Month: March 2018

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says relations with the U.S. can’t get any worse so he’s hoping for improvement under a new secretary of state.

Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that he’s not worried about relations getting worse after Rex Tillerson’s ouster, saying the relationship “can hardly go lower than the floor.”

He said he hopes for a “constructive and sober approach in joint relations” under Tillerson’s nominated replacement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo. “This hope will always remain.”

Relations between the U.S. and Russia have worsened in recent years over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria and alleged Russian interference in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Trump unexpectedly fired Tillerson on Tuesday.  Pompeo faces Senate confirmation hearings where he is expected to be asked about his approach toward Russia.

 
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Britain says it will expel 23 Russian diplomats after Moscow shrugged off demands to explain how a deadly Soviet-era nerve agent came to be used in the English town of Salisbury to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

The retaliation  announced Wednesday by Prime Minister Theresa May to the House of Commons amounts to the unleashing of an economic war against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his coterie of Kremlin officials and oligarchs, with asset freezes and seizures of property they own in London alongside visa bans against named Russian individuals.

The prime minister is pressing international allies to follow Britain’s example and turn the spotlight on the billions of dollars of Kremlin-tied assets around the world.

But officials say even British actions alone will cause some pain to Russians linked to the Kremlin, who, under the plans being drawn up, will have property and assets seized, if they cannot show their holdings come from ‘legitimate’ sources. British officials have powers under criminal finance legislation to start moving on Russian assets.

“The overall impact of what we are planning to do will have serious repercussions for Russia,” a senior British official told VOA.

Kremlin denies involvement

Kremlin officials deny Russia had anything to do with the poisoning of the Skripals, accusing the British of fanning the flames of Russophobia. May had given an ultimatum to the Kremlin to explain the poisoning; but, the deadline passed on Tuesday night with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying there would be no official response until Britain had provided a sample of the toxin and pursued the investigation through the “proper channels” of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Russia and Britain are signatories to the organization.

In increasingly barbed and menacing exchanges between the British and Russians, reminiscent of the height of the Cold War, Kremlin officials have warned it is dangerous to threaten nuclear-armed Russia.

In the escalating confrontation, the Kremlin Wednesday warned that reprisals would be met with a firm Russian response.

“Moscow does not accept the groundless accusations or the language of ultimatums,” said Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman. He added, “We hope that common sense prevails and that countries will think twice whether there is any evidence or not and how justified any accusations against Russia are …Any unlawful British actions,” he adds “will result in a Russian response.”

Pressure to act

Political and public pressure on Theresa May to retaliate for the March 4 poisoning of Skripal, a former Russian military officer who was recruited by MI6 and exchanged in a spy swap in 2010, and his 33-year-old daughter, hasn’t let up. If anything, it has grown in intensity.

Further impetus for reprisals came Tuesday when British police said they had opened an investigation into the “unexplained” death on Monday of Putin critic Nikolai Glushkov, a former adviser to Boris Berezovsky, the deceased Russian oligarch and fierce Putin rival.  Glushkov, who the Kremlin had demanded be extradited to Moscow, was found dead at his London home just eight days after the poisoning of the Skripals.

Media reports in London suggest he may have been strangled.

Public anger toward Russia has also increased amid warnings that hundreds of people in the town of Salisbury are in danger from the nerve agent, Novichok, that was used to poison the Skripals. A former Russian scientist who helped develop the nerve agent in Soviet-era chemical warfare laboratories says people who may have been exposed to even small amounts of the military-grade toxin will face health risks for the rest of their lives.

Describing Novichok as “very nasty stuff,” scientist Vil Mirzayanov, a chemist who ran the technical counter-intelligence department in Russia’s chemical weapons institute, told Britain’s Sky News it was developed as a “weapon of mass murder.”

Speaking from his home in Princeton, New Jersey, Mirzayanov said, ”It’s the same as nerve gas but 10 times, at least 10 times, more powerful.” He said the agent was designed to wreck the human body and do “irreparable” damage, saying the Skripals would be left as “invalids.”

