Month: May 2018

President Donald Trump’s decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal puts the United States on a collision course with some of its closest allies in Europe. Trump has directed maximum sanctions be applied to companies that continue doing business with Iran, causing alarm, especially in France and Germany, where companies like Airbus and Volkswagen have signed multimillion dollar contracts with Tehran. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Ukraine’s state security agency raided offices of two Russian state-owned media outlets in the Ukrainian capital Tuesday and leveled treason accusations against a journalist, a move that drew sharp criticism from the top trans-Atlantic security and rights group.

Ukraine’s domestic security agency, the SBU, said the raids of the Kyiv offices of the RIA Novosti news agency and RT television were part of its investigation into Russian media outlets being “used as tools in a hybrid war against Ukraine.”

The agency said the head of RIA Novosti’s Ukrainian office, Kirill Vyshinskiy, was detained for alleged treason, a crime that carries a prison term of up to 15 years upon conviction.

Relations between Moscow and Kyiv soured in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has long blamed Russian state media for fanning the flames of the war in the east, which so far has killed more than 10,000 people.

Moscow angrily protested Tuesday’s raids. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced the Ukrainian action as an “unacceptable” attack on freedom of speech and urged the West to condemn it “without any double standards.”

Harlem Desir, a media freedom representative at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a top security and rights group, expressed “serious concern” about the raids.

“The fight against propaganda must not fall short of international standards and should not represent disproportionate interference in media activities,” Desir said in a statement. “OSCE participating states have committed to facilitating the conditions under which journalists from one participating state exercise their profession in another participating state.”

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States shared concern about Russian propaganda, but noted that Ukraine must take care to ensure it abides by the law, including international human rights law.

The raids came several hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to southern Russia to attend the opening ceremony of a bridge linking Russia and the Crimean peninsula.
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European and Iranian foreign ministers are working to salvage the nuclear deal, after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the pact.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said European and Iranian officials held talks to address various challenges — from maintaining and deepening economic, transport and financial relations, to protecting European companies doing business with Iran in light of promised U.S. economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

WATCH: Iran sanctions

​Despite reported calls for a new or broader deal, Mogherini said the goal was to retain the 2015 agreement.

“If we want to save this deal — which is not an easy exercise — but if we want to save this deal, we know that the sooner we manage to do it, the better,” Mogherini said. “Again, it will not be easy. … But if I can use the metaphor, we all have a relative in intensive care, and we want to get him out of intensive care as soon as possible.”

Mogherini spoke after talks Tuesday between the foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany and their Iranian counterpart, Mohammed Javad Zarif.

Zarif said Tehran wants to make sure that the interests of the deal’s “remaining participants, particularly Iran, will be preserved and guaranteed.”

Trump said the agreement was insufficient in curbing Iran’s nuclear program and its role in Middle East conflicts, and in addressing what happens after the deal expires.

Mogherini, however, said the EU believes the nuclear deal should be considered separately from other areas of disagreement with Iran.

“We are, and we have always been, clear on this: There are more chances and more possibilities to open avenues of discussions on other issues, if the Iranian deal stays in place rather than not,” she said.

European leaders will be discussing the nuclear deal at a summit in Bulgaria that starts Wednesday.
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Russian lawmakers Tuesday unanimously approved, in first readings, legislation to retaliate against the United States and other Western countries for last month’s imposition by Washington of sanctions on some of Russia’s biggest companies and business people.

One measure would empower the Kremlin to impose sweeping “counter-sanctions” in response. Another would make it a criminal offense to observe sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Russia or to provide any information or advice on the punitive action.

Refusing to supply services or do business with Russian oligarchs or companies sanctioned by the U.S. would be punishable by up to four years in prison, under the proposed legislation. The proposed measures have prompted investor alarm and opened up the prospect of a tit-for-tat cycle of retaliation.

After the measures secured their first reading, Kremlin official Alexander Sinenko said the Russian government supports the parliamentary response to the sanctions aimed at punishing Moscow for its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other “malign activities.” U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the measures last month.

‘Absolutely unfriendly’

“The U.S. sanctions are of an absolutely unfriendly type,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma. “They affected over 400 Russian companies and about 200 citizens of our country. We are granting broad powers to our president and government to protect our country, our economy and workplaces.”

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev last month pledged that the Kremlin would help companies targeted by U.S. sanctions. The proposed legislation would halt all cooperation with the U.S. in the nuclear, missile and aircraft-building spheres and introduces restrictions on various American imports. The proposed measures also allow Russian companies to produce various goods copyrighted in the West.

