Month: September 2017

U.S. and Russian envoys are to meet in Finland next week in a bid to calm diplomatic tensions that have risen to levels of the Cold War.

The State Department’s third-ranking official, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon, will meet Monday and Tuesday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Shannon and Ryabkov have held several rounds of talks this year focused on resolving irritants in U.S.-Russian relations, such as the tit-for-tat closures of diplomatic missions and expulsion of diplomats. They’re expected to address broader strategic relations and arms control as well.

On August 31, in response to an order from Moscow to reduce the U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia by several hundred people, the U.S. ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and two annexes in Washington and New York. Those actions followed the U.S. seizure of two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York and the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats in retaliation for Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who are expected to meet this month in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, charged Shannon and Ryabkov earlier this year with exploring ways to resolve bilateral disputes that are hindering broader cooperation on strategic and security issues, such as the war in Syria and the conflict in Ukraine.

Among the top complaints from Washington: the harassment of American government personnel in Russia, a Russian ban on adoptions of children by U.S. families, and Moscow’s halting of plans to construct a new U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg. Russia’s complaints include U.S. sanctions imposed after its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and the seizure of its properties.

Two earlier rounds of talks between Shannon and Ryabkov ended inconclusively.

The State Department announced the new talks Saturday and said Shannon would also meet Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and other Finnish officials while in Helsinki.
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A Spanish judge ordered police to search a printer’s shop and two offices of a regional newspaper in Catalonia as part of an investigation into alleged preparations for an illegal referendum on independence for the prosperous northeastern region.

A Barcelona-based court said Saturday that the police searches took place Friday in Valls and Constanti in southern Catalonia. The court said the searches formed part of an investigation into possible disobedience, prevarication and the embezzlement of public funds by Catalan officials.

The regional Catalan newspaper El Vallenc reported that “4 agents of the Civil Guard entered our newspaper.”

El Vallenc said, “The search took place hours after they had searched the Indugraf business.” Indugraf is a printer in Constanti.

Catalonia’s president, Carles Puigdemont, the regional politician leading the push for independence, said on Twitter that police weren’t “looking for ballots, they were looking for a fight.”

The court did not say what police were looking for in the searches.

Spain’s constitutional court has suspended laws passed by the Catalan parliament this week to call for an independence referendum on October 1. State prosecutors have also targeted Puigdemont and other members of his government with lawsuits for possible disobedience, abuse of power and embezzlement charges.

The pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia says the vote will be binding and says if the “yes” side wins it will lead to the independence from Spain by October 3 no matter what the turnout.

Spain’s constitutional court has previously ruled that only the national government is allowed to call a referendum on secession and that all Spaniards in the country must have a vote when it comes to sovereignty.
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The Dalai Lama on Sunday will begin a 20-day tour of Europe, where he will give public teachings on Buddhism and also meet with scientists.

The Tibetan spiritual leader arrived Friday in New Delhi, India, from which he will depart for his four-nation tour. Calling it an educational visit, he said he was looking forward to the trip, especially to a meeting with scientists in Frankfurt, Germany.

“I am looking forward to the Frankfurt’s meeting. [I will be] meeting with some scientists, and also there will be some kind of commemoration [of the] late Von Weizsacker,” the Dalai Lama told Reuters. Carl von Weizsacker was a quantum physics teacher to the Dalai Lama, who has long shown an interest in modern science.

The Dalai Lama will first travel to Britain, where he will give a public talk on compassion. From there, he will travel to Frankfurt for a conference on the intersection between Buddhist teachings and modern science. While in Frankfurt, the Dalai Lama will also give a talk on ethics.

The spiritual leader will also attend a symposium on science while on the next leg of his trip in Italy. He will wrap up his European tour in Latvia.

Messenger of ancient thought

The Dalai Lama said his talks come from the ancient Indian wisdom of his teachers.

“I carry wherever I go the ancient Indian thought, Indian knowledge. So I just look at myself as a messenger of ancient Indian thought,” he said.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala since he fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed Chinese uprising. China denounces him as a dangerous separatist. The Dalai Lama denies this and says he is seeking autonomy for Tibetans.
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A Georgian citizen was reported to have died Friday in a car explosion in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said an explosive device went off inside a black Toyota Camry during rush-hour traffic.

Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said the victim was identified as Timur Makhauri. Shevchenko said Makhauri’s wife was seriously injured in the blast and was hospitalized.

Shevchenko told reporters a child was in the car with the couple. He said the child’s life was not in danger.

Police were investigating. Interfax Ukraine reported that a murder case had been opened.

Interfax quoted Shevchenko as saying Makhauri was “known quite well in the criminal world” and “had firm connections with various Chechen circles.” He said Makhauri had been targeted for the attack.
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Amid rising German-Turkish diplomatic tensions, Ankara has allowed seven German lawmakers to visit German servicemen deployed at Turkey’s Konya NATO air base. For several months, Ankara had banned such visits, saying the climate in bilateral relations was inappropriate.

“The way the Turkish side is billing it is that it’s a multilateral visit, it’s not bilateral,” said political columnist Semih Idiz of the al-Monitor website. “They say this visit comes from NATO, therefore Turkey has to oblige, being a NATO member.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg reportedly had been lobbying intensively to allow the German lawmakers’ visit. The ban on German lawmakers already had resulted in Berlin relocating its reconnaissance planes that had been engaged in anti-Islamic State operations from Turkey’s Incirlik air base.

“The visit by German lawmakers is significant. It eliminates one major factor, political factor, of irritation in the relationship,” according to Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Institute in Brussels. “However, there are still a number of outstanding important problems. So this will help, but it’s not a solution in and of itself in the difficulties we are witnessing.”

