Новини

The top U.S. envoy on Iran criticized a European Union decision to give $20.7 million in aid to Tehran on Friday, saying it sent “the wrong message at the wrong time,” and he urged Brussels to help Washington end the Iranian threat to global stability.

“Foreign aid from European taxpayers perpetuates the regime’s ability to neglect the needs of its people and stifles meaningful policy changes,” Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, said in a statement.

“The Iranian people face very real economic pressures caused by their government’s corruption, mismanagement, and deep investment in terrorism and foreign conflicts,” he added. “The United States and the European Union should be working together instead to find lasting solutions that truly support Iran’s people and end the regime’s threats to regional and global stability.”

The EU decision on Thursday to provide 18 million euros ($20.7 million) in aid to Iran was aimed at offsetting the impact of U.S. sanctions as European countries try to salvage the 2015 agreement that saw Tehran limit its nuclear ambitions.

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal in May and is reimposing sanctions on Tehran, even as other parties to the accord are trying to find ways to save the agreement.

The EU funding is part of a wider package of 50 million euros earmarked in the EU budget for Iran, which has threatened to stop complying with the nuclear accord if it fails to see the economic benefit of relief from sanctions.

The United States is pressing other countries to comply with its sanctions.

“More money in the hands of the ayatollah means more money to conduct assassinations in those very European countries,” Hook said in his statement.

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton told Reuters during a visit to Israel earlier this week that the return of U.S. sanctions was having a strong effect on Iran’s economy and popular opinion.

The U.S. sanctions dusted off this month targeted Iran’s car industry, trade in gold and other precious metals, and purchases of U.S. dollars crucial to international financing and investment and trade relations. Farther-reaching sanctions are to follow in November on Iran’s banking sector and oil exports.
…

Firefighters struggled Friday to tame a wildfire southwest of Berlin but had to maneuver carefully as the blaze set off old World War II ammunition that is still buried in the forests around the German capital.

Flames forced the evacuation of several nearby villages and sent clouds of acrid smoke toward the German capital. 

The fire, which was the size of 500 soccer fields, has already set off several detonations of old ammunition, according to local lawmaker Christian Stein. Firefighters were not allowed to enter suspicious areas. 

“The ammunition is very dangerous, because one cannot step on the ground, and therefore one cannot get close to the fire” to extinguish it, Brandenburg state’s governor, Dietmar Woidke, told reporters. 

The fire started Thursday afternoon and spread quickly through the dry pine forests in the Treuenbrietzen region, 50 kilometers (30 miles) outside of Berlin in the eastern state of Brandenburg. By evening, authorities had evacuated 500 people from the villages of Frohnsdorf, Klausdorf and Tiefenbrunnen.

“Something like that, we didn’t even experience during the war,” 76-year-old Anita Biedermann told the dpa news agency as police told her to grab her jacket, ID and medication from her home before taking her to a nearby gym for the night.

Firefighters were trying to douse the flames in areas they could not enter with water-bearing helicopters and water cannons.

“The fire continues to be a big threat,” Woidke said. “But we will do everything to protect people’s property.”

Overnight, winds blew the smoke to Berlin, where people in some neighborhoods were told to keep their windows closed. In some cases the smell of smoke was so strong that residents called Berlin emergency services.

More than 600 firefighters and soldiers were brought in to battle the wildfire, cutting trees to make long firebreaks. Several roads were closed and local trains halted service in the area close to the fire.

Stein said the fact that the fire broke out in several places simultaneously suggested it could have been arson, but Brandenburg’s Interior Ministry said it was still investigating the cause of the fire.

Germany has seen a long, hot summer with almost no rain, and large parts of the country are on high alert regarding possible wildfires. 

Raimund Engel, who is in charge of forests in the state of Brandenburg, said 400 wildfires have already been reported this year.

“I hope the weather will play along and the winds won’t increase again,” Stein said. “We are yearning for rain.” 
…

Victims of the Catholic Church’s clergy sex abuse scandal are calling on Pope Francis to take a strong stance against predator priests during his visit to Ireland.

The pope Saturday begins the first papal visit in nearly 40 years to Ireland. The country has changed greatly since Pope John Paul II visited in 1989, becoming much more secular following clerical sexual abuse scandals that began to surface in 2005.

Pope Francis’ visit comes at a time when recent sexual abuse crises in the United States, Chile, and Australia have reminded the Irish people of similar scandals at the hands of Irish priests and bishops.