Initially, Russian lawmakers said they would impose restrictions on a wide range of specific goods and services from the United States, including medicine and agricultural products; but, in the draft legislation approved Tuesday, language that targeted specific goods to soften the impact on Russian consumers and industries was removed.

Small impact expected

The U.S. is Russia’s fourth-largest trading partner, and imports of American goods totaled $12.7 billion last year. Cars, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment were among the top items. Russian exports to the U.S. totaled $17 billion in 2017.

The Russian retaliation would have negligible impact on the U.S., given trade flows are insignificant as far as America is concerned, but the retaliation envisaged would exacerbate already highly fraught U.S.-Russian relations, which analysts describe as being at their lowest point since the Cold War.

The U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia in April, targeting two dozen Kremlin insiders and oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, have proven to have had a greater impact on Russia than had been expected, say analysts. But they’re doing nothing at this stage in turning ordinary Russians against the Kremlin or undermining the Russian leader’s overall popularity, if recent polling data is accurate.

The ruble suffered its worst week in four years in the immediate wake of the April 6 announcement of new sanctions on 24 extremely wealthy Russians and 14 companies.

‘Game-changer’

When the West imposed its first sanctions on Russia, following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and fomenting separatism in eastern Ukraine, the effect was limited, according to analyst Nigel Gould-Davies of Britain’s Chatham House research group, and Russia found ways to adapt.

“But America’s latest financial sanctions, announced on April 6, are a game-changer,” he argued in a recent commentary, noting the latest sanctions have created bigger uncertainty.

“No one knows who might be targeted next,” he continued. “Russia faces a new systemic risk: expectations about U.S. sanctions are now as important as the oil price for assessing its prospects.”

The British government is starting the process of introducing legislation that will block Russian oligarchs and officials linked to human rights abuses from doing business in the country and buying property in Britain.

Russia-Crimea link

As Russian lawmakers debated the retaliatory measures, President Putin opened a controversial bridge linking southern Russia and the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Before driving an orange truck on the 19-kilometer bridge that cost $3.6 billion to build, Putin told construction workers (and reporters): “I want to sincerely congratulate you with this remarkable, festive and, in the full sense of the word, historic day.”

“Even under the Tsar, people were dreaming of building this bridge,” he said, in reference to Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II, who had wanted to span a bridge across the Kerch Strait. In the 1930s, Communist autocrat Joseph Stalin also had proposed a Kerch Strait bridge.

Ukraine condemned the opening. “The Russian occupying powers, which have temporarily occupied Crimea, are continuing to act outside international law,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.

 
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Dutch museums on Tuesday published two pages of Anne Frank’s diary that had previously been hidden behind a layer of sticky brown paper.

The Anne Frank House Museum said at a presentation that it, and several Dutch historical institutes, were able to reproduce the lost pages after years of study by shining a light through them and photographing them in high resolution.

The Jewish teenager apparently covered up the pages because she worried that other people in her hideout would read them, as they contain a series of dirty jokes and her thoughts on sex education, said Ronald Leopold, director of Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Frank and her family hid from the Nazis in a secret annex in a house in Amsterdam during World War II but were discovered in 1944.

She died aged 15 at Bergen-Belson concentration camp in 1945. Her diary was published two years later and has been read worldwide and translated into at least 60 languages.

 
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A Moscow court has ordered Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny to serve 30 days in prison for his role in organizing massive protests against President Vladimir Putin earlier this month.

Navalny and hundreds of his supporters were detained during the demonstrations in Moscow and dozens of other cities on the eve of Putin’s inauguration to another six-year presidential term. Navalny was released a day later after being charged with inciting an unauthorized rally.

Navalny, who also organized massive street protests to coincide with Putin’s 2012 re-election, was barred from the presidential ballot in March because of a conviction on financial crimes charges he contends were fabricated.

In the election, Putin won against seven challengers, garnering almost 77 percent of the vote. International observers criticized the poll, saying there had been no real choice in the election and complained of widespread allegations of ballot rigging. Russian election officials described the violations as “minor,” but said they were investigating.

Putin has been either president or prime minister since 1999.

Jamie Dettmer contributed to this story.
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Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are requesting “understanding and respect” for Markle’s father after a celebrity news site reported he would not be coming to the royal wedding to walk his daughter down the aisle, Kensington Palace said Monday night.