Coincidentally or not, Friday also saw the release of the second Turkish German national, detained last Friday. The two detentions had marked a new low in German-Turkish relations, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling them political. Berlin claims 12 German citizens, including journalists and human rights workers, are being held for political reasons since last year’s introduction of emergency rule in Turkey following a failed military coup. Ankara has strongly defended the detentions, claiming its judiciary is independent.

‘Effort’ by Turkey

German-Turkish relations have been plummeting in the last few months. Berlin has become increasingly vocal in its concerns over the ongoing crackdown since last year’s failed coup, and Merkel on Sunday said she was opposed to Turkey becoming a member of the EU. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday shot back, accusing Berlin of following policies of the Nazis.

But analysts suggest Ankara could be trying to contain the crisis.

“There is an effort, at least part of the Turkish administration, to prevent a further degradation of the relationship,” analyst Ulgen said. “There are many people in Ankara within the government which are concerned about the state of the affairs. But I think these efforts so far at least have proved to be piecemeal in nature.”

‘Increasing isolation’

Turkey’s increasingly precarious diplomatic situation is being cited as a key factor behind efforts to contain current German-Turkish tensions. Ankara is facing strained relations, not only with Berlin, but the wider European Union and Washington.

On Friday, Erdogan slammed the indictment by a U.S. prosecutor of a former Turkish minister and former head of a Turkish state bank on Iranian sanction-busting charges, claiming they were with “malicious intent.” Last month, U.S. prosecutors indicted 15 of Erdogan’s security detail for allegedly attacking protesters during a visit to Washington.

“Increasing isolation has started costing Turkey a lot, not only in Europe but also the Middle East, where Turkey is being basically sidelined on issues of crucial importance to it, whether it’s in Iraq or Syria,” said columnist Idiz. “So as far as the [Turkish] policy planners are concerned, it’s a matter of concern. But as far as the president is concerned, it seems he is more concerned, sending the right message to his constituents, a message that goes down well with his constituent.”

Erdogan faces a re-election bid within two years and already is campaigning hard on a nationalist platform, with a message that a strong independent Turkey can stand up to western powers.

Some analysts suggest that given the turmoil on Turkey’s southern borders and the need to maintain economic stability, Erdogan will need to balance nationalist campaign rhetoric and populist policies with diplomatic pragmatism.
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Britain announced Thursday it is stepping up support of the Lebanese army, providing funds for defensive barriers to be used along Lebanon’s border with Syria.

The move is being seen as a vote of confidence by London in the Lebanese army and encouragement of the ambition of its commanders to emerge as the dominant military force on the frontier with Syria — a goal that would complicate Iran’s forging of a so-called ‘land bridge’ through Iraq and Syria and of assisting its allies in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

Britain’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, said Thursday, “Our ambition is for Lebanon to have complete authority over its border with Syria.”

The stepping up of aid to the Lebanese army (LAF) — Britain had already agreed to help fund over several years construction of 30 border watch towers and 20 forward operating bases — comes just days after LAF and Hezbollah, the country’s radical Shi’ite movement succeeded in clearing Islamic State fighters from a mountainous pocket of the Syria-Lebanon border.

The clearance operations were simultaneous but LAF insists there was no coordination between its assault inside Lebanon and Hezbollah’s from the Syrian side, a claim dismissed this week by Israeli officials. Any evidence of liaison with Hezbollah, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, would undermine LAF’s standing in Washington and Western capitals and jeopardize Western military aid for the Lebanese military.

In the end Hezbollah negotiated safe passage for some 300 jihadists and their families to eastern Syria, close to the Iraqi border.

The Hezbollah safe-passage deal infuriated the U.S. and Iraq, whose governments condemned the agreement, which appears to have been engineered to spoil claims of battlefield success by LAF. For years LAF has had to defer to the Shi’ite movement, in a complex dance of a relationship aimed at avoiding clashes between the two and upsetting Lebanon’s delicate and highly charged sectarian politics.

Even so, some analysts say LAF should be seen as the bigger winner of the clearance operations rather than Hezbollah, as it drew the country’s military out from the shadows and allowed it to assert itself, undercutting Hezbollah’s claims that it is indispensable when it comes to Lebanon’s defense.

Aram Nerguizian, a military analyst who specializes in Lebanon, noted in an interview with local media, that for the first time since Lebanon’s independence LAF is now deployed almost fully along the border with Syria. “Over the last five years, areas that have been no-go zones for the Lebanese army – because they were spheres of Syrian government and/or Hezbollah preeminence – have gradually become LAF zones of control,” he said.

In a paper for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based policy research group, Nerguizian noted that “successive generations of LAF leadership have grown ever more confident and emboldened by the idea that the LAF can be Lebanon’s preeminent national security actor. Still, the LAF has struggled time and again with what it sees as the false perceptions of LAF-Hezbollah collusion.”

Last week, Israel’s envoy to the UN, Dany Danon, accused Hezbollah of planning for its next military campaign against Israel, arguing that Shi’ite commanders are “using officers in the Lebanese Army as terror operatives who help it against the IDF [Israel Defense Force] along the border,” with Israel. He claimed Hezbollah was building up its arsenals in southern Lebanon readying for a future attack and accused the UN peace-keeping force of failing to interdict the movement of arms.

Since Lebanese General Joseph Aoun, a veteran field commander and counter-terrorism expert who trained in the U.S., was made army commander in March, LAF has become more assertive. Aoun has irritated Hezbollah with some of his picks for staff positions, although Nerguizian notes in his research paper that the army is “not in a position where it can be openly antagonistic towards Hezbollah,” which remains “the preeminent faction in Lebanon’s sectarian political landscape.”

Western powers, though, are clear in their determination to help boost LAF. Britain’s ambassador to Lebanon offered congratulations to Aoun during a Thursday visit to LAF headquarters on the clearance operation known as “the dawn of mountains,” of IS fighters in the mountain regions of Al-Qaa and Aarsal, on Lebanon’s north-eastern border with Syria.

