Новини

Politicians and public figures suspected of buying property with corrupt money will be forced to explain their wealth, or face the seizure of their assets under new legislation that has come into force in Britain this month. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the so-called Unexplained Wealth Orders have been welcomed by activists, who say the British capital is at the center of a global web of corrupt and embezzled money.
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When two people see things the same way, it is often said that they are “operating on the same wavelength.” That concept recently got a scientific stamp of approval when researchers at the University of Cambridge found that adults’ and infants’ brainwaves synchronize when they look at each other’s eyes while singing a nursery rhyme. VOA’s George Putic has more.
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Turkey and Russia’s presidents have reportedly agreed to meet with their Iranian counterpart in Istanbul in the near future.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke Thursday amid growing tensions between the countries over Syria.The two also agreed to increase coordination between their forces in Syria.

The telephone conversation follows a tumultuous few days in Syria.

Saturday, a Russian made missile was blamed by Ankara for the destruction of a Turkish tank and the killing of eight Turkish soldiers in the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

The deaths were the worst loss for Turkey since it launched an offensive against the YPG Kurdish militia in Syria nearly three weeks ago.

Also Saturday, a Russian jet was downed by Syrian rebels in Idlib.The rebel group blamed by Russia has close ties to Turkey, and Russian media alluded to Turkish involvement, a charge denied by Ankara.

Erdogan reportedly offered his condolences to Putin for the loss of the Russian pilot. Turkey used its connections with the Syrian rebels to help repatriate the pilot’s body.

The incident likely serves as a painful reminder to Putin of the 2015 shooting down by a Turkish jet of a Russian bomber operating from a Syrian airbase. Then, Putin all but severed relations with Ankara and imposed painful sanctions. Now, Moscow appears publicly ready to accept Ankara’s denials of responsibility.

Russia ‘unhappy’

But since Monday, Russia has prevented Turkish warplanes supporting ground forces fighting in Afrin from entering Syria airspace.

“Russia is unhappy and concerned,” noted International Relations Professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University, “Russia and Turkey have developed certain relations, but Turkey is much more dependent on Russia. Turkey can’t operate in Syrian airspace without Russia.”

The scale of the Turkish operation and Ankara’s objectives in Syria are also reportedly adding to Moscow’s concern.

Addressing supporters Thursday, Erdogan further stoked concerns over the Afrin operation.

“Those who thought we’ve forgotten all about these lands [Syria] after withdrawing in tears a century ago better realize now they are wrong about Turkey,” he said.

Erdogan also lashed out at foreign powers, including Moscow, for attempting to keep Turkey out of Syria.

Observers suggest Moscow is also uneasy about Turkish reliance on elements of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the Afrin operation.

Political columnist Semih Idiz, of Al Monitor website argued that Moscow’s concern “is more about the FSA” and some of its elements that are fighting with Turkey.

“They are made up of groups that Russia is bombing,” he added. “That is a potential weak spot in the [Russian-Turkish] relationship. Sooner or later this will surface.”

Ankara and Moscow remain at loggerheads about which Syrian groups can be considered terrorists.

Moscow has tempered its criticism of Ankara. “Both Moscow and Ankara try to maintain the cooperation and are not interested in any kind of frictions which can provoke a break,” noted Zaur Gasimov, an Istanbul-based specialist on Russian-Turkish relations at the Max Weber Foundation.

In its attempts with Tehran to negotiate a solution to the Syrian civil war, Moscow considers Ankara’s strong ties with some Syrian rebel groups important. But experts note key Syrian opposition groups, many with links to Ankara, boycotted the Russian-hosted Sochi meeting in January, likely adding to Moscow’s unease.

Severing alliances

Russia’s deepening relationship with Turkey in the past year potentially offers a bigger prize: the strategic goal of drawing Ankara away from the United States and NATO.

“Turkey and Russia have finally found each other after 300 years separation due to Western-incited wars,” Erdogan’s chief aide, Yigit Bulut, declared on a TV show this week.”Turkey no longer needs the West when Russia and China are taking Turkey’s side.”