Mirzayanov also said serious long-term health risks remain for hundreds of Salisbury residents who may have been exposed to trace contamination because of their proximity as the attack unfolded, or who brushed past the Skripals in a pub and a restaurant they visited.  Asked about the advice given by British public health officials, including washing clothes and wiping down possessions, he said, “Sure, it’s useful, but not enough, absolutely not.”

Low public risk

British health officials say “the risk to the general public is low.” But their comments aren’t reassuring, say locals, who are seeing increasing numbers of police and army specialists clothed in protective suits deployed in the town of 40,000. Locals complain that the government hasn’t been quick enough to understand the wider dangers.

The Skripals remain hospitalized in critical condition. Meanwhile, a police officer is out of immediate danger and talking, but colleagues say he remains highly anxious. A fourth person has been treated as an outpatient in recent days.

 
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As its name implies, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has its roots in Europe and North America. But as the alliance faces new global threats, it has begun to broaden its horizons. VOA’s Jela de Franceschi takes a closer look at how North Korea’s missile and nuclear build-up has led NATO to boost its engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.
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Turkish led forces are claiming to have surrounded the city of Afrin, home to several thousand people in northwestern Syria, and the main target of Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch.  

The military incursion launched in January seeks to oust the YPG Syrian Kurdish militia considered by Ankara as terrorists linked to a decades long insurgency inside Turkey.

Ankara has warned an operation to capture the city is imminent, “Hopefully Afrin’s center will soon be cleared of terrorists and the local community will be saved from the cruelty and oppression of the terrorists,” declared deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag on Monday.

The prospect of a major offensive on Afrin, which is reportedly packed with civilians, many of whom fled fighting from other parts of Syria, is likely to cause international concern.  Ankara insists it is taking all steps to insure the safety of civilians.  Deputy Prime Minister Bozdag has claimed not a single civilian has been killed or even wounded since the launch of the Turkish operation.

Turkish led forces backed by air support have made swift advances and suffered only relatively light casualties since January.  But analysts suggest the YPG is likely to have withdrawn most of their forces to defend Afrin, where much of the Turkish military’s superiority would be nullified.

Urban warfare

“Under normal combat conditions an ordinary army unit would never enter into an urban environment,” points out Ret. Turkish Brigadier Haldun Solmazturk, a veteran of counter insurgency operations against Kurdish rebels, “It would move to isolate and move on.  In an urban environment you lose all the advantages.”

The prospect of Turkish forces widening their control of a large swath of Syrian territory could yet lead to Damascus intervening, “They (YPG) might agree to inviting the Syrian army back into Afrin and keep the Turkish armed forces in a crescent around Afrin, but with the Syrian army in Afrin City,” suggests former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served widely in the region, “… such a deal, Damascus could either disarm the YPG or facilitate their removal from the region.”

Reportedly Syrian forces have started to build up on the Afrin enclave border.  But the YPG has declared it will not surrender and is prepared to resist attempts to capture the city.

With Ankara’s operation in Afrin in its final stage, attention is now moving toward its second declared second phase.  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Turkish forces that after capturing Afrin they will target YPG forces in Manbij.  U.S. forces are deployed in the Syrian City with the Kurdish militia, which is a key ally in Washington’s war against the Islamic State.

Turkish and U.S. officials are currently engaged in diplomatic efforts to avert a clash over Manbij.  Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusolgu said Tuesday the two sides will reach an agreement when he attends talks next week in Washington.

“Manbij, my sense the Americans will find a formula that Turkey will go to Manbij and the PYD (political wing of the YPG) won’t be there, within a few months,” predicts international relaxants expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University,  “and I think that will be enough for Ankara because this is an easy thing to declare victory.”

Turkish politics

But Erdogan has declared the wider goal of Turkey’s offensive is to remove the YPG presence form the whole of Turkey’s southern border.  Analysts point out the military operation is also being driven by powerful domestic considerations.  Turkey’s pro government media are claiming since the launch of the Syrian offensive,  support has surged for Erdogan, who faces re-election next year.