The ambassador, Hugo Shorter, said the assault was “complex, risky and dangerous,” adding, “The Lebanese Army has shown that it is an effective, professional army capable of defending Lebanon from the threats of an uncertain region. We believe in the Lebanese Army as the sole legitimate defender of Lebanon and the only one which represents all Lebanese acting within the law and with the consent of the Lebanese state and its people.”
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Hungary’s prime minister says that a ruling by the European Union’s top court upholding the relocation of asylum-seekers opens the way to a “mixed culture and population” on the continent. 

Prime Minister Viktor Orban says Hungary, which is refusing to take part in the EU scheme to temporarily relocate refugees from Greece and Italy, is not an “immigrant country” nor does it want to be one.

Orban has kept immigration on top of his political agenda since 2015. He said Friday on state radio that he “took note” of the European Court of Justice ruling which rejected legal arguments by Hungary and Slovakia against the EU decision creating the relocation scheme. 

He says “now instead of a legal fight, we have to fight a political fight” to change the decision.
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Spain’s Constitutional Court on Thursday blocked the prosperous Catalan region’s plan to vote on independence from Spain.

The ruling was expected after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vowed earlier in the day to “stop at nothing” to prevent the independence referendum called by the regional leaders from taking place.

According to court regulations, the suspension lasts five months while judges come up with a ruling.

The pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia claims that the universal right to self-determination overrules Spain’s laws.

The regional parliament on Wednesday approved a law to legitimize the independence vote and set an October 1 date for it.

It is not clear how such a vote might turn out. Polls in the northeastern region show support for self-rule waning as Spain’s economy improves. But the majority of Catalans say they do want the opportunity to vote on whether to split from Spain.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría on Wednesday condemned the Catalan leadership for carrying out “an act of force” and for acting more like “dictatorial regimes than a democracy.”

“What is happening in the Catalan parliament is embarrassing, it’s shameful,” she told reporters.
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Congressional investigators on Thursday questioned Donald Trump Jr. about Russian meddling in his father’s presidential campaign last year, including a meeting the younger Trump held with a Kremlin-linked lawyer who purportedly was going to hand them “damaging information” about Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

The younger Trump told the investigators that he set up the June 2016 meeting because he was intrigued that the lawyer might have “information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications” of Clinton, according to his opening statement, quoted by The New York Times.

But the newspaper said that the younger Trump, President Donald Trump’s eldest son, told investigators nothing came of the meeting and that he never colluded with the Russians to interfere in the U.S. election that his father ultimately won.

The younger Trump, who now helps run the president’s vast business empire, has emerged as a key figure in numerous Washington probes, with several being conducted by congressional committees along with a criminal investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Investigators are focusing on the meeting the younger Trump held more than a year ago in the midst of the campaign at Trump Tower in New York, the president’s business and political campaign headquarters.

The younger Trump, along with his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, now a White House adviser to the president, and then campaign manager Paul Manafort, met with a woman described as a “Russian government attorney,” Natalia Veselnitskaya, after an intermediary had told the younger Trump that she would hand them information that would “incriminate Hillary” as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump” in the election.

“Love it,” the younger Trump responded in setting up the meeting.

Both Kushner and the younger Trump have subsequently said the Russian attorney had no such damaging information about Clinton and the conversation quickly evolved into a discussion about a program for adoption of Russian children that Moscow canceled in retaliation for a U.S. law targeting Russian human rights abusers.

Senate Judiciary Committee investigators questioned the younger Trump behind closed doors, but eventually he and Manafort could be questioned by senators in a public hearing.  At some point, the younger Trump is also expected to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which also is probing Russian meddling in the election.

Mueller is investigating whether President Trump obstructed justice in firing former FBI director James Comey at a time he was heading the Russia investigation before Mueller took over.

Shortly after ousting Comey, Trump told television anchor Lester Holt that despite earlier explanations to the contrary, he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he decided to dismiss Comey.

Trump has denied colluding with Russian interests during the campaign.  He had repeatedly said Russian connections to the U.S. election and the ensuing investigations are merely an excuse by Democrats to explain Trump’s upset win over Clinton.

The various investigations are expected to last for months and have cast a shadow over the first months of Trump’s presidency.
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Prince William’s wife Kate was too ill with morning sickness Thursday to take young Prince George to his first day of school.

The 4-year-old prince arrived at school holding the hand of his father, William.

Kate had planned to accompany them but canceled. “Unfortunately the Duchess of Cambridge remains unwell,” a Kensington Palace statement said.

George arrived on time for his first day at Thomas’s Battersea school in south London. He was met by a teacher who will introduce him to the other students.

The palace said earlier this week that Kate is pregnant with her third child and is suffering from acute morning sickness, as in her earlier pregnancies.

She has canceled several public appearances since the announcement.
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Parliament in Spain’s prosperous Catalonia region has approved an independence vote for October 1, which Madrid has vowed to stop.

Separatist parties, which hold a slim majority, backed the referendum legislation and legal framework needed to set up an independent state.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy ordered government lawyers to file a complaint with the country’s constitutional court in hopes of annulling the referendum.

Polls in the northeastern region show support for self-rule waning as Spain’s economy improves. But the majority of Catalans say they do want the opportunity to vote on whether to split from Spain.

The vote will come about three weeks after Barcelona and a nearby town were struck by Islamist attacks that killed 15 people.

‘Act of force’

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría condemned the Catalan leadership for carrying out “an act of force” and for acting more like “dictatorial regimes than a democracy.”

“What is happening in the Catalan parliament is embarrassing. It’s shameful,” she told reporters.

But Catalan leaders have pledged to proclaim a new republic within 48 hours if the “yes” side wins, regardless of turnout.

