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As politicians argue over how or even if Britain should leave the European Union, the chances of the country crashing out by default with no deal in place are rising fast. As the exit day of March 29 approaches, governments and businesses in Europe are trying to prepare for the chaos that would follow – with supply chains, energy networks and basic cross-border services like banking facing prolonged uncertainty. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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France plans to crack down heavily on unauthorized protesters, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Monday, after an anti-government march over the weekend turned violent.

“We need to preserve the right to demonstrate in France, and we must sanction those who break the law,” Philippe told French television, saying they include “those who take part in undeclared protests, those who arrive at protests with balaclavas (face masks).”

Philippe said proposed laws would ban troublemakers from marches the same way hooligans and thugs are stopped from entering football stadiums.

He also said marchers would be forced to pay for damages to vandalized buildings and wrecked property.

An anti-government protest Saturday began peacefully but soon turned violent when some marchers set motorcycles and a restaurant on fire and threw debris at police.

One officer was hurt when a protester dropped a bicycle on him from a bridge.

The so-called yellow vest marches erupted across France in November to protest a new gasoline tax, but soon turned into a general anti-government protest.
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The ranks of prominent citizens opposed to a new Italian law cracking down on asylum-seekers swelled on Monday, with more governors announcing court challenges to the populist government’s measure.

The law, approved first in the form of a government decree and later by Parliament late last year, tightens criteria for migrants receiving humanitarian protection, granting that status only to victims of labor exploitation, human trafficking, domestic violence, natural calamities and a few other limited situations.

Previously, many asylum-seekers who failed to qualify for full asylum were accorded humanitarian protection, with Italy allowing them to stay for a fixed term and receive social benefits. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, contends Italian authorities had been too elastic in the past in granting such protection.

The new law bans asylum-seekers from gaining residency, which is needed to apply for public housing or a place for their children in public nursery schools, as well as complete access to Italy’s national health care system. And those accorded humanitarian protection won’t be eligible for shelter in government-run facilities for asylum-seekers, sparking concern they’ll end up living on the street.

Piedmont Gov. Sergio Chiamparino told Sky TG24 TV Monday that he’ll ask Italy’s constitutional court to decide whether the law violates the Constitution. He said he’d join forces with Tuscany’s governor in the court challenge.

“A really wide movement is being created” to challenge the residency measure, Tuscany Gov. Enrico Rossi said in Florence. He explained that Tuscany’s challenge would take aim on the tightened criteria for humanitarian protection as well as the ban on achieving residency.

Umbria, another central region, also decided on a court challenge of the law.

Chiamparino said in the meanwhile his region would continue to provide full health care for asylum-seekers and insisted by doing so, he wasn’t disobeying the law.

“We are simply obeying a fundamental principle that someone with a health problem gets treatment,” Chiamparino said.

Last week, the mayors of Palermo, Naples and some smaller cities vowed not to implement the law. Others, like Milan’s mayor, sharply criticized the law, but said they would implement it unless courts ruled otherwise.

In Milan, on Monday evening, about 50 critics of the crackdown protested outside city hall. Some banged wooden spoons on pot lids to draw attention to their cause.

Among mayors criticizing the law are some from the 5-Star Movement, a government coalition partner. Livorno’s 5-Star Mayor Filippo Nogarin, while saying that laws must be respected, has slammed the measure as “anything but a good law, ethically and politically.”

Cracks have formed lately in the government coalition over migrant policy, with a prominent faction of the 5-Stars pushing for Italy to allow migrants rescued at sea from human traffickers’ unseaworthy boats to reach Italy.

Salvini insists Italy’s ports are closed to private group’s migrant rescue vessels.
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Britain’s embattled Theresa May will make a push this week to persuade rebel lawmakers in her ruling Conservative party to back her contentious Brexit withdrawal agreement.

But little has changed since she delayed before Christmas a House of Commons vote on the proposed deal and few observers believe she’ll be successful as many rebel lawmakers are locked into their opposition because of public promises they’ve made to their constituency parties.

Meanwhile, political pressure is mounting on the prime minister, who insists she can win the vote, to delay Britain’s scheduled March 29 exit from the European Union.  Two former ministers from the Cabinets of Margaret Thatcher, Ken Clarke and Chris Patten, have urged her to rethink and put Britain’s exit from the bloc on hold in order for a political consensus to be hammered out on Britain’s future relationship with the EU.