“Turkish foreign policy making has become so much dependant on domestic political concerns,” points out, analyst Sinan Ulgen a visiting scholar of the Brussels based Carnegie Europe.  Ankara has also announced that in May it will launch a military operation in cooperation with Baghdad into Iraqi Sinjar region against PKK bases.  The PKK has been fighting a decades long insurgency in Turkey for greater Kurdish rights.

“That Turkey wants to take on the PKK in Sinjar with the cooperation with administration in Baghdad, I have no doubt,” claims international relations expert Ozel, “I have a sense the Iranians would not look favorably at such a thing.  I think the Iranians are rather annoyed by what Turkey is already doing.”

Turkey  and Iran are historical regional rivals and analysts warn the growing military presence of Turkish forces in countries Tehran considers under its hegemony is likely to cause alarm.  “Looking at realities on the ground and the position of different actors, Turkey would be naive to think that Turkey would be able to accomplish all these objectives,” suggest analyst Ulgen, “the limits of the (Turkish) operation will depend on the reaction on other actors who stake holders in the region.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday British evidence that the Russians may have been behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in England, but he stopped short of blaming Moscow “until we get the facts straight.”

“It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all the evidence they have,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.

Trump said he would speak Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May about the attack in southern England on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

“I don’t know if they’ve come to a conclusion, but she’s calling me today,” Trump added.

Britain gave Russia by the end of Tuesday to explain how the nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union was used to poison Skripal, a former Russian double agent who gave secrets to British intelligence officials. If Russia does not comply with the request, May said Britain would take “extensive” retaliatory action.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted Tuesday Moscow was “not to blame” and would only cooperate with a British investigation if it gets samples of the nerve agent that is believed to have been used. But Lavrov said requests for the samples had been rejected, which he said violates the Chemical Weapons Convention. The convention prohibits the production of chemical weapons.

Prime Minister May said it was “highly likely” Russia was behind the attacks. The Skripals remain hospitalized in critical condition in their home city of Salisbury in southern England.

Specialist bio- and chemical weapons teams have been working around the clock at the site of the March 4 attack.

On Monday, May told lawmakers the substance used to poison the Skripals belonged to a group of military-grade nerve agents known as “Novichock.”

“Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so,” May said. “Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations, and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations, the government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal,” she said.

 “Either this was a direct act by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent, and allowed it to get into the hands of others,” May said.

“Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.,” May said.

In a strongly worded statement released Monday by the State Department, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was fired by Trump on Tuesday, supported May’s assertion that Russia was behind the attack.

“There is never a justification for this type of attack — the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation — and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior,” Tillerson said. “From Ukraine to Syria — and now the U.K. — Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.”

The statement continued: “We agree that those responsible — both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it — must face appropriately serious consequences. We stand in solidarity with our Allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses.”

Expectations are growing for a tough response from May, said analyst Ian Bond, director of foreign affairs at the Center for European Reform.

“I think she’ll be under a lot of pressure to show that the U.K. takes this very seriously. And that’s partly because when she was home secretary, and indeed before that, the British reaction to the murder of (Russian defector) Alexander Litvinenko in London was seen as rather weak.”

Britain’s immediate response will likely be to expel some Russian embassy staff, said Bond.

“Getting rid of some identified intelligence officers in the Russian embassy. More importantly perhaps, we have a certain amount of financial leverage against those in [Russian President] Putin’s circle, who have property or other assets in the U.K.”

Other options being considered include boycotting the football World Cup in Russia this year and banning Kremlin state media, such as broadcaster Russia Today.

Investigators are still trying to track the places visited by Skripal and his daughter on the day of the attack. The policeman who was first on the scene is also critically ill.

Analysts say the confirmation that this was a chemical attack on British soil using a sophisticated nerve agent has increased expectations of a tough response.
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European Union finance ministers agreed new measures on Tuesday to force accountants and banks to report aggressive tax schemes that help companies shift profits to low-tax countries.

Ministers also added the Bahamas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Saint Kitts and Nevis to a blacklist of tax havens, while Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and Saint Lucia were delisted, confirming earlier Reuters reports.

Under the rules, proposed by the European Commission in June, accountants, banks and lawyers would be required to inform authorities about “potentially aggressive tax planning arrangements” set up for their clients. The 28 EU states will also share information on harmful tax planning in a bid to discourage the most aggressive tax avoidance schemes.