Former Catalan President Artur Mas said pushing ahead with the referendum was justified because a pro-independence coalition won the 2015 regional election.

“The referendum is what we have to do because we have the mandate of the peoples of Catalonia,” Mas said.
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The outgoing U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Tefft, has defended the expulsion of Russian diplomats from seized consular property in the United States amid an increasing strain in diplomatic ties.

In a joint interview Wednesday in Moscow with the Russian services of VOA News and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Tefft rejected statements in Russian media that the seizing of diplomatic property in San Francisco, New York and Washington was done in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a “boorish and unprecedented” fashion.

Putin accused U.S. authorities of threatening to “break down the entrance door” of the Russian Consulate in San Francisco after Washington set a September 2 deadline for the premises to be evacuated.

“Nobody broke down doors. Nobody put undue pressure on people. It was all done very, very carefully — and, in compliance with the Vienna Conventions,” Tefft said.

Court battle

Speaking in China on Tuesday, Putin said, “Let’s see how well the much-praised American legal system works in practice.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a telephone call on Wednesday that Russia had initiated legal proceedings for what was a “violation of international law.”

U.S. President Donald Trump reduced Russia’s consular facilities this month after the Kremlin demanded the U.S. cut its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people.

Russia said it was imposing the demand as a countermeasure to new U.S. sanctions over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and to achieve “parity” with the level of the Russian diplomatic presence in the U.S. Trump’s closing of the Russian consulate and two annexes brought the number of Russian diplomatic facilities in the U.S. even with the number of U.S. facilities in Russia.

“But when we used parity to withdraw our consent for the Russian government to have a consulate in San Francisco, then everyone got all excited. And, you know, parity is parity,” Tefft noted.

Tefft: Reduction not voluntary

Russia’s Foreign Ministry gave conflicting statements, implying that the U.S. had voluntarily reduced its staff, a notion also rejected outright by Tefft.

However, Tefft said in the interview that it was false to suggest that Washington “negotiated or somehow signed on to the idea of reducing our staff.”

“We were told to do that. That was not something that was negotiated,” he said.

Russian officials say they are considering how to respond to the reduction of their U.S. consular facilities.

Despite the downward spiraling diplomatic relations, Tefft has urged Russia to join U.S. allies in Asia and Western governments in pressuring North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program.

“While the focus, at this point, is on the United States, I noted one of the earlier missiles a few weeks ago, you know, landed 60 kilometers off of Vladivostok in the water,” Tefft said. “This is a regional and now becoming a global threat. It’s not just against the United States, it’s against all of us.

“One of the things that Secretary Tillerson and Foreign Minister Lavrov agreed, when they saw each other here in March, was that the United States and Russia both believed the Korean Peninsula should be non-nuclear.That’s a fundamental which we can work on,” Tefft added.

Regular talks seen continuing

The U.S. ambassador said there had been regular consultations between U.S. and Russian experts on North Korea and that he expected more in the next few weeks.

“Now, getting forward, we’ve got to try to find the best tactics to do this. But we need strong efforts by Russia and China if we’re all going to be successful,” he said.

Tefft is expected to leave Russia this year and be succeeded by Trump appointee Jon Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to China.

VOA’s Danila Galperovich contributed to this report.
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DNA tests done on the remains of Spanish surreal artist Salvador Dali revealed he is not the father of a Spanish psychic who claimed to be his only child and heir.

The Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation said in a statement released Wednesday that the results showed “the exclusion of Salvador Dali as the biological father of María Pilar Abel Martínez.”

In June, a court in Madrid ordered the artist’s body to be exhumed after previous attempts to determine paternity had failed. A month later, experts entered the crypt beneath the museum Dali designed for himself in his home town of Figueres to take DNA samples from his hair, nails and bones.

Abel had alleged her mother and Dali had an affair in the fishing village where he lived and that it was no secret among the villagers.  She claimed she was not interested in his estate and only wanted to be recognized as his daughter.

“This conclusion is not a surprise for the foundation, since at no point has there been any evidence that she was a relative,” said the foundation, which manages Dali’s estate. “The foundation is happy that this puts an end to an absurd and artificial controversy.”

Dali,  who died in 1989, is the world’s most renown surrealist painter. His picture melting watches, “The Persistence of Memory,” is an icon of surrealism.

He is also known for a long pencil-thin mustache and eccentric behavior.
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Judges at the European Court of Justice on Wednesday rejected an attempt by Hungary and Slovakia to block mandatory quotas of refugees, which the bloc wants to resettle from Greece and Italy. VOA’s Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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France has decided to arm its surveillance drones in West Africa as part of counter-terrorism operations against Islamist militants, Defense Minister Florence Parly said on Tuesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron has made fighting Islamist militants his primary foreign policy objective and the move to armed drones fits into a more aggressive policy at a time when it looks increasingly unlikely Paris will be able to withdraw from the region in the medium to long-term.

France has six Reapers

France currently has five unarmed Reaper reconnaissance drones positioned in Niger’s capital Niamey to support its 4,000-strong Barkhane counter-terrorism operation in Africa, and one in France.

“Beyond our borders, the enemy is more furtive, more mobile, disappears into the vast Sahel desert and dissimulates himself amidst the civilian population,” Parly said in a speech to the military.

“Facing this, we cannot remain static. Our methods and equipment must adapt. It is with this in mind that I have decided to launch the process to arm our intelligence and surveillance drones.”

A further six of 12 Reaper drones, built by U.S. firm General Atomics and ordered after France’s 2013 intervention in Mali to eventually replace its EADS-made Harfang drones, are due to be delivered by 2019.

The defence ministry said on Tuesday the new drones would be delivered with Hellfire missiles while the existing six would be armed by 2020, possibly with European munitions.

Civilian casualties a concern

Previous French administrations have shied away from purchasing armed drones, fearing a possible increase in civilian casualties.