A Western diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity said there are deep concerns Erdogan wants to re-orientate Turkey towards Moscow.

Putin is well aware Turkish-US relations are at crisis point over Washington’s support of the YPG in its fight against Islamic State. Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to extend the Syrian offensive to the town of Manbij, where U.S. forces are deployed with the YPG.

Gasimov said Moscow “is about to elaborate a new strategy for Syria.” But for now, he said it is intensively observing the dynamics in the region and in Syria, particularly American-Turkish relations “with regard to the movements of the Turkish troops in Afrin and the plans related to Manbij.”
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Russia has warned Islamic State is turning northern Afghanistan into a “resting base” of international terrorism and a “bridgehead” for establishing its “destructive” caliphate in the region.

The “international wing of Daesh” is spearheading the effort of terrorists spilling over the borders of Syria and Iraq and moving worldwide, asserted Russian ambassador to Pakistan, Alexey Dedov.

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for IS.

“With clear connivance, and sometimes even with direct support of certain local and outside sponsors, thousands of militants of various nationalities are consolidating under the banners of Daesh there (in northern Afghanistan), including jihadis from Syria and Iraq,” Dedov told a seminar in Islamabad.

He did not elaborate but Russia and Iran accuse the United States of supporting Islamic State’s rise in Afghanistan.

Iran’s top military commander earlier this week also alleged that the U.S. is transferring IS militants to Afghanistan to fuel regional instability and justify its presence in the region.

Washington vehemently rejects the charges as “rumors” and says its sustained operations in partnership with Afghan forces against IS bases in the country have significantly degraded and reduced the terrorists.

The U.S. military maintains its recent airstrikes in northern Afghan regions are targeting Taliban training camps and those of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a terrorist organization operating near the border with China and Tajikistan.

“The U.S. strikes support Afghanistan in reassuring its neighbors that it is not a safe sanctuary for terrorists who want to carry out cross border operations,” the military said Thursday.

Russia has lately also increased contacts with Taliban insurgents in a bid to contain spread of IS, particularly to Afghan provinces, which border Central Asian states.

Kabul and Washington denounce Moscow for its overt ties with the Taliban, saying they are detrimental to U.S.-led international efforts to fight terrorism and extremism in Afghanistan.

Russia defends its ties with insurgents, saying they are meant only to promote a peaceful resolution of the conflict, and rejects allegations of arming the Taliban.

Ambassador Dedov said his country seeks increased security cooperation with Afghan and Pakistani authorities to suppress the “proliferation” of IS-led terrorism before it threatens the security of Moscow-allied Central Asian states.

He noted the recent sale of Mi-35M combat helicopters to Pakistan and other military deals are part of Russia’s efforts to boost regional efforts against terrorism. The two countries, added the Russian diplomat, conducted joint anti-terrorism military and naval drills in 2016 and 2017, and the process will continue this year.

“This (cooperation) is being developed dynamically and we are very satisfied with these dynamics,” Dedov said.

Pakistan

Islamabad has come under increased U.S. pressure over alleged Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan that Washington says have enabled insurgents to prolong and expand the Afghan conflict.

President Donald Trump has recently suspended military aid to Pakistan until it takes “decisive action” against the militants. The move has dealt a major blow to Islamabad’s already fragile relationship with Washington and tensions continue to escalate with the rise in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials deny they harbor or support insurgents, insisting the country is being scapegoated for U.S. military “failures” in the neighboring country.

Speaking at the seminar, Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman, General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, took a swipe at Trump’s punitive actions against his country and boasted at the same time expanding military and economic ties with Russia and China.

These two relationships, however, “are not at the expense of, or in opposition to a third party,” the general explained without naming the U.S. Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally of the U.S, though calls are growing in American political circles for degrading the status.

“While some powers weaken diplomatic and military support to Islamabad, Beijing and Moscow continue to support Pakistan in the diplomatic sphere…Pakistan appreciates Russian and Chinese diplomatic efforts to defend Pakistan’s legitimate security and sovereignty concerns,” Hayat said.