“It is a new progress for tax justice in the European Union,” EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici told ministers after they agreed the overhaul.

Once the new rules are finalized and approved by the European Parliament, tax advisers in the EU will risk fines if they do not report potentially harmful cross-border tax schemes.

Penalties should be “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” but EU states will maintain discretion in setting sanctions or fines at national level.

If there is no intermediary, or the tax adviser is located outside the EU, the company or individual using the arrangement will be obliged to disclose it.

EU governments agreed on a compromise text put forward by the Bulgarian presidency of the EU, which slightly softened the Commission’s original proposal. Tax reforms require unanimity among the 28 member states.

Cross-border tax arrangements set up with jurisdictions that have a zero or “almost zero” corporate rate – such as the Channel Islands, Bahamas, Bahrain and the Cayman Islands – must be reported, despite initial opposition from some governments.

But ministers scrapped a requirement to report tax schemes with jurisdictions whose corporate rate is lower than 35 percent of the statutory average within the EU – which could have forced reporting for schemes involving countries with a tax rate

of around 7 percent.

Some states had argued such a requirement “would cause an administrative burden disproportionate to the objectives” of the new rules, a working document prepared by Bulgarian officials showed.

Smaller EU members like Luxembourg and Malta have in the past opposed stricter rules to prevent tax avoidance, fearing they could harm competitiveness. But their finance ministers gave the green light to the Bulgarian compromise. Some members, including Britain, Ireland and Portugal, have already introduced penalties at a national level for intermediaries helping set up aggressive tax schemes.

EU governments also added Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda to a “grey list,” which now includes 62 jurisdictions that do not respect EU anti-tax avoidance standards but have committed to change their practices.

Bulgarian Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov told a news conference after the meeting that commitments made by grey list countries will be made public, a move welcomed by anti-corruption groups because it will increase transparency.

Ministers agreed to move Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and Saint Lucia from the black to the grey list, after they committed to change their tax practices.

American Samoa, Guam, Namibia, Palau, Samoa, and Trinidad and Tobago were already on the blacklist set up in December.

Blacklisted jurisdictions could face reputational damage and stricter controls on their financial transactions with the EU, although no sanctions have been agreed by EU states yet.

 
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is backing up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s assertion that Russia is behind the attack on a former Russian spy in England, saying it certainly “will trigger a response.”

“This is a really egregious act. It appears that it clearly came from Russia,” Tillerson said Monday en route to Cape Verde. 

Tillerson spoke with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson over the phone shortly after taking off from Nigeria. Tillerson wrapped up his five-nation trip to Africa on Monday.

May said it is clear that former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. She added that  the action amounted to a use of chemical weaponry on British territory.

Russia refuted May’s allegation, saying it is another political campaign based on provocation.  

“There is never a justification for this type of attack — the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation — and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior,” said Tillerson in a statement released by the State Department. “From Ukraine to Syria — and now the U.K. — Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.”

The statement continued: “We agree that those responsible — both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it — must face appropriately serious consequences. We stand in solidarity with our Allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses.”

Tillerson told a small group of reporters, “It’s almost beyond comprehension that a state, an organized state, would do something like that.”
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Eurozone creditors are expected to disburse new loans to Greece this month and are working on debt relief measures, the head of the bloc’s finance ministers said on Monday, steps that should help underpin its economic recovery.

Greece’s 86-billion-euro bailout program, its third since 2010, is due to end in August and international lenders are debating how to ensure the country makes its exit on a sustainable footing.

Among options under consideration in Brussels are support measures that could run into tens of billions of euros and help ease servicing costs on a public debt pile that, in terms of economic output, is among the biggest in the world.

Greece’s economy expanded by 1.6 percent last year after emerging from a long recession. The European Commission forecast growth of 2.5 percent this year and next, but that rate could slow if reforms stall after strict monitoring by the lenders ceases.

The eurozone bailout fund is expected to pay out a 5.7 billion euro loan later in March, Eurogroup head Mario Centeno told a news conference following the finance ministers’ monthly meeting, after Greece met commitments under the third review of its rescue program.