A palace statement on “this difficult situation” did not confirm the TMZ report that Thomas Markle had decided not to attend Saturday’s wedding at St. George’s Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle. The palace said earlier it would not comment on the report, and its statement did not clarify if the bride’s father would or would not be at the wedding.

“This is a deeply personal moment for Ms. Markle in the days before her wedding,” the palace statement said. “She and Prince Harry ask again for understanding and respect to be extended to Mr. Markle in this difficult situation.”

TMZ said Thomas Markle was upset over the way his decision to have staged paparazzi photos taken of him preparing for the wedding has been received and decided to miss the wedding to avoid embarrassing his daughter and the royal family.

The site also said he suffered a heart attack less than a week ago.

The palace had announced last week that Thomas Markle and his ex-wife, Doria Ragland, would play important roles in the wedding. Both were expected to meet Queen Elizabeth II and other senior royals in the days before the wedding.

Thomas Markle and Ragland are divorced. Thomas Markle was set to walk Meghan Markle down the aisle during the church ceremony, and Ragland is set to ride to the chapel with her daughter.

But Thomas Markle was apparently embarrassed when the British press reported that he agreed to have photos of him getting measured for his wedding suit and making other preparations.

According to TMZ, he told the website he deeply regrets allowing the pictures to be taken and acknowledged they looked “stupid.”

Meghan Markle’s half-sister, Samantha, tweeted Monday that she is to blame for the photo debacle.

“The bad press over my father doing staged photos is my fault,” she tweeted. “The media was unfairly making him look bad so I suggested he do positive photos for his benefit and the benefit of the royal family.”

Meghan Markle is estranged from her half-sister, who has not been expected to attend the nuptials.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have invited 600 guests to the wedding.
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The Turkish lira is increasingly under siege amid mounting international investors’ concerns. The publication Monday of unexpectedly poor economic data saw the lira approach record lows. The increasing financial turbulence comes as opposition parties begin to narrow the gap ahead of the June 24 presidential and general elections and voter concerns over the economy grow.

“We are in such a knife-edge situation,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “There is extremely fragile sentiment toward the lira. Sentiment is negative for emerging markets in general and in particular for Turkey. Investors smell blood and they are going to keep coming after the Turkish lira unless significant counter steps are taken.”

With double-digit inflation, investors have increasingly been warning the Turkish economy is overheating. In the last year, the government has spent billions of dollars to boost the economy in a process that has accelerated with elections. With opinion polls indicating a galvanized opposition narrowing the lead, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced 2,000 lira (approximately $460) payments to all pensioners, at a cost of $5 billion.

International investors are pressing for a substantial increase in Turkish interest rates to support the lira and help to cool down the economy; but Erdogan Friday appeared to rule out such a move, describing interest rates as the “mother of all evil.” He pledged that Turkey will “emerge victorious in its fight against interest rates” after the June elections. On Sunday, he repeated his message before flying to London for a three-day visit.

Erdogan adheres to the unorthodox economic view that interest rates cause inflation instead of reducing it. While the Turkish central bank is ostensibly independent, there is an awareness that the president has the final say.

“It’s always difficult for the central bank to substantially raise rates given very strong political opposition and very shortly, before the election, it will be very difficult,” said economist Inan Demir of Nomura International Plc.

“But the costs of a rate hike will be much lower than letting the currency depreciate. Unless this happens, the likelihood is the currency will depreciate further and possibly lead to a slowdown in the economy,” added Demir.

Economic concerns are cited as the No. 1 issue of concern in many opinion polls.

“People are hungry and angry,” analyst Yesilada said. But a major interest rate increase would bring financial woe to the large numbers of voters with big credit card debts. “It’s an issue no one is talking about, but we have an explosion in credit card debt in Turkey,” political columnist Semih Idiz of Al-Monitor website said.

Turkey’s indebted construction industry, the major driver of the economy, would also, analysts warn, be hit hard by interest rate increases.

“Construction is a magnet industry, in the sense that it draws input from various indigenous industries, and it’s labor intensive. When construction stops, recession spreads,” analyst Yesilada said. “Construction companies are usually loyal supporters and contributors of the ruling AKP, so to lose their favor just before an election is not a good idea.”

An increase in borrowing costs would likely hit demand for new housing. Construction companies are already struggling to sell existing stock, with reports many firms are close to defaulting on bank loans. Analysts say construction company debts account for more than 10 percent of Turkish bank loans.