The top Pakistani general praised as “a significant development” Russia’s “stabilizing” role in Afghanistan and its push for warring sides to find a negotiated settlement.

“We welcome Russia’s influence in Afghanistan to weaken Daesh foothold. Pakistan also supports Russian outreach to various segments of the afghan society for wider benefits of peace and stability,” Hayat said.

The general went on to criticize increased U.S. military actions in Afghanistan in a bid to break the stalemate with the Taliban. He emphasized the need for starting an intra-Afghan reconciliation process, involving the Taliban, to end the violence.

“Unfortunately, preference for the kinetic approach over political settlement has further compounded the already existing complexity in Afghanistan,” warned Hayat.

The general was apparently referring to President Donald Trump’s recent remarks in which he ruled out peace talks with the Taliban and instead vowed to escalate military pressure on the insurgents to “finish” them.

China, Pakistan’s biggest regional ally, has recently initiated a trilateral ministerial level dialogue involving Islamabad and Kabul to ease tensions in their bilateral ties and promote Afghan peace.

“China’s increasing active role to bring peace in Afghanistan has our full support. The trilateral mechanism between China, Afghanistan and Pakistan has positive prospects for success,” said General Hayat.

Beijing is investing billions of dollars in Pakistan to help build a massive economic corridor linking the two countries as part of China’s global Belt and Road Initiative.
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The top surviving suspect of the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, stayed mostly silent during a much awaited trial appearance Monday in Brussels. The trial is for a case involving a shootout with Belgian police.

Salah Abdeslam quickly shattered any hopes he might finally talk about his role in the 2015 Paris attacks, the deadliest in recent French history. Bearded, long-haired and clad in a white polo, Abdeslam arrived under tight security at the main courthouse in Brussels. 

He first refused to stand or answer questions but then claimed Muslims were unfairly judged and said he would only respond to Allah.

If found guilty, Abdeslam and fellow defendant, Tunisian Soufiane Ayari, face up to 40 years in prison for attempted murder in a shootout with Belgian police. The incident took place in March 2016, four months after the Paris attacks that killed 130 people, and just before Abdeslam was arrested in the Brussels Molenbeek district where he grew up.

Days later came the attacks in the Belgian capital and airport that killed more than 30 people. 

Belgian criminologist Michael Dantinne described Abdeslam as a potential mine of information about the Paris and Brussels attacks. 

Speaking to French radio, Dantinne described Abdeslam’s short remarks as propaganda aimed to provoke and to shore up other radicals.

The head of a Paris attacks survivors’ group, Philippe Duperron, said he was not surprised by Abdeslam’s silence. 

Duperron, who lost his son Thomas in the 2015 attacks, described a strong emotional charge when Abdeslam walked into the room. He said seeing him for the first time was very difficult. 

Security was heavy for the trial’s opening, and both Abdeslam and Ayari declined to be photographed or captured on video. For the rest of this week’s hearings, Abdeslam will be commuting from a high-security prison in northern France, and face the same 24-hour video surveillance as in his maximum security cell at the Fleury Merogis prison near Paris.
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The International Rescue Committee on Wednesday announced the creation of Project Core, a $1 million job training program for refugees in Germany.

The IRC said it would collaborate with computer giant Intel to equip at least 1,000 migrants with “critical skills in information and communications technology and other in-demand sectors of the German economy.”

“It is exciting and encouraging to see that opportunities are being extended to refugees living in the country,” IRC President David Miliband said. 

He thanked Intel for its cooperation and commitment. “The work we will do together epitomizes the power of partnerships to develop the right solutions and create meaningful impact,” he said.

The IRC said more than 1.5 million refugees had arrived in Germany since 2015, seeking asylum from war, terrorism and poverty, and having little hope their lives would have improved if they stayed home.

The IRC said it has worked with the German government and civil organizations, sharing its expertise in educating refugee children and others in ways they can contribute to their new communities.
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Russian presidential hopeful Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian TV celebrity and socialite, has told VOA that the rumors are true: If her father’s old political mentor, President Vladimir Putin, were guaranteed a personally safe exit from public life, he would willingly retire from politics.