To successfully exit the program, a fourth review of 88 reform actions must be completed before August. This would allow Greece to access other loans.

“I am confident Greece will implement all remaining deliverables to conclude the program successfully,” Centeno said.

They include new privatizations and reform of the gas and electricity markets, which he said were preconditions to granting Greece new debt relief.

Debt relief

Technical talks are already ongoing on one of the possible measures that would grant Greece additional debt relief after it benefited from extensions of its debt maturities and other short-term aid in past years.

Centeno said that work was under way on linking future eurozone debt relief to the rate of Greek economic growth, with the objective of granting support if growth slowed.

Other more substantial measures will be discussed at the next meeting of finance ministers next month, Centeno said.

Among possible measures are the use of funds that will remain unused after the bailout program ends on August 20.

This could be as mush as 27 billion euros, and could be used to buy out Greek debt falling due in the next five years and replace it with cheaper and longer-term loans from the eurozone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Another option could involve the return of profits made by the European Central Bank on Greek bonds.

Both measures would come with conditions attached, mostly linked to the implementation of reforms already approved but that would take years to fully execute.

The debate on conditionality is still wide open. Greece could ask for a new credit line after its aid programme ends, but this is likely to be seen in the country as a new wave of austerity, triggering a political backlash.

Alternatives could entail enhanced supervision by EU institutions over Greek reforms after the bailout ends.

Without a financial safety net Greece could face market pressure that would increase debt servicing costs.

Greece is also building a cash buffer, which could reach 20 billion euros, to bolster a full return to debt markets and support sustainable growth.
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Hungary aims to coordinate more closely on refugee policy with Austria and Italy after elections there boosted anti-migrant parties, broadening an alliance of EU states focused on internal security.

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday that the approach to migration of the Vienna government and the center-right in Italy was very similar to the bloc’s central European member states.

“So it is obvious that we will work together in the future,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“This is not against the western part of Europe, this is against migration, and this is in favor of our interests because we put security first.”

A bitter row over migration policy sparked by the biggest influx of refugees into the European Union since World War II has undermined trust within the bloc and weakened its unity, with its eastern states refusing to sign up to a quota system favored by several richer members to the west and north.

In refusing to accept Muslim refugees, Hungary and its neighbours in the Visegrad group — the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia — have cited security concerns and the desire to preserve the traditional Christian make-up of their societies.

In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz formed a coalition with the Freedom Party following an election last year dominated by the issue of migration, making the country the only one in western Europe with a far-right grouping in government.

In Italy this month, the governing center-left Democratic Party lost out to anti-establishment and right-wing parties that campaigned hard against immigration in an election that delivered a hung parliament.

‘More efficient’ cooperation

Szijjarto said the Visegrad countries had no plans to enlarge that alliance, but this should not prevent closer ties with like-minded states.

“What we definitely would like to do is to have a closer and more efficient cooperation with Austria and of course hopefully with the upcoming Italian government,” he said.

Kurz said on Friday that Austria planned to use its presidency of the European Union this year to shift the bloc’s focus away from resettling refugees within the EU and towards preventing further waves of arrivals.

He also pledged closer cooperation with Hungary after meeting Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the end of January.

Orban has been one of the EU’s hardliners on migration and is campaigning on a fierce anti-immigration agenda ahead of Hungary’s own national election on April 8, when he will seek a third term in office.

Asked about a recent video in which Janos Lazar, the top aide to Orban, blamed immigrants for pushing out “white Christians” in a district of Vienna, Szijjarto said he did not think the comments were unfortunate. Facebook first removed the video then reversed its decision.

“It is an open issue in Austria that the number of Muslim kids to be enrolled in Vienna schools is approaching the number of the Austrian kids to be enrolled. That is an open debate …,” Szijjarto said.

The Social Democrats (SPO), who govern Vienna in coalition with the Greens, said Lazar’s comments were part of a “racist and xenophobic election strategy” by Orban’s Fidesz party ahead of elections.
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Thousands stood in silent respect in the southern Macedonian city of Bitola Sunday to remember the victims of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II.