Many abuse victims, their families and supporters are calling on the pope to do more than just hold a private meeting with a select group of survivors. Protesters will gather in Dublin while the pope says Mass on Sunday urging him to take concrete action against sex abuse.

A prominent Irish abuse survivor, Marie Collins, told a Vatican-sponsored conference on Friday that the Catholic Church must put in place “robust structures” to hold abusive clergy accountable.

“Anyone in the Vatican who would stand in the way of proper protection of children should be accountable as well,” said Collins, a former member of Pope Francis’ abuse advisory board.

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will be meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse and says he will also visit Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Dublin to pray for victims.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman Greg Burke told Irish broadcaster RTE on Friday that the sexual abuse scandal is the result of a “cultural problem” that will take time to remedy.

He suggested that the pope would not be announcing specific measures during his trip.

“I think in 36 hours — or 32 hours on the ground — it’s hard to change a culture,” he said.

“In terms of moving to actions, that will happen. But it doesn’t happen overnight … Let’s first listen to the pope, and that in itself is an important part of this,” Burke said.

This past week, the pope wrote a letter to the world’s Catholics, stressing that, “No effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”

The Catholic Church is much less dominant in public life in Ireland than it once was. The country has recently voted to legalize same-sex marriage and abortion, and has put a gay prime minister in office.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he is glad the Church is less influential.

“I think it still has a place in our society but not one that determines public policy or determines our laws,” he said.

Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland was originally meant to focus on attending and closing the World Meeting of Families, which is held once every three years to discuss matters of importance to the family unit. However, the latest abuse scandals around the world have shifted the focus, in part, to how the Vatican will respond to the matter.

Two U.S. cardinals were scheduled to attend the conference in Dublin but will be absent due to further revelations of clerical sexual abuse at home. They are Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the pope’s top adviser on clerical sexual abuse, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington. Another U.S. cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, was recently forced to resign due to allegations of abuse and misconduct.

Sabina Castelfranco in Rome contributed.
…

Following a three-day swing through the United States, Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov says he will return home to lock in domestic support for the upcoming name referendum on which the small Balkan nation’s EU-NATO integration depends.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo followed up talks with Dimitrov by expressing strong support for the deal, signed this summer, in which Macedonia agreed to change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia.

Greece and Macedonia have been feuding over who gets to use the name since Macedonia’s independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Many Greeks say allowing the neighboring country to use the name insults Greek history and implies a claim on the Greek territory also known as Macedonia, a key province in Alexander the Great’s ancient empire.

As a result, Greece has blocked Macedonian efforts to join the EU and NATO. Despite recognition by 137 countries, Macedonia is officially known at the United Nations as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

“It’s a great day for Macedonian diplomacy,” Dimitrov said of his meeting with Pompeo, which he described as “very encouraging.”

“We are now focused on our homework — we need to win a referendum to get our people to stand behind the name agreement that we have reached with our friends in Greece that unlocks the doors for the future,” he said. “And here the support and friendship of our American partners is extremely important. So, I go back to Macedonia greatly encouraged.”

September 30 referendum

Full implementation of the deal hinges on the name referendum that Macedonia’s parliament set for September 30 in a measure approved with 68 votes in the 120-seat parliament. Opposition members boycotted the vote.

“The Secretary [of State] noted the referendum presented an opportunity for citizens to voice their opinions on an issue of vital importance to the future of Macedonia,” the State Department wrote.

Staunch U.S. support for passage of the referendum, which would secure the country’s Euro-Atlantic future, draws from a longstanding U.S. interest in a politically stabilized Balkans, one of Europe’s most impoverished and politically turbulent regions, one where U.S. lawmakers have called for substantially strengthened commitments to counter Russian efforts to influence elections and discourage NATO membership.

Dimitrov’s meeting with Pompeo, his second with the top U.S. diplomat since November, underscored that point, he said.

“The main reason for [U.S. support for the referendum] lies in the fact that it will wrap up the long process of preparations for the country to join NATO, and that will bring stability in the region,” Dimitrov told VOA’s Macedonian Service.

His primary objective now, he said, is to make sure all Macedonians have the facts to make an informed decision at the polls next month.