“Yes, I think [he really would retire],” she said. “It’s just hard to convince him that there’s an exit and that he can trust those people who guarantee that, and that nothing like what happened to [former Chilean dictator Augusto] Pinochet or [former Libyan dictator Moammar] Gadhafi would happen to him. He’s really afraid of that.”

Sobchak, 36, whose candidacy has been questioned by opposition activists and political observers who suspect her campaign is a Kremlin ploy to boost turnout and help Putin’s bid for another six-year term, was not the first to make this claim. Alexei Navalny, who has built a national following by railing against endemic corruption, made a similar observation several months ago.

After being barred from seeking office because of what supporters have long called politically motivated criminal charges, Navalny made the claim independent of any direct ties to Putin’s inner circle. Sobchak, however, is the first person to base the observation on personal insights into Putin’s private life.

Strategic transition

Asked whether his safety could be guaranteed without his wealthy and powerful allies remaining in power, she said his departure would require a politically strategic transition.

“The question here is about a change of the entire system, so that those people would not stay in power either,” Sobchak said. “We’re talking about politics and [a long-term] strategy, so in six years [Putin] wouldn’t think about new changes to the constitution and again take part in elections.

The objective would be “to slowly change the situation and minimize the aggression level, have new people, new talent and have a new compromise political figure that would be satisfying for the opposition, but also acceptable for Putin,” she said.

Attending several high-profile events in Washington this week, Sobchak countered skeptics, saying that her political ambitions were genuine and that they would continue well beyond the March 18 polls.

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday, Sobchak indicated that, among other things, she planned to meet with administration officials about U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Russia in recent years.

Washington first hit Moscow with asset freezes and travel bans in 2014, following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and the outbreak of fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Later measures were imposed in response to U.S. intelligence findings that Russia engaged in a campaign of hacking and propaganda to try to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Those sanctions have continued into Donald Trump’s presidency, despite his calls for better relations with Moscow.

Division on sanctions

A law passed by Congress last summer called for new punitive measures against Russia, but last week, the State and Treasury departments declined to impose new sanctions.

Putin is widely expected to win a new six-year term in next month’s election.

Sobchak, who is one of the other candidates who will appear on the ballot, is best known for her celebrity persona and TV appearances. Her father was Anatoly Sobchak, the late mayor of St. Petersburg who brought Putin, then an unknown KGB officer, to work in the city government.

This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel finally reached a deal Wednesday to form a new German coalition government, handing the powerful finance ministry to the country’s main center-left party in an agreement aimed at ending months of political gridlock.

The center-left Social Democrats’ leaders now have one last major hurdle to overcome – winning their skeptical members’ approval of the deal.

Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, its Bavaria-only sister, the Christian Social Union, and the center-left Social Democrats agreed after a grueling final 24 hours of negotiations on a 177-page deal that promises “a new awakening for Europe.”

“I know that millions of citizens have been watching us closely on this long road over recent weeks,” Merkel said. “They had two justified demands of us: First, finally form a government – a stable government – and second, think … of people’s real needs and interests.”

The coalition deal could be “the foundation of a good and stable government, which our country needs and many in the world expect of us,” she added.

Germany has already broken its post-World War II record for the longest time between its last election on Sept. 24 to the swearing-in of a new government. That is still at least several weeks away.

Merkel currently leads a caretaker government, which isn’t in a position to launch major initiatives or play any significant role in the debate on the European Union’s future, led so far by French President Emmanuel Macron.

A key role in the EU is particularly dear to Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz, a former European Parliament president.

On Wednesday he declared that, with the coalition deal, Germany “will return to an active and leading role in the European Union.” The agreement states, among other things, that Germany is prepared to pay more into the EU budget.

To help that process, Schulz announced later he would hand over his party’s leadership to Andrea Nahles, the head of its parliamentary group, and take on the role of Germany’s foreign minister. Nahles will still have to be confirmed by the party.

Yet before addressing Europe’s future, Schulz faces hard work at home.

The coalition accord will be put to a ballot of the Social Democrats’ more than 460,000 members, a process that will take a few weeks. Germany’s highest court said Wednesday it had dismissed a series of complaints against the ballot.

