctions enforcement against Russia’s defense sector, its benefactors, and its supporters.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: India is making a “substantial” contribution towards global stability and security, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday while extending his greetings to the country on the occasion of its 74th Republic Day.
In a message to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Putin also highlighted India’s achievements in the economic, social, scientific, technological and other spheres, according to the Russian embassy here.
French President Emmanuel Macron too greeted Modi and said he looks forward to setting new ambitions for the India-France strategic partnership.
“As India celebrates Republic Day, I convey my warmest wishes to my dear friend @NarendraModi and the Indian people. I look forward to setting new ambitions together for the G20 and for our Indo-French strategic partnership as it turns 25 this year,” Macron wrote on Twitter.
Putin, in his message, said: “India’s achievements in the economic, social, scientific, technological and other spheres are widely known.”
“Your country is making a substantial contribution to ensuring international stability and security and to addressing vital issues on the regional and global agenda,” he said.
Putin’s comments came amid escalating tensions between Russia and the western powers over the Ukraine conflict.
India has been pushing for the resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.
Putin said Moscow puts a “high value” on its privileged strategic partnership with New Delhi.
“I am confident that by working together we can ensure the continued growth of mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in all areas,” he added.
“This undoubtedly meets the fundamental interests of the friendly peoples of Russia and India,” the Russian president said.
A man walks by a sign that reads “to Moscow” placed on an old tank displayed at a war museum in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
KYIV: Ukrainian officials said Thursday that Russia has launched a wave of missile and self-exploding drone attacks on the country.
Air raid sirens wailed nationwide, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or of the missiles and drones striking targets.
The head of the Kyiv city administration said that 15 cruise missiles were shot down.
Serhii Popko said the missiles were fired “in the direction of Kyiv” but did not clarify if the capital itself was a target. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions were heard in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district, on the east side of the river that divides the city.
The attacks came after Germany and the United States announced Wednesday that they will send advanced battle tanks to Ukraine, offering what one expert called an “armored punching force” to help Kyiv break combat stalemates as the Russian invasion enters its 12th month.
In the European bubble in Brussels, diamonds aren’t anyone’s best friend anymore.
The Belgian government’s reluctance to ban imports of Russian diamonds, which would hurt the city of Antwerp, a global hub for the precious stones, has outraged Ukraine and its supporters within the EU.
Ukraine has been pushing to stop the import of Russian rough diamonds because the trade enriches Alrosa, a partially state-owned Russian enterprise.
While such a crackdown wouldn’t inflict the same damage on Vladimir Putin’s economy as a prohibition on all fossil fuels, for example, the continuing flow of Russian diamonds has become a symbol of Western countries putting their national interests above those of Ukraine.
New plans for a fresh round of sanctions against Putin have now reignited the debate over the morality of Europe’s trade in diamonds from Russia.
Belgium is fed up with being scapegoated. According to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Putin’s ability to sell diamonds to all western markets now needs to be shut off.
“Russian diamonds are blood diamonds,” De Croo said in a statement to POLITICO. “The revenue for Russia from diamonds can only stop if the access of Russian diamonds to Western markets is no longer possible. On forging that solid front, Belgium is working with its partners.”
The West’s economic war against Russia has already had an impact. Partly because of U.S. sanctions, the Russian diamond trade in Antwerp has already been severely hit. But those rough Russian diamonds are diverted to other diamond markets, and often find their way back to the West, cut and polished.
That’s why Belgium is working with partners to introduce a “watertight” traceability system for diamonds, a Belgian official said. If it works, this could hurt Moscow more than if Washington or Brussels are flying solo.
“Europe and North America together represent 70 percent of the world market for natural diamonds,” the official said. “Based on this market power, we can ensure the necessary transparency in the global diamond sector and structurally ban blood diamonds from the global market. The war in Ukraine provides for a strong momentum.”
Sanctions at last?
Belgium’s offensive comes just when its position on sanctioning Russian diamonds is under renewed attack — not just from other EU countries and Belgian opposition parties, but also within De Croo’s own government.
According to Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Putin’s ability to sell diamonds to all western markets now needs to be shut off | Laurie Dieffembacq/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images
The EU is preparing a new round of sanctions against Russia ahead of the first anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Countries such as Poland and Lithuania are again urging the EU to include diamonds. However, one EU diplomat said the discussion is now more an “intra-Belgian fight than a European one.”
De Croo leads a coalition of seven ideologically diverse parties. The greens and socialists within his government are pushing him to actively lobby for hitting diamonds in the next EU sanctions round.
In particular, Vooruit, the Dutch-speaking socialist party, is making a renewed push. Belgian MP Vicky Reynaert will be introducing a new resolution in the Belgian Parliament proposing an import ban.