Al-Qaida’s north African wing AQIM and related Islamist groups were largely confined to the Sahara desert until they hijacked a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg separatists in Mali in 2012, and then swept south.

French forces intervened the following year to prevent them taking Mali’s capital, Bamako, but they have since gradually expanded their reach across the region, launching high-profile attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, as well as much more frequent, smaller attacks on military targets.

Armed drones offer quick response

At the end of July, at the military base in Niger, officers and pilots had told Reuters it was imperative to arm the drones to be more efficient and quick in tackling jihadist groups.

“In the future, armed drones will enable us to accompany surveillance … with the capacity to strike at the opportune moment. We will be able to gain in efficiency and limit the risk of collateral damage,” Parly said.

France is also working with Germany, Italy and Spain to develop a European drone, which is expected to be ready by 2025.
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Spain is pushing for the European Union to adopt restrictive measures against members of the Venezuelan government as a way of encouraging a return to constitutional order in the crisis-hit country, the Spanish foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The head of Venezuela’s opposition-led congress, Julio Borges, visited Spain on Tuesday to meet Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as part of a European tour seeking support against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro’s government has been criticized by the United Nations, Washington and other governments for failing to allow the entry of foreign aid to ease an economic crisis, while it overrides congress and jails hundreds of opponents.

“Against the progressive worsening of the situation in Venezuela, the Spanish government is pushing … for the adoption of restrictive, individual and selective measures, which don’t hurt the Venezuelan population,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Spanish government was working with its partners in the EU on these measures and was in constant contact with other Latin American countries, the ministry said.

A foreign ministry spokesman did not say what the measures would be.

After the meeting with Borges, the ministry underlined Spain’s support for a peaceful, democratic solution and called for the release of all political prisoners.

Spain’s foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, also met representatives of human rights activist Lilian Tintori, the wife of Venezuela’s best-known detained political leader, who was barred from flying out of the country to join Borges on the tour.

Venezuela’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, criticised the opposition leaders’ meeting with Rajoy, saying they were unpatriotic in backing sanctions that he said would hurt the Venezuelan economy.

“@marianorajoy assaults Venezuelan dignity, representing the worst colonial past, defeated and expelled by our Liberators,” Arreaza tweeted on Tuesday.

The Venezuelan opposition won control of congress in 2015.

But Maduro’s loyalist Supreme Court has tossed out every major law it has passed as the oil-rich country slips deeper into a recession exacerbated by triple-digit inflation and acute shortages of food and medicines.

Maduro has said he faces an “armed insurrection” designed to end socialism in Latin America and let a U.S.-backed business elite get its hands on the OPEC nation’s crude reserves.

 
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A Spanish audit office has demanded the former leader of Catalonia and other politicians from the region pay 5 million euros ($5.96 million) for holding a consultative independence ballot in 2014, El Pais newspaper said on Tuesday.

The report, which cited judicial sources, came a day before Catalonia is expected to approve plans to hold an Oct. 1 referendum on a split from Spain.

The 2014 vote was non-binding, a symbolic ballot by pro-independence campaigners that was declared illegal by Spain’s Constitutional Court.

Catalonia, along with Britain’s Scotland and Belgium’s Flanders, has one of the most active independence movements in the European Union.

El Pais said the former head of the Catalan government, Artur Mas and other regional leaders, were being told by the audit body in charge of overseeing the financing of political parties and the public sector to pay out of their own pocket for organizing the consultation vote.

The money was due by Sept. 25, it said.

The audit office was not immediately available for comment.

The current head of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, said the move was the Spanish state “spreading fear.”

Catalan lawmakers are due to vote on Wednesday on laws approving the referendum and the legal framework to set up an independent state.

The laws are expected to be approved because pro-independence parties have a majority in the regional parliament.

The populous, north-eastern region, with its capital Barcelona, has a strong national identity with its own language and traditions, although polls show support for self-rule waning as Spain’s economy improves.

($1 = 0.8391 euros)
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Two French journalists are on trial accused by Azerbaijan’s government of defamation for calling the country a “dictatorship.”

Media freedom activists see the unusual trial as a dangerous precedent by a foreign government to intimidate journalists and export censorship beyond its own borders.

Azerbaijan sued journalists Elise Lucet and Laurent Richard for defamation over a 2015 investigative report for France-2 television. They are on trial Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders is testifying for the defense, as are an Azerbaijani journalist and human rights activists living in exile.

Oil-rich Azerbaijan’s government has long faced criticism for alleged human rights abuses and suppression of dissent. Its president Ilham Aliyev succeeded his father as long-time leader and secured sweeping new powers in a recent referendum.

 
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Poland’s prime minister says she and three other Baltic Sea state officials have discussed an urgent need for greater security for their countries, including cybersecurity.  

Beata Szydlo on Tuesday hosted talks with her counterparts from Lithuania and Latvia and with Estonia’s ambassador.

All four nations border Russia and are concerned for their security amid Russia’s increased military and cyberspace activity. Thousands of Russian troops are to participate in major war games that open in Belarus next week.

Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said that “aggressive propaganda, fake news” and cyberattacks are coming from Russia, aimed at “changing our citizens’ views.”

Szydlo said there is a need for closer cooperation on cybersecurity among the European Union’s 28 members, within NATO and among the countries in the region.
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China and Russia, North Korea’s two biggest political allies, say calls to further tighten sanctions against Pyongyang in the wake of its latest nuclear test would do little ease tensions on the peninsula.

Speaking Tuesday at the sidelines of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) summit of emerging national economies in the Chinese city of Xiamen, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned North Korea over its latest missile test, but warned that ramping up “military hysteria” will only lead to a “global catastrophe.” He also criticized the U.S. call for more sanctions against Pyongyang as “useless and ineffective,” and added that it was “ridiculous” for Washington to impose sanctions on Moscow for trading with North Korea, then turn around and ask for help imposing sanctions on the isolated regime.