“I am planning to devote maximum time to do just that,” he said. “I will talk to people, go to markets and elsewhere, to explain the agreement with Greece, and to assure them that I understand their concerns. In these circumstances, there is no other alternative,” he said.

The referendum question that parliament approved in July does not explicitly mention changing the country’s name. It says only: “Are you for EU and NATO membership by accepting the agreement between the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Greece?”

Macedonia’s nationalist opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, criticized the wording of the referendum question as manipulative.

Members of the opposition have not yet said whether they will call upon supporters to participate in the referendum, which would significantly increase the likelihood of achieving the 50 percent threshold required for ratification.

Some smaller political parties and nationalist groups who say the name change would compromise national identity have been campaigning to boycott the referendum.

This story originated in VOA’s Macedonian Service
…

An outbreak of fighting in Ukraine’s rebel-held east has killed four troops and left another seven wounded, officials said Thursday.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the losses were the biggest in months and followed fighting that lasted five hours.

The ministry said the fighting erupted when the rebels began to shell government troops with mortars, trying to break through the front line in the east of the Luhansk region.

The rebels in Luhansk, however, accused government troops of attacking them first. They said they fired back when the Ukrainian troops launched an offensive in a bid to seize some ground near the village of Zhelobok.

The separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 10,000 since it began in April 2014. A 2015 peace agreement has helped reduce hostilities, but clashes have continued. The warring parties blamed each other for the failure to observe the truce.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday apologized to the country for his 2014 promise to quickly end the conflict in the east.

“People perceived it as an opportunity to end the war quickly,” Poroshenko said. “I am sorry to have created inflated expectations. I sincerely apologize for giving you hope that has not come true.”
…

British Airways and Air France said on Thursday they would halt flights to Iran from September for business reasons, months after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would re-impose sanctions on Tehran.

British Airways said it was suspending its London to Tehran service “as the operation is currently not commercially viable.”

BA, which is owned by Spanish-registered IAG, said its last outbound flight from London to Tehran will be on September 22 and the last inbound flight from Tehran will be on September 23.

Air France will stop flights from Paris to Tehran from September 18 because of “the line’s weak performance,” an airline spokesman said.

“As the number of business customers flying to Iran has fallen, the connection is not profitable any more,” the spokesman said.

German airline Lufthansa said it had no plans to stop flying to Tehran.

“We are closely monitoring the developments … For the time being, Lufthansa will continue to fly to Tehran as scheduled and no changes are envisaged,” it said in an emailed statement.

The European Union has tried to keep an international deal on the Iranian nuclear program alive despite Trump’s decision in May to withdraw the United States from the agreement.

Some new U.S. sanctions on Iran took effect this month. The EU, which is working to maintain trade with Tehran, agreed 18 million euros ($20.6 million) in aid for Iran on Thursday, including for the private sector, to help offset the impact of U.S. sanctions.

Despite this, a number of European companies have announced they are pulling out of projects or scrapping investment plans in Iran.

Air France is the French arm of Franco-Dutch airlines group Air France KLM. KLM, the group’s Dutch arm, had previously announced it was halting flights to Tehran.

The airlines’ decision was welcomed by Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

“Today we learned that three major carriers, BA, KLM, and Air France, have discontinued their activities in Iran. That is good, more should follow, more will follow, because Iran should not be rewarded for its aggression in the region, for its attempts to spread terrorism far and wide …,” he told a news conference during a visit to Lithuania.

The BA route was reinstated in the wake of the 2015 accord between western powers and Iran under which most international sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for curbs on the country’s nuclear program.

Air France had re-opened the Paris-Tehran route in 2016. Iran’s ambassador to Britain expressed regret at BA’s decision.

“Considering the high demand … the decision by the airline is regrettable,” Hamid Baeidinejad wrote on his official Twitter account.

($1 = 0.8744 euros)
…

A man with severe psychiatric problems killed his mother and sister and seriously injured another woman in a knife attack Thursday in a Paris-region town, officials said.

Police shot and killed the man soon afterward. The Islamic State group, which has a history of opportunistic claims, swiftly claimed responsibility.

French prosecutors weren’t treating the attack in Trappes, west of Paris, as a terrorism case, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. He noted the attacker suffered from serious mental health issues although he had also been flagged for glorifying terrorism.

Collomb said that the man killed his mother at her home and stabbed the other women outside. Still wielding the knife, he then ignored police warnings and was shot and killed, the minister said after meeting officers and prosecutors in Trappes.