“It’s becoming impossible to explain that Belgium is not open to blocking Russian diamonds,” Reynaert said. “We want Belgium to actively engage with the European Commission to take action.” Belgian socialist MEP Kathleen Van Brempt is pushing the same idea at the European level.
But the initiative from the socialists isn’t likely to deliver an import ban, or even import quotas, four officials from other Belgian political parties said. De Croo is now set on an international solution instead. No one expects the socialists to destabilize De Croo’s fragile Belgian coalition government over the issue of diamonds.
Even if all seven parties in the Belgian government did agree to hit Russian diamonds, there would be another key obstacle.
In the complicated Belgian political system, the regional governments would have a say as well. The government of the northern region of Flanders is against an import ban. That government is led by the Flemish nationalists, whose party president, Bart De Wever, is also the mayor of Antwerp. “Nothing will change their minds on this,” one of the Belgian officials said of the nationalists’ position.
Blood diamonds
Belgium hopes that by building an international coalition to trace Russia’s “blood diamonds” it will finally stop being seen as a roadblock to action.
The industry agrees. “Sanctions are not the solution,” said Tom Neys of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre. “An international framework of complete transparency, with the same standards of compliance as Antwerp, can be that solution,” he said.
Such a transatlantic plan would have a huge impact, according to Hans Merket, a researcher with the International Peace Information Service, a human rights nonprofit organization. “That would have much more effect than the current U.S. sanctions, which are being circumvented,” said Merket.
But the devil will be in the details. Will Belgium succeed in building a transatlantic coalition? Are consumers willing to pay more for their diamonds, or does it still risk diverting the goods to other markets where traders are less diligent?
One of the Belgian officials was doubtful of Belgium’s chances of success. If the international alliance falters, Belgium and the EU should consider moving ahead on their own to convince the rest of the world to act. “But let’s give De Croo a shot at this,” the official said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Moscow: Deliveries of “offensive” weapons to Ukraine will lead to a “global catastrophe”, Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the Russian State Duma, has said.
“If Washington and NATO countries supply weapons that will be used to strike civilian cities and attempt to seize our territories, as they threaten, this will lead to retaliatory measures using more powerful weapons,” Volodin said on Telegram on Sunday.
“Members of the US Congress, the German Bundestag, the National Assembly of France and other European parliaments must realise their responsibility to humanity,” he was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.
“With their decisions, Washington and Brussels are leading the world to a terrible war: to a completely different military action from today, when strikes are carried out exclusively on the military and critical infrastructure used by Kiev,” Volodin said.
“Given the technological superiority of Russian weapons, foreign politicians making such decisions need to understand that this could end in a global tragedy that will destroy their countries,” he said.
On Friday, defence leaders from Western countries attended a meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where they pledged further military support to Ukraine but failed to iron out divisions on sending battle tanks.
At the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged defence leaders attending the meeting to “speed up the supply of weapons to Ukraine”, the presidential press service reported.
MI5 repeatedly refused to investigate evidence that an alleged Russian spy was attempting to cultivate influence with senior Conservative politicians and channel illegal Russian funds into the party, a Tory member has alleged in a new complaint lodged with the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT).
Sergei Cristo, a Conservative party activist and a former journalist with the BBC World Service, has lodged a complaint with the investigatory powers tribunal, filing the case after corresponding with the chair of parliament’s intelligence and security committee, Conservative MP Julian Lewis, who recommended he take the information to the authorities.
The committee’s Russia report claimed in 2020 that the security services had turned a blind eye to “credible evidence” of Russian interference and Cristo’s allegations offer potentially explosive new evidence that confirms its findings. Labour MP Ben Bradshaw said “allegations that the security services ignored evidence from a Conservative whistleblower exposing Russian infiltration at the highest levels of the party are truly shocking” and claimed the “Conservative party’s Russia problem” was an ongoing threat to Britain’s national security.
Cristo says that it was reading the Russia report that made him “suddenly aware that maybe the story I had was more significant than I thought” and, at Lewis’s suggestion, he wrote to Cressida Dick, then commissioner of the Met police.
He received a response from the counter-terrorism command (SO15) who said it was not a matter for the Met and advised him to take it to the IPT – which oversees the security services – which he has now done.
The allegations centre around the formation of a group called Conservative Friends of Russia in 2012, and its relationship with a Russian diplomat, Sergey Nalobin.
In August of that year, the Russian ambassador, Alexander Yakovenko, hosted a lavish launch party for the group in the gardens of his residence in Kensington with guests who included the former minister of culture, media and sport, John Whittingdale, and Boris Johnson’s now wife, Carrie Symonds. The Russian government also funded an all-expenses-paid trip to Moscow for a handpicked group of members including the future CEO of Vote Leave, Matthew Elliott.