Many Social Democrats are skeptical after the party’s disastrous election result, which followed four years of serving as the junior partner to Merkel’s conservatives in a so-called “grand coalition.” The party’s youth wing vehemently opposes a repeat of that alliance.

If Social Democrat members say no, the new coalition government can’t be formed. That would leave only an unprecedented minority government under Merkel or a new election as options.

Schulz had previously ruled out taking a Cabinet position under Merkel, and his decision to become foreign minister may complicate his efforts to sell the coalition deal to party members.

“We are optimistic that we can convince a wide majority of our members to enter this coalition,” he said, speaking with Nahles at his side.

Schulz’s zigzag course has undermined his authority. He vowed to take the party into opposition on election night, but reversed course in November after Merkel’s efforts to build a coalition with two smaller parties collapsed.

On the conservative side, Merkel needs only the approval of a party congress of her CDU, a far lower hurdle.

“I am counting on convincing our members that we have negotiated a very good coalition agreement,” Schulz said.

His party reached compromises on two key demands: curbing the use of temporary work contracts in larger companies and at least considering narrowing differences between Germany’s public and private health insurance systems.

In addition to the Foreign Ministry, the Social Democrats are set to get the Labor and Finance Ministries – the latter a major prize, held by Merkel’s CDU for the past eight years and an influential position given Germany’s status as the eurozone’s biggest economy. Unconfirmed reports in the German media say the new finance minister and vice chancellor would be Olaf Scholz, Hamburg’s center-left mayor.

The Interior Ministry, also held by the CDU, would go to Bavaria’s CSU, which has pushed hard to curb the number of migrants entering Germany.

Merkel’s party would keep the Defense Ministry and get the Economy and Energy Ministry, held by the Social Democrats in the outgoing government. One CDU lawmaker, Olav Gutting, wrote on Twitter: “Phew! At least we still have the chancellery!”

Merkel defended the carve-up of ministries.

“Of course, after many years in which Wolfgang Schaeuble led the finance ministry and really was an institution, many find it difficult that we can no longer hold this ministry, and the same goes for the interior ministry,” she said. “But we have important jobs. We have the economy ministry for the first time in decades.”

She dismissed suggestions that Social Democrat-led ministries would force her to open Germany’s purse wider for Macron’s European reform proposals than she would like.

“Regardless of whether a ministry is led by the Social Democrats or the (Christian Democratic) Union, you can only spend the money you have,” Merkel said.

If the coalition comes together, the nationalist Alternative for Germany will be the biggest opposition party. Co-leader Alexander Gauland criticized the deal, particularly the possibility of deeper European financial integration.

“You ask yourself why Mr. Macron doesn’t just move into the chancellery,” he said.
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The United States said on Tuesday it was “deeply troubled” by Turkey’s re-arrest of the chairman of the local arm of Amnesty International, and called on its NATO ally to end its state of emergency and safeguard the rule of law.

U.S.-Turkish relations have been strained recently by a series of disagreements, especially over the Syria crisis.

Taner Kilic was one of 11 human rights activists arrested last year on what Amnesty International has said were “bogus terrorism charges.” He is the only one of the 11 still jailed after eight months in detention, the rights group said.

Kilic was conditionally released last week, but the prosecution successfully appealed the decision and he was re-arrested before he had even arrived home, Amnesty said in a statement.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing the United States was “deeply troubled” by Kilic’s re-arrest on Feb. 1.

She said Washington was closely following Kilic’s case, as well as those against other human rights defenders, journalists, civil society leaders and opposition politicians detained in the state of emergency that followed a failed coup against President Tayyip Erdogan on July 15, 2016.

“We call on the Turkish government to end the protracted state of emergency, to release those detained arbitrarily under the emergency authorities and to safeguard the rule of law,” Nauert said, noting that the emergency had “chilled freedom of expression” and raised concerns about judicial independence.