He described the man as “unstable, rather than someone who was engaged, someone who could respond, for example, to orders and instructions from a terrorist organization, in particular from Daesh.” Daesh is another name for IS.

A long-time friend of the attacker named him as Kamel Salhi, 36. The friend, Said Segreg, said Salhi had no obvious problems, didn’t abuse drugs or alcohol and wasn’t fervently religious.

A government official confirmed Salhi’s name and age. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss such details publicly.

Salhi was divorced and living with his mother, said Adama Traore, another of his acquaintances in Trappes.

The Islamic State group, via its Aamaq news agency, claimed responsibility. The agency said the attack was motivated by calls from the IS leadership to attack civilians in countries at war with the extremist group. Hours earlier, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged followers to attack enemies everywhere.

The Islamic State group, which has lost most of the territories it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, has been known to make opportunistic claims in the past, even when there was no established link between an attacker and the extremist group.
…

David Nosek is buried in a novel, glancing only occasionally at the scrum of tourists strolling by. A few of them pause to examine the old editions, engravings and brightly colored paintings arranged on his green, metal stand. A riverboat cuts lazily across the Seine River below.

Sporting a graying ponytail and tan vest, Nosek looks like a throwback to the bouquinistes of old — the booksellers of Paris who have plied their wares along the banks of the Seine for more than four centuries.

“I like to read, I like old things, and there’s an independence to the business,” he said. “We certainly don’t get into it to get rich.”

Nosek’s business is increasingly facing 21st century threats. Kindles and online dealers are eating into his profits. At other riverside stands, Eiffel Towers and other souvenirs are edging out dusty editions of Honore de Balzac and Victor Hugo — which is why a group of bouquinistes is now on a mission to save the trade’s very identity by getting it added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

“We thought it would be good to have a label which maintains the quality of our products, without sticking to the 400 years of our past,” said Sophie Leleu, one of the bouquinistes involved in the effort. “If we’re on the UNESCO list, we become like the Egyptian pyramids, or the Venetian gondoliers — nobody can remove us.”

But the bid is controversial — even among some bouquinistes. Some fear they will no longer be able to sell the souvenirs that help them survive.

Bigger challenges

In some ways, the bouquinistes’ sliding fortunes mirror broader challenges facing the traditional book industry in capitals like New York and London — although business for some independent sellers is rebounding. In France, where legislation has curbed the onslaught of chain book stores and online retailers, a number of small dealers are also thriving — but not all. Last year, the French publishing industry saw its figures plunge, compared to the previous year.

“There’s an urgency to defend the bouquinistes’ trade,” said Florence Berthout, mayor of Paris’ 5th Arrondissement, and a leading champion of the UNESCO drive. “Every year, every month, counts.”

Berthout’s district is located in the heart of the Latin Quarter, home to the Sorbonne, one of the world’s first universities. The town hall faces the Pantheon, where some of France’s greatest authors and academics are buried. The neighborhood is also home to the majority of Parisian book stores and publishing houses — and most of the city’s bouquinistes.

“There’s nothing more democratic than books,” said Berthout, the daughter of farmers from central France who discovered Shakespeare and Emile Zola, thanks to inexpensive paperbacks her parents bought. “They’re cheap, they’re easy to carry, and unlike computers, they don’t break down.”

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Status would raise the profile of bouquinistes, Berthout says, adding, “We hope there’ll be an uptick in their sales — which will allow them to stick to the heart of their trade, not the cheap souvenirs.”

Making ‘Parisians laugh’

Few believe the bouquinistes will disappear from the city’s landscape altogether. There are more than 200 today, compared to under two dozen in the 17th century. Unlike traditional bookstores, the riverside sellers don’t pay overhead. They ply their wares rain or shine, summer or winter.

“We’ve never sold new books, but we’ve never sold really old books,” said Leleu, who comes from a family of booksellers. “We’ve always sold cartoons, to make Parisians laugh. Stamps, coins, paper … this and that.”

A few bookstands away, Philadelphia native Meghan Patton wrapped up the purchase of a colorful print.

“You get the feel of Paris,” she said of the bouquiniste stalls. “They’re part of what makes the city so special.

Other tourists are underwhelmed.

Colorado author Mike McPhee, who has visited Paris for years, said he was shocked at how touristy the stands had become. Even when it came to traditional wares, “I wouldn’t trust the authenticity,” he said. “I would buy from a reputable dealer.”