Russia and China, who routinely disapprove imposing sanctions on Pyongyang, have recently urged the United States and South Korea to end all joint military exercises, in exchange for North Korea ending its nuclear and missile testing program. Bruce Bennett, a defense analyst with the Rand Corporation research group, told VOA the two nations are reluctant to impose new U.N. sanctions because “they just don’t know how unstable North Korea is.”

Push for stronger sanctions

President Donald Trump and his counterpart in Seoul on Monday agreed to lift payload restrictions on South Korean missiles and push for even stronger United Nations sanctions against North Korea.

The South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, also has asked the United Nations to consider blocking oil shipments to the North, government officials in Seoul told reporters.

White House officials did not mention oil sanctions against Pyongyang, but they said Trump and Moon broadly agreed on all major points in their 40-minute telephone conference Monday, a day after North Korea triggered a global storm of protest by detonating a nuclear warhead underground that it said was a hydrogen bomb.

“Both leaders underscored the grave threat that North Korea’s latest provocation poses to the entire world,” A White House statement said.

Admonishment at UN

The United States will circulate a draft of a new resolution about North Korea at the United Nations this week, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told an emergency meeting of Security Council on Monday. American diplomats said they hope the resolution can be brought to a vote within one week.

In addition to his extensive talks with Trump, Moon also conferred by phone Monday with Kremlin leader Putin. Officials in Moscow said the Russian president advised that the only way to resolve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula is through diplomacy and negotiations.

Mattis warns Pyongyang

The United States, in specific warnings by President Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis, has warned North Korea to expect a massive, overwhelming military response if it directly threatens the United States, its allies in Asia or the U.S. territory.

South Korean naval forces conducted a second consecutive day of live-fire exercises in its southern seas Tuesday.

President Moon took office in Seoul hoping to establish better relations with Pyongyang, but the Kim Jong Un regime’s repeated provocations – multiple missile tests and, most recently, its most powerful nuclear test ever – appear to have dashed those hopes.

Trump criticized Moon on Sunday for what he called “talk of appeasement” for North Korea, but officials in both capitals took pains Monday to demonstrate they were united in their approach to North Korea.

Trump has vowed to stop all U.S. trade with any country doing business with North Korea, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is said to be working on details of such a plan, which would primarily target Pyongyang’s neighbor and main trading partner, China. More than 90 percent of North Korea’s export earnings come from China.

Since U.S. trade with China is more than $600 billion per year, dwarfing trade between Pyongyang and Beijing, analysts are skeptical of the viability of the embargo Trump has proposed. They also doubt that Beijing would agree to a move that could cause the collapse of Kim Jong Un’s regime.

 
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In an apparent bid to raise his profile as Russia’s most influential Muslim, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov brought tens of thousands of people to the streets of the capital Grozny on Monday to protest what he called the “genocide of Muslims” in Myanmar.

Violence over the past few days in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has killed nearly 400 people and prompted thousands of ethnic Rohingya refugees to flee into neighboring Bangladesh. The Russian government has not been clear in its stance on the Myanmar violence, giving Kadyrov an opportunity to criticize it for inaction.

State television footage showed tens of thousands rallying in Grozny’s main square to support the Rohingya. Chechnya is predominantly Muslim.

In his address to the rally that was interrupted with shouts of “Allahu akbar” (“God is great!” in Arabic), Kadyrov compared the violence against Rohingya to the Holocaust.

Kadyrov, who has ruled the republic for more than a decade, keeps a tight grip on Chechen society, and any public displays there are carefully orchestrated.

Local police authorities reported that 1.1 million people attended the rally. The entire population of Chechnya is 1.4 million, according to official statistics.

In a video released earlier, Kadyrov issued a vague threat to “go against” the Russian government if it does not act to stop the violence.

“If Russia were to support the devils who are perpetrating the crimes, I will go against Russia,” he said.

On Monday, police arrested 20 people for disturbing public order outside the Myanmar embassy in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported. On Sunday, some 800 people held an unauthorized protest outside the embassy.

Russia has developed military ties with Myanmar in recent years. Russia’s defense minister hosted Myanmar’s commander in chief in June, and Russia has been selling arms to the South Asian nation including some of its most advanced fighter jets and artillery systems.

Kadyrov fought with Chechen separatists in a war with Russian forces in the 1990s, but switched sides in the second war that began in 1999.

In recent years, Kadyrov has cultivated ties with several leaders in the Muslim world and has recently used Russia’s involvement in Syria to position himself as Russia’s most influential Muslim. Kadyrov’s opaque charitable foundation has been sending humanitarian aid to Syrian children and offering funds to restore Aleppo’s oldest mosque and other landmarks.

 
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Russian media say Egypt has finalized a deal to build a nuclear power plant with funding from Moscow after nearly two years of negotiations.

The reports Monday came after Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China, where they were attending a summit.

The nuclear plant will be built in Dabaa, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of Cairo on the Mediterranean coast.

Egypt’s presidency says el-Sissi has invited Putin to Egypt to mark the start of construction.

In 2015, Egypt signed an agreement with Russia to build a four-reactor power plant. It will receive a $25 billion Russian loan to cover 85 percent of the plant, with a capacity of 4,800 MW.
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France’s foreign minister is visiting Libya to encourage the implementation of a reconciliation agreement reached by the main Libyan rivals in Paris in July.

Jean-Yves Le Drian met on Monday with Fayez Serraj, the prime minister-designate of the U.N.-backed government, in the capital, Tripoli. He is also visiting Misrata and Benghazi, where he will meet with factions opposed to Serraj.