Cristo says his suspicions about Nalobin, who was the political first secretary at the embassy, had been aroused two years earlier when he was approached by the diplomat and they met at the Carlton Club. When Nalobin learned that Cristo was a volunteer with the treasurers’ department of the Conservative campaign headquarters (CCHQ), he said he could “make introductions to Russian companies who would donate money to the Conservative party”.
Russian diplomat Sergey Nalobin at a function with Boris Johnson. Photograph: Twitter
“I knew straight away that what he was suggesting was illegal under UK law,” Cristo wrote in a letter to Lewis last year.
Alarmed by Nalobin’s efforts and the embassy’s sponsorship of the group, Cristo contacted Luke Harding at the Guardian and revealed Nalobin’s background and his disturbing relationship with the group. Harding and journalists at Russia’s The Insider found Nalobin had family connections to the FSB spy agency: his father, Nikolai, was a KGB general whose responsibilities included supervising Alexander Litvinenko, while his brother Viktor also worked for the FSB.
The resulting articles led to the resignation of the honorary president of Conservative Friends of Russia, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, and the renaming of the group.
What Cristo has never previously revealed is his abortive attempts to get the security services to act. He says that he whistleblew to the Guardian only after his attempts to get the authorities to act failed. In 2011, he tried repeatedly to raise the alarm with MI5. After an initial meeting with a junior agent went nowhere, he wrote to the director general of MI5, which resulted in a further meeting with two agents in a government building in Whitehall.
Cristo offered to meet Nalobin again and question him while wearing a hidden camera about how the Russian government intended to make the donations. That offer was also declined and he was advised to cease contact with Nalobin.
He also took his concerns to senior members of the party after a discussion with Britain’s most famous Russian defector, Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB colonel. Gordievsky studied Nalobin’s biography and told Cristo that he believed he was a spy.
Conservative Friends of Russia was reinvented as the Westminster Russia Forum and only finally shut down altogether last year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile Nalobin continued to cultivate close relationships with MPs and Conservative party activists for a further three years until the Foreign Office declined to renew his visa.
In 2017, the Observer published an article that referred to Nalobin’s interest in the rivalry between David Cameron and Boris Johnson and his forced departure from the UK. It resulted in a series of furious emails from the Russian ambassador who sought to “correct” the article. The Observer declined to do so. Last year, Nalobin surfaced in Estonia when news broke that he had been expelled for espionage and had been “directly and actively engaged in undermining Estonia’s security”.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has been accused of deploying more intelligence agents in London than at the height of the Cold War.
“I think this is important because none of this ought to have happened,” Cristo said last week. “If MI5 had taken action, Conservative Friends of Russia would never have launched and Nalobin would not have been allowed to get close to so many key Conservative politicians and party members.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Italian authorities are on the hunt for a Russian oligarch after two of his luxury yachts that were seized under EU sanctions mysteriously disappeared from a port in Sardinia.
A public notice informing Dmitry Mazepin, the billionaire owner of a mineral fertiliser company, of the penalties against him over the alleged illegal removal of the vessels has been issued by the town hall of Forte dei Marmi, the Tuscan coastal resort where the oligarch owns a home.
The yachts, both called Aldabra but featuring maritime flags of two different countries, went missing from the Sardinian port of Olbia within weeks of each other last summer.
They were seized last March after Mazepin, who is the father of the former Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin, was named on the sanctions list a few weeks after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It is the first case in Italy of a Russian with assets frozen in the country who has managed to dodge EU sanctions.
An investigation led by Olbia’s finance police found that the first vessel, said to be worth between €700,000 and €1m (between £613,000 and £876,000), left Olbia in June and made a stopover at the small port of Bizerte in Tunisia.
The second yacht is known to have left Olbia for Savona, a port in the northern Italian region of Liguria, before heading to Turkey. The current whereabouts of the yachts and their owner is unknown.
Police said Mazepin hired a foreign company, which in turn hired a Sardinian captain to move the yachts away from Italy.
The intermediary company and captain have both been hit with fines of up to €500,000. Mazepin faces the same penalties.
A police source said that he is fiscally resident in Forte dei Marmi, a popular destination for Russian oligarchs before the war in Ukraine, as he owns a villa in the town, hence why the notice was issued there.
A villa in Sardinia owned by Mazepin is also among the Russian-owned assets frozen across the island. Mazepin bought the villa, called Rocky Ram, from Carlo De Benedetti, an Italian businessman and former owner of La Repubblica newspaper.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Islamabad: Pakistan will pay for energy purchases from Russia, when they start in late March, in currencies of friendly countries, a top energy official said on Friday.