Competition and politics

The bouquinistes first need to make France’s intangible heritage list before any upgrades to UNESCO status. Even this step is challenging.

“If they manage to get their application finished this year, it would be really fast,” said Isabelle Chave, who oversees the French Culture Ministry’s intangible heritage division. “Most candidates take three or four years, if not longer.”

And of the 400 so-called elements that have made the French list, only 15 have been accepted by UNESCO — including French cuisine and a type of Corsican polyphonic music. France’s culture ministry can only support one candidacy every two years for the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage bid; bouquinistes may end up competing against zinc rooftops and Parisian cafes, among other rivals.

Ahead of 2020 municipal elections in Paris, the bouquinistes’ campaign is also taking on a partisan edge. Some bouquinistes, including Nosek, say the city’s leftist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has not done enough to spearhead their drive — a sentiment shared by the 5th arrondissement mayor Berthout, a member of the center-right.

“The day she sees their dossier is likely to win, she’ll be only too happy to support it,” Berthout said of Mayor Hidalgo. “But it’s today that we need to fight.”

In an email, Paris City Hall noted it had voted to back the bouquinistes’ bid for UNESCO status, and petitioned Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen to do the same.

“The city of Paris has supported the profession for a long time,” the city’s communications office wrote. “It does not charge them any fee for occupying public space.”

Divided over souvenirs

For his part, Nosek is going a step beyond the UNESCO drive. Last year, he launched an online petition against selling kitch that he claims is distorting the trade. So far, it’s gathered more than 21,000 signatures.

“You hardly find any books anymore, only trinkets made in China,” he said. “It’s sad when the trade and the clients aren’t respected.”

Still, not all bouquinistes agree — or back the UNESCO bid. Tacky Eiffel Towers rule at Francis Robert’s stand across the river. So do keychains, plates and backpacks with Paris logos. Squeezed in between are the old comic books Robert has been selling for 40 years.

“There are days when I can’t sell a single comic book, even with an old and loyal clientele,” Robert said. “Today, it’s souvenirs that help us live — and allow us to continue selling books.”

Intangible cultural heritage status may look good on paper, he added, “But if we’re not careful, we’ll become so intangible, we’ll disappear altogether.”
…

Anti-corruption activists in Ukraine welcomed the conviction of Paul Manafort on charges of tax evasion and bank fraud, saying they hope his trial will give fresh impetus to Ukrainian probes into politicians and oligarchs in Kyiv who paid millions of dollars to U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager.

Ukrainian prosecutors should ask for the evidence used by U.S. prosecutors in the trial in the state of Virginia for their stalled probes into political corruption in Ukraine, they say.

Most of the 18 fraud charges Manafort faced — he was found guilty on eight of them — stemmed from his work as a political consultant for ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions. Manafort masterminded the political comeback in Kyiv of Yanukovych in 2010, six years after Ukraine’s pro-democracy Orange Revolution blocked him from taking office after a disputed election.

“Manafort’s case is [an] important message for Ukrainian society to continue to fight for fair politics,” tweeted Serhiy Leshchenko, a lawmaker and former journalist, who helped expose secret cash payments channeled to Manafort from the Party of Regions between 2007 and 2012. According to U.S. prosecutors, Manafort received from his Ukrainian paymasters more than $60 million — money Leshchenko and anti-corruption campaigners say was stolen from public funds. The payments were recorded in handwriting in a so-called “black ledger” maintained by the Party of Regions.

Like other anti-corruption activists, though, Leshchenko’s satisfaction with Tuesday’s verdict is mixed with frustration — he laments that no high-ranking official from the Yanukovych era has yet been prosecuted in Ukraine for graft. Manafort’s conviction is a victory of sorts for Ukraine, they argue, but will be more complete when officials and oligarchs linked to Yanukovych face jail time.

“We still have no result of prosecution of high rank corrupted individuals,” Leshchenko tweeted.

Some hope is being drawn from an announcement made Tuesday by Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, who told reporters in Kyiv that he is opening a criminal investigation into former Yanukovych officials and ministers incriminated in the Manafort trial. Lutsenko said that in February he sent an official request to U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller offering his readiness to provide any assistance needed in the prosecution of Manafort. He said his office had cooperated with the FBI before Mueller’s appointment and that important information had been exchanged.