In July, Serraj and Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the commander of Libya’s self-styled national army, committed to working toward presidential and parliamentary elections and finding a roadmap to secure the lawless country against terrorism and trafficking.

Libya was plunged into chaos after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

 
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German bomb experts successfully defused a massive World War II bomb in the financial capital of Frankfurt on Sunday after nearly 65,000 people were evacuated to safety.

The 1.4 ton British bomb was found at a construction site last week.

Police on Sunday cordoned off a 1.5 kilometer radius around the bomb, leading to the largest evacuation in Germany since the end of World War II.

Helicopters with heat seeking devices scoured the area before the bomb experts began their work.

Among the evacuees were more than 100 patients from two hospitals, including people in intensive-care.

Experts had warned that if the bomb exploded, it would be powerful enough to flatten a whole street.

More than 2,000 tons of live bombs and munitions are discovered each year in Germany, more than 70 years after the end of the war. British and American warplanes pummeled the country with 1.5 million tons of bombs that killed 600,000 people.

German officials estimate that 15 percent of the bombs failed to explode.

 
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Moscow is demanding Washington rethink its order to close three Russian diplomatic facilities, calling the closing a “hostile act.”

“We consider what has happened as an openly hostile act and a gross violation of international law by Washington,” the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement Sunday.

“We call on the American authorities to come to their senses and immediately return the Russian diplomatic properties or all blame for the continuing degradation in our relations lies on the U.S.”

The U.S. State Department said Saturday it had seized control of three diplomatic posts vacated by Russia at the request of the U.S. government.

In an email Saturday, a State Department official said the posts were inspected in walk-throughs with Russian officials, and not forcibly searched as implied in a statement by Russia’s Foreign Ministry.

The Kremlin has accused Washington of bullying tactics and claimed that FBI officials threatened to break down the door to one of the facilities.

The compound in Washington was one of three that were shuttered as the United States and Russia have engaged in a diplomatic tit-for-tat over the past several months. The other two diplomatic buildings ordered closed are in San Francisco and New York.

 
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Police in Italy say they’ve arrested a Congolese refugee as the fourth suspect in gang rapes at a beach resort.

Rimini police chief Maurizio Improta says the man was caught Sunday morning on a train about to leave a nearby town. On Saturday, the other three suspects, all minors, including two Moroccan teenage brothers, were detained in the rape of a Polish tourist, the savage beating of her companion and the rape of a Peruvian woman shortly after the first attack.

Improta said the brothers turned themselves in after surveillance camera video showing the suspects was made public. The third suspect, from Nigeria, was detained Saturday night near Rimini.

Sky TG24 TV said the Congolese man arrived in Italy as a rescued migrant in 2015.
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The Kalashnikov corporation’s recent unveiling of a fully armored anti-riot vehicle already has Russia’s political opposition organizers up in arms.

Slated to go into service for Russia’s newly formed National Guard less than a year before Russian presidential elections, the gargantuan armored tactical vehicle — replete with water cannons, ballistic projectile loopholes and a 24-foot reinforced retractable shield capable of protecting up to 38 officers — is technically not classified as a weapon.

Although the monstrously large “Shchit,” or “Shield,” is designed to disperse unauthorized rallies, Alexey Krivoruchko, Kalashnikov Concern’s chief executive, told journalists the vehicle was not designed under Kremlin contract.

“This new special equipment was developed in the spirit of innovation,” Krivoruchko said. “Besides the Shield, we’re also working to introduce new design solutions for wheeled armored vehicles in the domestic market and for export deliveries.”

According to the state-run RIA Novosti news outlet, Kalashnikov Concern, known for creating the iconic AK-47 assault rifle, routinely secures Russian defense industry contracts in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Andrei Pivovarov, coordinator of the St. Petersburg branch of the opposition Open Russia democratic alliance, told VOA’s Russian service that the Shield represents an unprecedented step toward an increasingly hard-line approach to cracking down on political rallies in Russia.

‘Monsters’

“I’ve never seen images of such monsters in any other countries,” Pivovarov said, adding that the vehicle puts Russian security personnel in the global vanguard of militarized civilian police forces. “Even in countries where there is quite serious unrest — Venezuela, for example — police have individual shields. But this? This is a work of military art.”

National Guard deployment of the Shield, he added, indicates the Kremlin anticipates robust street protests ahead of the presidential elections set for early 2018.

“Why else would the Internal Affairs Ministry buy something like this?” said Pivovarov, who has repeatedly been detained at anti-Kremlin protests. “It’s not about investing in education, not health care. It’s about preserving the current political system.”

Russian officials have not issued a statement about the vehicle.

“Everything about this shows that the common people have a desire to take to the streets and express their displeasure,” Pivovarov added. “And clearly the authorities are preparing for this.”

Maxim Reznik of Russia’s Party of Growth, which has representatives in several local legislatures, largely echoed that sentiment.

“The use of this armor will only pour more oil on the fire of conflict,” Reznik told VOA. “Contact between society and the state is degrading so much that it’s leading to an explosion.”

An increasingly militaristic response to Russian street protests, he added, will only further alienate politically conscious youth.

“People will now be a bit more afraid to go to a protest rally, sure, but they will hate power even more,” he said. “In general, the brave isn’t the one who isn’t afraid, but the one who overcomes his fear. In that regard, no amount [of] powerful cars will help.”

Gennady Gudkov, a former State Duma deputy, told VOA that deployment of the Shield suggested the government of President Vladimir Putin was “preparing for war with their own people.”

“We see this in the stiffness of actions of the riot police, who grab protesters for coming out with white ribbons, and of course the government won’t follow any norms of humanity and law,” he said.

“Look, it’s armored to protect flanks of riot police … and squeeze people from the rally,” he added, claiming the vehicle is also capable of firing tear gas “or live ammunition.”