Sunday was the 75th anniversary of the deportation of more than 7,100 Macedonian Jews to Nazi death camps in Poland.

“We will never forget the Holocaust. We will not allow for anti-Semitism, hate speech, intolerance, xenophobia or any other phenomena that represent the violation of human rights,” Talat Xhaferi, speaker of the Macedonian parliament, said.

Xhaferi said Macedonia will never allow history to be altered or denied. He pointed to Jewish property stolen by the Nazis and their cohorts were, by law, returned to their rightful owners.

He said the Holocaust memorial in downtown Skopje has a church on one side and a mosque on the other, a sign that all ethnic communities in Macedonia can live free and openly.

“We promote dialogue, tolerance and understanding for the settlement of global, regional and bilateral issues,” Xhaferi said.

German and Israeli visitors also joined Macedonians in a March for Life Sunday.

Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia when the Nazis and their allies occupied the region in 1941.

Backed by Soviet troops, they were driven out by Yugoslav partisans and Bulgarian forces who had been allied with the Germans before switching sides.

All but a handful of Macedonian Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis.
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British health officials said Sunday that traces of a nerve agent used in the suspected attempted murder of a Russian spy in Britain were found in a pub and restaurant he visited, but that the risk to public health remains low.

Health officials said those who visited the Mill pub and Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury, southwest England on March 4 and March 5 should take “simple” precautions, including washing their clothes.

“While there is no immediate health risk to anyone who may have been in either of these locations, it is possible, but unlikely, that any of the substance which has come into contact with clothing or belongings could still be present in minute amounts and therefore contaminate your skin. Over time, repeated skin contact with contaminated items may pose a small risk to health,” a statement released by Public Health England read.

Hospital officials in Salisbury said there is no evidence of a wider attack on the town, aside from three people who have been hospitalized since the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, both of whom are hospitalized in critical condition.

Police have not publicly talked about the nerve agent that poisoned Skripal or who might have been responsible. But suspicions are pointing to Russia.

British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said Britain is being “pushed around” by the Kremlin.

Prime Minister Theresa May has promised an “appropriate” response if it is discovered that Russia is responsible for poisoning Skripal, but has urged caution.

Russian officials deny the Kremlin had anything to do with the assassination attempt.

Skripal served in Russia’s military intelligence agency, GRU, and was exchanged in a spy swap in 2010 on the runway at Vienna’s airport.

After serving four years imprisoned in Russia for spying for Britain’s espionage service, MI6, Skripal was one of four Russian double agents exchanged for 10 Russians expelled from the United States.
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British Prime Minister Theresa May is under pressure to return millions of dollars given by Russian oligarchs and their lobbyists to her ruling Conservative party. One of the biggest donors is the wife of a former Russian deputy finance minister, once nicknamed “Putin’s banker.”

When May took office 18 months ago she promised that Britain’s Conservatives would “sup with a long spoon” and distance themselves from Russian donors, but electoral commission records analyzed by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper show Russian-linked donations have continued.

Contributions have also been given to the Conservatives by British lobbyists and PR firms working for Russian oligarchs and even the Kremlin. New Century Media, a PR agency contracted by the Russian government to manage a marketing campaign in Britain to present a “positive image” of Russia, has donated more than $200,000 to Britain’s ruling party.

Opposition lawmakers called Sunday for the Conservatives to return the donations, arguing they raise doubts about the government’s determination to retaliate for what the country’s intelligence agencies believe was a Kremlin-approved attempt on March 4 to kill on British soil Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who spied for the British, and his 33-year-old daughter.

British officials suspect the nerve agent used — likely either modified Sarin or VX — was developed near Moscow at the Yasenevo laboratory run by Russia’s intelligence service the FSB. Russian officials have dismissed the claims of FSB or Kremlin involvement in the assassination bid that has left father and daughter critically ill. They say the allegations are wild and hysterical, part of a Western campaign to demonize Russia.

The donations to the Conservatives “call into question how seriously Theresa May will be willing to challenge Russia’s conduct when her party is literally being bankrolled by some close allies of the Kremlin,” said Nia Griffith, the opposition Labour Party’s defense spokesperson.