In the year after the coup, Turkey arrested more than 40,000 people and fired 125,000, including many from the police, army, and judiciary. Erdogan blames the attempted coup on Fethullah Gulen, an exiled cleric and former ally based in the United States. Gulen has denied any role in the plot.

 
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The 28-member European Union faces an aggregate of pressures, including slow economic growth, persistently high unemployment, escalating populism, a migrant wave, the threat of terrorism, and a resurgent Russia. Amid these difficulties, the future shape and character of the EU is being questioned. VOA’s Jela de Franceschi probes the topic with three veteran observers of all things Europe.
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A Paris judge on Tuesday denied bail to a controversial Swiss Muslim scholar facing rape accusations, as fresh allegations promise to further complicate one of France’s most prominent sexual assault cases to date.

Oxford University professor Tariq Ramadan, 55, was charged with rape late last week, following two French women’s accusations of brutal sexual experiences in hotel rooms years before. Ramadan was questioned for two days before being taken into custody Friday.

Swiss media have reported allegations that Ramadan had sexual relations with teenage girls at a Geneva school where he taught in the 1980s. In addition, French media have reported that police have testimonies from other women, who have not leveled charges.

The allegations first surfaced last fall, as the Harvey Weinstein scandal triggered a broader #MeToo outcry against sexual assault and harassment.

Ramadan, a married father of four, adamantly denies the charges, claiming they amount to slander from enemies intent on demolishing him. The case has stunned the Muslim world and further fueled the many critics of Ramadan, who has long been a polarizing figure in Europe.

The accusations

Both of the women pressing charges describe similar episodes — of hotel room meetings, ostensibly for religious discussions, that quickly turned into violent sexual encounters. One woman — a handicapped, 45-year-old convert to Islam using the pseudonym “Christelle” — described in interviews a particularly brutal and humiliating encounter with the scholar in the French city of Lyon in 2009.

During recent questioning, “Christelle” allegedly identified a scar on Ramadan’s groin, which he reportedly confirmed existed. She turned over a USB flash drive to investigators allegedly containing compromising text messages from Ramadan, according to Le Parisien newspaper.

But the newspaper also reported a plane reservation that, if confirmed, would show Ramadan flying from London to Lyon at about the same time the woman said the assault took place.

The second woman, Henda Ayari, a former Salifist-turned-feminist activist, went public with her accusations in October. She was the first to openly accuse Ramadan of sexual assault, earning insults and threats in the weeks that followed. Like “Christelle,” Ayari said the experience took place in a hotel in 2012.

But Ayari’s account, too, has been compromised in recent days, with reports of a man claiming she threatened to press rape charges against him in 2013 — a year after her alleged encounter with Ramadan —after he rebuffed her advances.

Beginning of the end?

Regardless of the outcome, the charges amount to a significant blow to Ramadan, once seen as an inspiration to a generation of young European Muslims. In conferences and television interviews, he preached that Islam and Europe were compatible. Still, critics claimed Ramadan, the grandson of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, wielded a double discourse, hiding political Islam behind unifying rhetoric.

Following last fall’s allegations, Ramadan took a leave of absence from his teaching post at Oxford University. More recently, French media report that Qatar — which financed his Islamic Studies chair at Oxford — has also distanced itself from him.

“He has a real hold on his [sexual] prey, as on his faithful,” feminist writer Caroline Fourest, a longtime Ramadan foe, told Le Journal du Dimanche.

“I don’t think people realize his impact on Europe as a preacher,” she added. “He has radicalized brilliant students — young Muslims —and transformed them into vindictive paranoids. He has divided European citizens with the kind of harm that few extremists can match.”

A number of prominent Muslims have chosen to remain silent, saying they will wait for French justice to weigh in. Analysts claim Ramadan’s star was fading long before the allegations surfaced — and especially after the Arab uprisings starting in 2011.

“It’s a whole myth that is collapsing. Tariq Ramadan will have a hard time continuing his preaching career based on his personality and a discourse of religious puritanism,” Islam specialist Omero Marongui-Perria told Le Parisien.

For their part, Ramadan’s backers have launched a petition and written an open letter of support in which they denounce an alleged campaign against him carried out by French media and politicians.
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