Erdogan’s opposition to interest rate increases could be tested further. On Wednesday, a New York court is set to sentence Hakan Atilla, a senior executive of Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank, on Iranian sanctions violation charges. Atilla’s sentencing opens the door to potential multibillion dollar fines on Halkbank and other Turkish banks, a prospect that analysts warn could further unnerve investor concerns over Turkey, leading to further currency falls and more pressure to increase rates.

Investors are also increasingly focusing on the outcome of the June election and the potential for political deadlock if opposition parties form the next government and Erdogan is re-elected. 

“The scenario markets would dislike most is a divided presidential parliamentary power scenario. That would create more uncertainties for the markets. I think the markets will watch the opinion polls with an eye on that possibility,” economist Demir said.

Turkey’s central bank is due to meet next month, and there is the expectation it may raise rates modestly. Analysts say that with Erdogan aware of the tightening polls, he will likely seek to perform a delicate balancing act in averting a currency collapse without a major rate increase before the elections.
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Eurasian Economic Union includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan
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Paris is a city on edge once again as France’s capital mourned another victim of fanaticism.

The Chechen-born French citizen who lashed at people with a knife, killing one and wounding four, had been on a terror watch list, but his ability to be able to launch an attack Saturday underlines the scale of the challenge France faces from Islamic militants, French officials say.

More than 2,600 suspected militants are on a watch list but tabs can’t be kept on all of them. “While the security services are excellent at identifying potential jihadists, the terrible lack of human resources means that they can monitor only a tiny tiny fraction of the suspects,” said counterterror analyst Olivier Guitta, who runs GlobalStrat, a London-based risk consultancy.

“The Islamic State attack in Paris’ Opera area is the 12th successful terrorist attack since 2013. It is the second successful one this year. France remains a priority target of the jihadists in Europe,” he added.

The last serious terror attack in France was in March, when a self-proclaimed militant killed a French policeman who’d exchanged himself for a female hostage during a siege in southwest France. The string of attacks since 2013 has left 245 people dead. Saturday’s mayhem was similar in method to a knife attack carried out last year in Marseille, said Loic Travers, a police union official.

Lacking manpower

French intelligence officials say they don’t have the manpower to keep even the 2,600 top-tier militant risks under around-the-clock surveillance. Aside from that watch list, they are also trying to monitor a further 5,000 suspects who have prompted anxiety but are considered less of an immediate danger – they are radicalized but have not as yet shown signs of thinking about violence.

The French aren’t alone in trying to match resources and manpower with threats. Other European intelligence agencies, especially in neighboring Belgium, are also overstretched. After each attack, security chiefs ask themselves what more they can do to prevent terrorism, especially the rudimentary kind of knife-wielding attack that was mounted in the French capital Saturday.

French lawmakers are sympathetic about the complaints from the country’s security services about the lack of resources and how difficult it is to track all of even the most dangerous militants.

Nathalie Goulet, a member of the French Senate foreign and defense committee, has said in the past, “You cannot put a policeman behind each of them. Especially since being reported to be in the process of radicalization does not make you a criminal.”

But Goulet and other lawmakers have expressed worries about the temporary nature of the surveillance and how quickly suspected militants can be dropped off the high-risk list.

She argues the French security services should maintain “a permanent file of people who had a link with terrorist organizations” much as the police do when it comes to sex offenders who are stuck permanently on file.

Information on assailant

Saturday’s suspect, who was shot by French police, wasn’t carrying any identification papers and hasn’t yet been publicly named by authorities, but French media are giving his name as Khamzat Asimov.

French officials say the man had no criminal record, was Chechen born and was naturalized as a French citizen in 2010. They say a friend of the suspect had been detained for questioning in the eastern city of Strasbourg recently.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the assault, but it remains unclear whether the assailant was inspired by the terror group or had actual operational links with IS. French intelligence services are now scrambling to establish what ties the man may have had with the group, if any.

It would be the first time an assailant of Chechen origin has carried out a terrorist attack in France, which hosts about 30,000 Chechens. Analysts have highlighted recently Chechen militants as a subgroup that bears watching.

Last year Belgian analyst Pieter Van Ostaeyen said that in his database of Belgian militants who’d gone to fight in Syria, 12 were of Chechen origin, with another 10 of Russia descent.

“It may be small, this ‘Eastern contingent,’ but it is likely underestimated, too,” Van Ostaeyen warned.

IS has actively recruited fighters in Chechnya, sending hundreds to conflicts in Syria and elsewhere. Some of the top IS commanders in Syria and and Iraq were veterans of conflict in Chechnya.