Lutsenko told reporters that Manafort broke no tax evasion laws in Ukraine and is not under investigation but that former state officials who paid him may be guilty of various offenses. He cited the hundreds of documents presented by U.S. prosecutors in the Manafort trial, as well as the testimony of Manafort’s former deputy, Rick Gates, as the reason for the opening of the new investigation.

“There has been testimony that Manafort received funds for his consulting services for disgraced ex-president Yanukovych and the Party of Regions from specific politicians of Ukraine,” Lutsenko said, according to local news reports.  

The prosecutor general didn’t name the politicians, but in court testimony Manafort’s former business partner, Rick Gates, named politicians Serhiy Lyovochkin, Serhiy Tihipko, Andriy Klyuyev, Borys Kolesnikov and oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. He said they had funneled money into accounts in Cyprus, which was then laundered through offshore companies, and used the money to buy real estate and luxury cars and to support Manafort’s extravagant lifestyle.

But activists fear that for all the talk of new probes, words won’t translate into action and that political obstacles will be thrown up to block investigations, something they say has happened frequently with probes into high-level corruption.  

Part of the problem lies with inter-agency rivalry.  

After the ouster of Yanukovych in the 2013/2014 Maidan uprising, three anti-corruption agencies were established with the encouragement of Western powers — the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, which monitors the process of asset declaration by civil servants, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), which investigates high-level corruption, and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which oversees NABU investigations and mounts state prosecutions in court. All three have been at each others’ throats and NABU officials say they have been purposely impeded, for political reasons, in their probes.

The NABU’s head, Artem Sytnyk, has claimed there have been illegal dismissals of criminal cases against officials, and has accused the SAPO of corruption. Lutsenko has also clashed with the NABU and last year sought to persuade Ukraine’s parliament to dismiss the heads of the anti-corruption agencies. Western powers, including U.S. officials, lobbied against the move.

Some analysts worry the Ukrainian government of President Petro Poroshenko is unlikely to want to prosecute Manafort’s political allies for fear of angering the Trump administration, whose support it needs to counter Russia.

Lutsenko insisted Tuesday no political obstacles will be thrown in the way of the Manafort-related probes, saying no one had tried to give him an order to stop. He said if it is confirmed that anyone paid money illegally to Manafort, “then he will be held liable in accordance with current Ukrainian legislation.”

 
…

French President Emmanuel Macron will make the tough political choices needed to meet his deficit commitments, his government spokesman said, as he looked to put a bodyguard scandal behind him at his first Cabinet meeting after the summer break.

Macron and his ministers in all likelihood need to find savings in next year’s budget, to be presented to parliament next month, if they are to prevent the deficit from ballooning once again.

The president faced his first crisis in the summer when video surfaced of bodyguard Alexandre Benalla beating a protester. Macron’s own aloof response fanned public discontent.

Now the 40-year-old leader returns to work facing difficult political choices as he embarks on a new wave of reforms to reform the pensions system, overhaul public healthcare and shake-up the highly unionized public sector — tasks complicated by forecasts that economic growth is slower than expected.

“A budget is not only figures, but a strategy, and strong political choices,” Griveaux said, without giving details on the budget negotiations. “There will be [spending] increases and then we will require efforts from other sectors.”

The French economy eked out less growth than expected in the second quarter as strikes and higher taxes hit consumer spending, official data showed in July.

Macron has linked fiscal discipline to restoring France’s credibility in Europe, and while the budget deficit — forecast at 2.3 percent of GDP this year and next — should not surpass the EU-mandated 3 percent limit, it is still expected to be one of the highest in the euro zone.

“The budget equation is becoming more complicated,” Denis Ferrand, economist at COE-Rexecode told Reuters.

The Bank of France has revised 2018 growth down to 1.8 percent from 1.9 percent. Budget rapporteur Joel Giraud in July said that a revision down to 1.7 percent could see the public deficit slip by 0.2 percentage points.

Beyond raising eyebrows in Brussels and Berlin, it would also complicate Macron’s efforts to make transfers towards social policies that might help him dispel the impression among leftist critics that he is a “president of the rich.”

“It would be more difficult to find resources for social spending,” Ferrand said.

Elysee officials acknowledge growth was lower than expected in the first half, and say the housing and subsidized jobs portfolios will see sharp cuts to help finance Macron’s priorities in education, security and the environment.