The development came at the conclusion of the 8th session of the Pakistan-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC) on trade, economic, scientific, and technical cooperation led by Ayaz Sadiq, Pakistan Minister for Economic Affairs, and Nikolay Shulginov, Russian Energy Minister, from respective sides between January 18 and 20 here.
Shulginov, in a joint statement read out before the media, said Islamabad would pay for energy purchases in currencies of friendly countries, adding that the two countries agreed in late March as the timeline for crude oil export to cash-strapped Pakistan.
The friendly countries were not named but likely include China which has close ties with both Pakistan and Russia.
The two sides worked under the guidance of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and President Vladimir Putin and took the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to a strong and comprehensive economic relationship, the statement said.
They reiterated that such a relationship contributed to the economic well-being of the two countries, as well as the region.
The two sides reached an agreement in principle on the supply of Russian crude oil and products to Pakistan, with technical details to be finalised in March this year at the latest.
“Both sides agreed that after consensus on the technical specifications achieved, the oil and gas trade transaction will be structured in a way it has a mutual economic benefit for both countries. The process is to be completed within March 2023,” the statement read.
Pakistan last year sent officials to Russia to explore the import of energy, after which the country’s state minister for petroleum Musaddik Malik said Russia would sell crude oil at a discounted rate.
Pakistan has not traditionally been a major importer of Russian oil or gas and after the latest meetings in Islamabad, Malik said that Islamabad wants to import 35 per cent of its total crude oil requirement from Russia.
They also agreed to strengthen energy cooperation, enhance energy trade, and broaden energy infrastructure investment based on strategic and favourable commercial terms.
They agreed to work on a “Comprehensive Gas Infrastructure Plan for Energy Cooperation”, which would form the foundation for future work and is to be completed in 2023.
Both sides reassured commitment to undertake the Pak Stream gas pipeline project as one of the pillars of the “Comprehensive Gas Infrastructure Plan”.
Both sides agreed that the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline Project should be considered in terms of a comprehensive infrastructure that is economically viable for sustainable development ensuring affordable gas supplies.
The Russian side was also invited toward potential projects of the federal and provincial governments of Pakistan, including in public-private partnership mode, and requested the Russian businessmen to explore these possibilities.
They have resolved the pending issues related to the exchange of information on certificates of origin of goods with the use of an electronic verification system and shall endeavour to finalise the above-mentioned protocols by the end of May 2023.
The two sides agreed to nominate focal persons from both sides in order to enhance mutual cooperation and discuss issues concerning connectivity and logistics in Central and South Asia.
The sides also agreed to take necessary measures to increase bilateral cooperation in science, technology, and higher education, especially academic linkages, collaborative and impactful research, training and development, and learning and enhanced interest of Pakistani citizens in education in the Russian Federation.
The two sides also discussed innovative ways of doing business, including through barter, and agreed to explore the option further. In the context of the desire of both parties to promote regional integration and Eurasian connectivity, the two sides agreed to share information about developing and improving rail and road infrastructure.
The two sides also signed three documents including an agreement regarding Cooperation and mutual assistance in Custom matters between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan; protocol on the exchange of documents and data on the Customs value of goods transported between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan; and working agreement on Airworthiness of Aeronautical products.
Earlier, the two sides proceeded from the discussions and decisions of the seventh IGC and carried the process forward, as well as explored additional avenues of cooperation and agreed to further strengthen and enhance collaboration in the fields of trade and investment, energy, communication and transport, higher education, industry, railways, finance and banking sector, customs, agriculture, science and technology, and information technology.
They observed and noted positive prospects for implementable and concrete projects in the above-mentioned sectors of the economy with a huge potential for the socio-economic development of both countries.
The commission agreed that the relevant ministries and departments from both sides will vigorously follow up to exploit this potential for common prosperity.
On Wednesday, Russian forces bombarded scores of towns in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin was reportedly upset with the NATO song of RRR being awarded Oscar. Earlier Putin had said that he is open to negotiations, a stance Washington has dismissed as posturing because of continued Russian attacks.
Russia on Wednesday launched more than 10 rocket attacks on the Kupiansk district in the Kharkiv region, confirmed Ukraine’s top military command.
Russia’s ambassador in United States has asked to retract its decision of awarding NATO song an Oscar. Speaking to The Fauxy, Russia’s ambassador said “We don’t have problem with RRR movie winning Oscar but jury could have chosen a different song. Choosing NATO for Oscar is a deliberate attempt to provoke Russia“.
United States President, Joe Biden replied to Russia’s demand and said “The truth is lies What’s clear, and I mean this [from] the bottom of my heart, NATO NATO NATO..“
[ Disclaimer: With inputs from The Fauxy, an entertainment portal. The content is purely for entertainment purpose and readers are advised not to confuse the articles as genuine and true, these Articles are Fictitious meant only for entertainment purposes. ]