In a statement, Britain’s Conservatives said, “All donations are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission.”

The most generous Russian donors to the Tories include Lubov Chernukhin, wife of former Putin finance minister, Vladimir Chernukhin, who has given more than $600,000 to the Conservatives since 2010. She bid successfully at a party fundraising auction to play tennis with former Prime Minister David Cameron and Britain’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson. Her bid was $200,000.

Conservative officials say that Chernukhin, now a British citizen, is not a “Putin crony”, arguing her husband fell out with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after being dismissed from his job running a state-owned bank.

On Monday, Britain’s National Security Council is due to meet to discuss the latest findings of the Skripal investigation and to consider what retaliatory measures to take against Russia.

Party insiders say Johnson and Defense Minister Gavin Williamson are expected to demand tough retaliation. Both privately have expressed frustration with Theresa May’s order to ministers not to rush judgment and to avoid pre-judging the investigation’s conclusions.

They will join Home Secretary Amber Rudd in calling for the introduction of a new law to target Russian officials. They want a British version of America’s so-called “Magnitsky Act,” a law passed by the U.S. Congress in 2012 that targets Russians deemed by Washington to be complicit in human rights abuses, including extra-judicial killings and torture. Specific sanctions would include visa bans and asset freezes.

Retaliation by Britain would almost certainly trigger a response by the Kremlin, say officials. When the U.S. Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, Russia banned American couples from adopting Russian children.

In an interview Saturday with VOA, Bill Browder, the American-born financier who was instrumental in persuading Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act, said he expected a major Russian-funded lobbying effort in Britain to try to persuade the British government not to retaliate. “You can bet that anyone who is making money off Russia is doing their best to keep things calm here in Britain and to stop a reaction,” he said.

Browder, who ran one of the most successful investment funds in Russia before his expulsion in 2005 when his business was expropriated, lobbied hard for U.S. sanctions to be introduced after his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was arrested and died in Russian custody.

He worries the British will be limp in response to the attempted assassination, pointing out the cautious May has opposed past retaliation against Russia because of the risk of disruption to British business.

Browder says he has no doubt the Russian government was behind the assassination attempt on Skripal, dismissing suggestions it may have been a rogue operation. “No one would have the guts to go rogue. These operations are approved and planned by the Kremlin,” he says.

Britain does have a way of deterring the Kremlin, he argues. “Britain has gigantic leverage. All the Russians, members of Putin’s regime, come to London. They buy expensive property, they open bank accounts here, they send their kids to private schools, and so the easiest thing to do is seize their properties and ban their travel and that of their family members. That will immediately cause them never to do this again.”

 
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A new Polish law banning almost all trade on Sundays has taken effect, with large supermarkets and most other retailers closed for the first time since liberal shopping laws were introduced in the 1990s after communism’s collapse.

The change is stirring up a range of emotions in a country where many feel workers are exploited under the liberal regulations of the past years and want workers to have a day of rest. But many Poles experience consumer freedom as one of the most tangible benefits of the free market era and resent the new limit.

In Hungary, another ex-communist country, a ban on Sunday trade imposed in 2015 was so unpopular that authorities repealed it the next year. But elsewhere in Europe, including Germany and Austria, people have long been accustomed to the day of commercial rest and appreciate the push it gives them to escape the compulsion to shop for quality time with family and friends.

The law was introduced by a leading trade union, Solidarity, which has argued that employees should have the chance to rest and spend time with their families. It found the support of the conservative and pro-Catholic ruling party, Law and Justice, whose lawmakers passed the legislation. The influential Catholic church, to which more than 90 percent of Poles belong, has also welcomed the change.

Among the Poles who see it as a good step toward returning a frazzled and overworked society to a more a more traditional lifestyle is 76-year-old Barbara Olszewska, who did some last-minute shopping Saturday evening in Warsaw.

She recalled growing up in the Polish countryside with a mother who was a full-time homemaker and a father who never worked on Sundays.

“A family should be together on Sundays,” Olszewska said after buying some food at a local Biedronka, a large discount supermarket chain.

Olszewska said that before she retired she sold cold cuts in a grocery store, and was grateful that she never had to work Sundays.