“Most of the ‘Eastern contingent’s’ networks seem to operate in a very covert manner,” Van Ostaeyen noted in a study for the Bellingcat news site. “They do not expose themselves with propaganda … and even its individual members rarely show themselves off on social media.”

 
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An Islamic State video shows what it says is the young Chechen-born man accused of Saturday’s deadly terrorist knife attack in downtown Paris.

French police have identified the suspect as Khamzat Azimov, who was a French citizen. He killed one person and wounded four before a police officer shot him dead.

An Islamic State outlet released the video showing a man it says is Azimov, wearing a hood with only his eyes exposed. He is speaking French and pledging allegiance to Islamic State.

IS had already claimed responsibility for the knifings, saying one of its “soldiers” carried them out to avenge France’s participation in the international coalition in Iraq and Syria.

French authorities have taken Azimov’s parents and a close friend into custody for questioning. Azimov was on the government’s watch list of suspected terrorists, but had no criminal record.

Azimov was said to have been born in Chechnya, a Muslim-majority Russian republic, in 1997. He emigrated to France as a teenager, and grew up in Strasbourg.

Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov said the Russian republic bears no responsibility for Azimov becoming a killer.

“He was only born in Chechnya and his growing up, the formation of his personality, his views and persuasions occurred in French society,” Kadyrov said.

Azimov carried out Saturday’s attack in a district of Paris known for its fine restaurants and the famed Opera Garnier.

Witnesses say he yelled out “Allahu Akbar,” meaning “God is great” in Arabic, and began stabbing people. Bystanders scrambled into restaurants and under tables for safety.

When Azimov rushed at police, an officer opened fire, killing him — but not before one person was stabbed to death and four others — including a Chinese tourist — were wounded. Doctors say the four survivors are out of danger.

French police are treating this as a terrorist investigation. President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that France “will not yield an inch to the enemies of freedom.”

On Sunday, the White House condemned the attacks, offering thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families, in a statement. “We stand in solidarity with the French people and their government against this vicious act of terrorism, and pledge any assistance needed,” the statement said.

France is no stranger to deadly terrorist attacks claimed by Islamic State. They include the 2015 Charlie Hebdo killings, the murder spree later that year that started in a Paris concert hall, and the 2016 Nice truck attack. 
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In the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Russia unleashed a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at keeping Iran and other remaining signatories committed to the agreement.

But behind Russia’s diplomatic maneuvering, analysts see the Kremlin chasing rewards from transatlantic divisions over the Iran issue while facing risks of deeper entanglement in Middle East affairs.  

“Without doubt we will make sure firstly that this does not destroy the JCPOA,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, referring to the Iran nuclear deal’s formal abbreviation following a meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Moscow last week.   

“This is our common objective,” assured Lavrov. “We confirmed this.”

Lavrov deployed a top envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, to Tehran in a move aimed at shoring up continued Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal.  

“From the Russian point of view, particular importance will be given to preserving the JCPOA without damaging concrete projects and concrete areas of cooperation that are building between all members of the deal,” said Ryabkov in comments following the meeting.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will come to Moscow on Monday for further talks.  

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also expected to join Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi later in the week for additional discussions where Iran is expected to be high on the agenda.

A reliable partner in … Moscow?  

Yet in aligning itself with Europe firmly behind preserving the Iran deal, Russian analysts argue Moscow sees unexpected diplomatic openings beyond the nuclear issue.

“This is in some respects a win for Russia,” said Alexey Malashenko, a longtime Middle East watcher and head of the Institute of Dialogue and Civilization in Moscow.  “Russia may not have any influence over the U.S. and its decision to leave the Iran deal, but it now has a united position with Europe and the European Union.”

Malashenko notes that Trump’s decision to ignore pleas by traditional allies such as France and Germany to remain in the Iran deal accomplished something Putin has long sought but could not achieve until now: a transatlantic rift.

“Trump listened to Macron and Merkel and showed that he doesn’t care. The Europeans are really offended this time,” said Malashenko.

Writing in the online magazine Republic, foreign policy analyst Vladimir Frolov argued that continued failure to bridge those differences offered Moscow the prospect of something much greater than merely isolating Washington — namely, a tentative path to future sanctions relief.

“If the politics of sanctions fall apart at the seams with the West relative to Iran,” writes Frolov, “then why can’t they differ over Russia, when it’s in solidarity with Europe over keeping the JCPOA?”

Sanctions shrug

Never an enthusiastic backer of sanctions on Iran, Russia nevertheless embraced its role as one of the six signatories to the denuclearization swap for sanctions relief deal brokered with Iran by the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, and China back in 2015.