Some 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) is expected to be saved by changing rules for widely-enjoyed housing benefits, junior minister Julien Denormandie told BFM TV earlier on Wednesday.

Last year, a cut of five euros ($6) per month to the same allowance contributed to a sharp slump in the president’s popularity, which opinion polls show plumbing lows.
…

Russian telecom operators have proposed legislation that would require foreign Internet companies to share the financial burden of a new law on storing data in the country, a draft bill seen by Reuters shows.

If adopted, the legislation would allow Russian telecom companies to claim compensation from foreign Internet companies, including social media and messenger services such as Google and Facebook, for compliance with the data storage rules that come into effect from October.

If foreign Internet companies refuse to comply, Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor could be allowed to reduce the speed of access to their websites for Russian users.

Google declined to comment and Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The bill will be sent to the government as soon as all operators reach a harmonized position,” a senior manager at one of Russia’s telecom companies told Reuters.

A representative of Rostelecom, a leading Russian telecom operator, said the company supported the notion of spreading the data storage costs with foreign Internet companies.

Russian telecom operators MTS, VimpelCom and Tele2 declined to comment.

Megafon, which would not comment on the draft legislation, told Reuters that all interested parties – not only telecom operators – should take part in the development of Internet resources.

The cost for Russia’s three largest telecom operators – MTS, Megafon and VimpelCom – of creating and sustaining a system to store data to comply with the law will reach 145 billion rubles ($2.17 billion) over the next five years, the companies have said.

Russian telecom operators still do not have the necessary infrastructure in place to store users’ data, industry sources have said.

They will also have to use foreign technology to comply with the data storage law, even though President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to ensure that local companies produce the equipment.

 
…

The U.S.-backed Afghan government announced Wednesday it does not plan to attend next month’s multi-nation conference in Russia on the future of Afghanistan, while the Taliban insurgency confirmed to VOA it has accepted the invitation and will send a delegation to event.

Moscow has invited, beside Kabul and the Taliban, 11 key regional countries, including China, Pakistan and Iran, to take part in the September 4 meeting in the Russian capital.

Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman, Sibghatullah Ahmadi, confirmed to VOA on Wednesday the government has decided against sending its delegation to the talks in Russia, but he did not cite any reasons.

Afghan officials reportedly are upset because Moscow did not consult them before extending an invitation to the Taliban.

Ahmadi stopped short of confirming those reports, saying the “Islamic government of Afghanistan should be a focal point of any developments that are happening around the world about Afghanistan.”

He insisted Kabul has “very good cordial” relations with Moscow and both the countries always consult each other on all issues, “particularly those related to the Afghan government-led peace ad reconciliation process.”

Spokesman Ahmadi asserted that “any discussions that are organized outside the government-led peace process will not yield results.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday an invitation has been extended to the Taliban and the insurgent group plans to attend.

“Representatives of the Afghan leadership and the Taliban were invited to the meeting. Their first reaction was positive and they plan to participate. I hope it will be a productive meeting,” said the top Russian diplomat.

The Taliban confirmed Wednesday insurgent political negotiators will travel to Moscow to participate in the daylong conference.

“The Islamic Emirate [Taliban] has accepted the invitation and it will send delegation led by the head of our Political Office, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai and will present the Islamic Emirate’s stance regarding the Afghanistan problem and its solution,” said Taliban Zabihullah Mujahid.

It will be the first time in several years the Taliban would officially participate in such an event and will be a major breakthrough for Russian diplomacy.

Russia defends its contacts with the Taliban, saying it is trying to encourage the insurgents to engage in peace talks with the Afghan government to bring an end to an increasingly deadly war in the country.

“We maintain these contacts primarily for the sake of the security of Russian nationals in Afghanistan, Russian agencies there, and also to convince the Taliban to renounce armed conflict and join the national dialogue with the government,” Lavrov said.

But he rejected Afghan assertions that Moscow’s ties with the Taliban are meant to use the insurgency to fight Islamist State militants who are trying to expand their influence in Afghan areas beyond the control of the Kabul government.

“I cannot imagine how Russia even hypothetically could use the Taliban against ISIS,” he said. “We are fighting ISIS with every tool we have. We support Syria in this fight and provide assistance in equipping the Iraqi army for the same purpose. Of course, we want the Afghan people to get rid of ISIS.”

 
…