The new law at first bans trade two Sundays per month, but steps it up to three Sundays in 2019 and finally all Sundays in 2020, except for seven exceptions before the Easter and Christmas holidays.

Pro-business opposition parties view the change as an attack on commercial freedom and warn that it will lead to a loss of jobs, and in particular hurt students who only have time to work to fund their studies on the weekends.

Poles are among the hardest-working citizens in the European Union and some Poles complain that Sundays are sometimes the only days they have free time to shop. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, only the Greeks put in longer working hours than Poles in the 28-member European Union. According to OECD statistics, the average Polish employee worked 1,928 hours in 2016.

Another last-minute shopper on Saturday evening, Daniel Wycech, 26, saw more drawbacks than benefits.

“It’s not really a problem to do more shopping a day ahead of time, but if something breaks in my kitchen or bathroom on a Sunday, there will be no way to go to the store and fix it,” said Wycech, an accountant loaded down with bottled water, bananas and other groceries.

“I am angry because this law wasn’t prepared properly. It would have been much better to force store employers to make two Sundays per month free for each worker,” Wycech added.

There are some exceptions to the ban. For instance, gas stations, cafes, ice cream parlors, pharmacies and some other businesses are allowed to keep operating Sundays. Stores at airports and train stations will also be allowed to be open, as will small mom-and-pop shops, but only on the condition that only the owners themselves work.

Anyone infringing the new rules faces a fine of up to 100,000 zlotys ($29,500), while repeat offenders may face a prison sentence.

Mateusz Kica, a 29-year-old tram driver in Warsaw, did his weekly shopping early Saturday to avoid the huge crowds he expected later in the day. He complained that the new law only relieves shop employees, but that workers like himself will still have to keep working weekends.

“This law isn’t really just,” Kica said.
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French President Emmanuel Macron took a jibe Sunday at President Donald Trump for withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.

Macron did not name Trump while speaking at the first meeting of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi. But while hailing the “solar mamas,” a group of women trained as solar engineers, he said the women had continued their mission to promote solar energy even after “some countries decided just to leave the floor and leave the Paris agreement.”

Trump announced last June that the U.S. was withdrawing from the Paris accord, which aims to slow the rise in global temperature by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Heads and ministers of dozens of countries are participating in the daylong solar meeting, co-hosted by India and France.

The Alliance is a treaty-based international body for the promotion of efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. It was launched by India and France on the sidelines of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference.

“Today is a big change,” Macron told the meeting. “Our solar mamas, who we just listened to, didn’t wait for us. They started to act and to deliver concrete results. They didn’t wait and they didn’t stop because some countries decided just to leave the floor and leave the Paris agreement.”

“Because they decided it was good for them, for their children, their grandchildren. They decided to act and keep acting, and that’s why we are here, in order to act very concretely,” Macron said.

India and France called for affordable solar technology and concessional finance for promoting solar energy.

The meeting will discuss framing regulations and standards, credit mechanisms, crowd funding and sharing of technological breakthroughs to promote solar energy in 121 countries associated with the Alliance. The member countries are fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a unified effort for promoting solar energy and said the Alliance would help to achieve greater global energy security.

“Promoting its development and use can bring prosperity for all and can help reduce the carbon footprint on Earth,” Modi told the conference. “If we want the welfare of planet Earth and of the whole humanity, I am confident that we can come out of our personal confines and like a family, bring unity in our aims and efforts [to promote solar energy].”

 
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France’s far-right National Front party has definitively severed its ties to firebrand founder Jean-Marie Le Pen as it tries to revive its fortunes.

The party also re-elected his daughter, Marine Le Pen, to a new term as president at party congress where she was its only candidate for the post. A new 100-member governing council was also named.

The party tweeted Sunday that more than 79 percent of members who participated in a vote approved new party statutes that included abolishing Jean-Marie Le Pen’s position of party president for life.

The party expelled him in 2015 over anti-Semitic remarks but he kept the honorary position. Sunday’s vote is a crushing blow for the 89-year-old, who founded the party in 1972 and was runner-up in the 2002 French presidential election.

 
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