As Europe now debates its response to threats from Washington that the EU cut off future investments in Tehran or face renewed penalties, Moscow seems determined to show Europe that U.S. sanctions are something to be weathered, says Karine Gevorgyan, an Iran specialist based in Moscow.

Gevorgyan points out that major Russian companies are already under U.S. sanctions over the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine, alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, and — just last week — what Washington says is Moscow’s support of Syria and other rogue regimes.

“They were already sanctioning Russian military exports. It won’t have an impact,” she says.

A statement by the Foreign Ministry similarly chided the White House for “trivial desire to get even with Russia” and warned that attempts to punish Russia economically would continue to fail.

Whether quasi-state Russian businesses with interests in Iran’s oil, gas, tourism, and railway sectors are ready to risk U.S. penalties or pull up stakes remains an open question.

Israeli factor

Meanwhile, a more immediate pitfall is the escalating proxy war between Iran and Israel in neighboring Syria, where Russia is engaged in an ongoing military alliance with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey, and Iran.

Russia has relished its role in the Syrian conflict as a sign of the Kremlin’s growing role as a player in Middle East politics.  Yet the Russian military intervention has also presented challenges to relations with Israel — one of the most vocal opponents of the Iran nuclear deal.

Last week, Israel carried out airstrikes against dozens of Iranian military targets in neighboring Syria, accusing Iran of launching its own missile attack from the area.  

Moscow — which values close ties with Israel and yet needs continued Iranian military support in Syria — has called for “restraint from all parties” while faced with the prospect of a wider Middle East conflict.

Yet analyst Alexei Malashenko questions whether Moscow can successfully play the role of mediator given Russia’s traditional approach of “always sitting on two stools.”

In a sign of the diplomatic whiplash that the policy entails, the Kremlin raised eyebrows when a presidential aide indicated  Moscow would stall a promise to deliver Russia’s vaunted S-300 surface to air-missile systems to Syria — Iran’s ally — following attendance by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at World World II Victory Day celebrations on Red Square May 9th.  

President Putin’s primary spokesman later insisted the decisions were unrelated but the challenges ahead were obvious.

 
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France’s interior minister met with security officials Sunday as investigators probe the background and motivations of a young (20 or 21-year-old) man who attacked people on the streets of Paris Saturday night, killing one of them. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for this latest attack in the French capital.

French officials praised the fast reaction of police here, who arrived at the scene within minutes after the first call for help, and reportedly quickly shot dead the suspected assailant, after first trying to neutralize him with a Taser.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters the suspect cried “Allahu Akbar” as he attacked people with a knife. He said investigators were probing the incident for suspected terrorist motivations.

Officials say the suspect killed one person and wounded four others. His parents were detained for questioning. Reports say the suspect was born in Chechnya in 1997 but later gained French nationality.

Shaky phone footage from France’s BFMTV shows people fleeing in the streets of the 2nd arrondissement of downtown Paris, a busy and popular neighborhood with bars and restaurants — very similar to the spots where terrorists struck in deadly November 2015 attacks.

One witness, Jonathan, described the events to French radio — of a man walking down the street, knife in hand, attacking people. He was searching for victims, Jonathan said.

The attack is the latest in a string of deadly strikes in France that have killed more than 230 people over the last three years. Earlier this year, a 25-year-old French Moroccan killed four people in southern France in a shooting spree. He claimed allegiance to Islamic State.

 
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Rescuers searching for three Polish miners trapped almost a kilometer underground since a tunnel collapsed eight days ago have found two bodies, taking the death toll from the incident to four, coal company JSW said Sunday. 

One man is still missing at the Zofiowka mine in southern Poland, which was struck by an earthquake May 5, initially trapping seven miners. Two were found dead and two others were rescued early last week.

“Rescuers have found the body of the second miner. … The action continues, one miner is still being sought,” JSW, the European Union’s biggest coking coal producer, said in a statement.

The bodies were found as rescuers were pumping out water from the flooded mine. 

Around 1,000 people have been involved in the rescue action, JSW said, adding it was one of the most difficult in the company’s history.

About 250 people were working underground at the time of the quake. The missing miners were in a team drilling a new tunnel.

The 3.5-4.0 magnitude quake was the strongest recorded in the mine, officials there said. Around 83,000 people work in Poland’s coal mining sector. Fifteen people died in mining-related accidents in 2017, and eight have died so far this year.
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