Ports for weapons use

Although Russian police have not said they intend to equip the vehicle with munitions, the machine has ports in the shield for firing projectiles.

“It is clear that there will be injuries, fractures and so on, and everything will go unpunished and painless for those who will be inside these cars,” Gudkov said.

Equipping guardsmen with such a formidable piece of equipment, he said, is a significant symbolic gesture by Putin.

“He wants to show that he is not as soft as Mikhail Gorbachev. No, he’s cool, he’s macho and will not let anyone down,” Gudkov said. “The very fact of the publication of photographs of armored vehicles indicates that the Kremlin people are ready to fight the people of Russia with rather ruthless methods of punishment.

” … You can safely predict that a protest [confronted by this vehicle] will be radicalized in the most rapid manner. And the huge experience of street fighting accumulated by our people, beginning with the revolution of 1905, and including the partisan struggle of the Second World War, should not be written off from accounts,” he said.

“It won’t frighten people who are ready for decisive steps,” Gudkov added.

According to the Russia’s TASS news agency, Kalashnikov’s sales in 2016 reached RUB18.3 billion ($319 million), a 123 percent increase over 2015.

Kalashnikov’s website claims it has already generated $57 million from government contracts in the first of half of 2017.

This report originated in VOA’s Russian service.
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Speaking in Washington on Friday night after four days of testy and inconclusive talks in Brussels with EU negotiators, the British minister overseeing Brexit negotiations, David Davis, offered the admission that Britain is weighing whether to join the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Such an arrangement could at least be temporary while Britain tries to negotiate a better deal for itself with the EU, the country’s largest trading partner.  

Joining the EFTA would allow Britain to secure access to the EU’s Single Market and customs union, and avoid crippling tariffs and trade restrictions when it exits the EU in March 2019.

His open admission surprised some in the audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where in a speech, he also appeared to take aim at U.S. President Donald Trump and warned against the West turning its back on globalization and free trade. Without mentioning Trump directly, he said, “It feels to me it is necessary to make the case once more for free trade and capitalism.”

‘Hard Brexiters’ may bulk

It is Davis’ disclosure that Prime Minister Theresa May is considering the possibility of Britain applying for membership of the EFTA, however, that’s likely to prove explosive when it comes to so-called “hard Brexiters” in the Conservative Party and populist nationalists, such as Nigel Farage, who want a clean break from the EU.

“It is something we’ve thought about,” Davis said in reply to a question from Iceland’s ambassador to the U.S., Geir Haarde, about whether Britain could opt for the so-called ‘Norway option.’ But the British minister cautioned “it’s not at the top of the list.”

One drawback with the EFTA for the May government is that it would not offer the same kind of unrestricted access for the country’s lucrative banking and financial services sector as Britain currently enjoys with its EU membership. Also, EFTA membership would prevent Britain from imposing immigration controls on Europeans wanting to live and work in the country — something May and hard Brexiters want to do.

The current members of the EFTA are Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The group has free trade deals with various non-EU countries, including Canada and Mexico.

Joining the EFTA would allow Britain to apply for automatic membership of the European Economic Area, giving it full access to the EU’s Single Market, as currently enjoyed by Norway and two other EFTA members. Some analysts describe the EFTA as “backdoor EU membership.”

Brussels talks stalled

Davis’ admission came after a torrid week of acrimonious Brexit negotiations, which saw the British minister and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier snipe at each other publicly at the end of what is the third round of formal exit discussions between London and Brussels. Officials from both sides concede the two sides are as far apart on key issues as they were before the third round started.

Europeans accuse the British of being unclear about what they want, while the British argue the EU negotiators’ insistence on agreeing on the terms of departure before negotiating a free trade deal is unhelpful. Remaining stumbling blocks include a reported $89 billion “divorce bill” Brussels is demanding to cover budget payments, and project and structural loans that Britain committed to before last year’s Brexit referendum.

On Thursday the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Barnier, said progress was hampered by a “lack of trust” between the two sides. And at a joint press conference with Davis, he evoked the Brexiters’ oft-repeated slogan of “Brexit means Brexit” to ask his adversary whether Britain wasn’t missing the bloc after all.

The British say the EU divorce sums don’t add up, and on Friday in Washington, Davis called the Brexit negotiations “probably the most complicated negotiation in history and our enemy is time… it is getting a bit tense.”

The EU won’t even begin talks on a deal until there has been “sufficient progress” on the divorce terms.

‘More ripples ahead’

With time running out before Britain’s exit, there’s a growing movement within the Conservative Party — and with the support even of some prominent figures who campaigned in last year’s referendum for Britain to exit the EU — for an EFTA option.

The leaders of Iceland and Ireland have been urging Britain for weeks to apply for EFTA membership, and behind the scenes so have major British business leaders, who fear a hard Brexit would see Britain fall off an economic cliff.

This week’s bruising talks triggered in their wake another spasm in the war of words between Europeans and hard Brexiters. Liam Fox, Britain’s minister for international development, accused the EU of trying to extort London, saying “Britain can’t be blackmailed into paying a price.”

And John Redwood, a senior Conservative, and onetime challenger for the party leadership, tweeted: “Mr. Barnier wants the UK to set out its calculation of the exit bill. That’s easy. The bill is zero. Nothing. Zilch.”

The British tabloids and European newspapers have been trading sharp barbs all week, as well. Switzerland’s Der Bund newspaper accused Britain on its front page of being the “Laughing Stock of Europe,” and it described Brexit as “comical.”

Britain’s Sun newspaper headlined: “Michel Barnier and his EU team truly do excel in being the most inflexible and arrogant bunch of people going.”

In Washington Friday, Davis distanced himself from the blackmail comments of his cabinet colleague Fox, but he said, “We are in a difficult, tough, complicated negotiation; it will be turbulent and what we are having is the first ripple, and there will be many more ripples along the way.”
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