Patten added his voice Monday to calls for a re-run Brexit referendum, “It may be that we can only end this divisive and impoverishing argument by holding another referendum,” he said.

May has adamantly ruled out holding another plebiscite to break the parliamentary deadlock.  More than 200 MPs from various parties have signed a letter urging her to take the prospect of a no-deal Brexit off the table, if she fails to garner the parliamentary support she needs for her Brexit withdrawal agreement to be approved.

The politicians from the Conservative, Labor, Liberal Democrat and the nationalist parties of Scotland and Wales are concerned about the impact on British manufacturing crashing out of the bloc in March without any kind of arrangement with the European Union, the only legal current option.

In their collective letter, the lawmakers wrote, “Leaving the EU without a deal would cause unnecessary economic damage.  Trading on World Trade Organization terms would instantly make our manufacturers less competitive and make it very difficult for the industry to justify producing goods in the UK for export. Leaving without a deal would make continued investment in UK manufacturing a real challenge for global firms, when they have plants in other European locations.”

May has little more than a week to rescue her Brexit plan.  The House of Commons will restart debate on the Brexit withdrawal agreement Wednesday.

The House of Commons is likely to vote on the proposed deal next week unless the government again postpones it, something May on Sunday pledged not to do.

May’s deal, which was negotiated after almost two years of ill-tempered haggling between British and EU negotiators, tries to square the circle between Britons who want to remain in the EU, or closely tied to it, and Brexiters.

The proposed deal would see Britain locked in a customs union with the European Union for several years while it negotiates a more permanent, but vaguely defined, free-trade settlement with its largest trading partner.  In the temporary customs union, Britain would be unable to influence EU laws, regulations and product standards it would have to observe.  It would not be able to implement free trade deals with non-EU countries.

The transition was agreed to avoid customs checks on the border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, but British lawmakers fear Britain could be shackled indefinitely to the bloc even if a final free-trade deal isn’t negotiated.  Brexiters claim the Brexit agreement May negotiated turns Britain into a “vassal state,” a rule-taker and not a rule-maker.

May’s aides appear convinced the European Union will offer some concessions in the next few days to help the British leader get the votes she needs, but critics say they’re reaching for straws, and EU leaders frustrated with the time and energy they have spent on Brexit appear in no mood to offer her assistance.

Britain’s divorce deal with Brussels is the only deal on the table and cannot be renegotiated, an EU Commission spokesperson said Monday.  EU officials say the bloc will continue to advance its “no deal” planning and no more Brexit negotiation meetings are scheduled.  The language used by the EU Commission Monday is no different from what EU leaders have used since the deal was signed in November.

May promised before Christmas to get legal reassurances from Brussels over the so-called Irish backstop – the insurance policy to ensure a hard border with customs checks is not reimposed on the island of Ireland.

With May unable apparently to squeeze anything out of the bloc’s negotiators in the final hour that would substantially alter the political dynamic in London, her aides are also considering a parliamentary trick — to change the wording of the legislation presenting the Brexit withdrawal agreement next week by making any approval of the deal contingent on the European Union offering more concessions.

The move would be intended to limit the scale of the parliamentary rebellion against May. But EU officials say that would infuriate Brussels, which would unlikely accept the blackmail.

 
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The Russian Foreign Ministry says Paul Whelan, the American detained in Moscow on suspicion of spying, may receive visits from diplomats from the three other countries whose citizenship he holds.

When Whelan was arrested in late December, he was identified only as an American. Last week, it emerged that he also holds British, Irish and Canadian citizenship. U.S. Ambassador Jon Hunstman Jr. visited him in prison last week.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the state news agency RIA-Novosti that the other countries have applied for consular visits and “if the arrestee confirms that he wants these visits they will be arranged.”

Whelan’s twin brother David said Monday that “the U.S. Embassy has indicated it will continue to lead on consular efforts, since Paul entered Russia on a U.S. passport.”
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Lyon’s archbishop, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and five other figures are on trial on charges of failing to act against sexual abuse allegations targeting a priest in his diocese. This is the latest pedophilia scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church before a key Vatican conference on sexual abuse.

The sexual abuse allegations date back to the 1980s and 1990s. They involve Father Bernard Preynat, a priest in France’s Lyon diocese, who has admitted to wrongdoing and is due to go on trial later this year.

But one of country’s most prominent clerics, Lyon’s archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, is accused of covering up the abuse. If found guilty, he faces up to three years in jail and a $54,000 fine.

Barbarin denies the charges. He says he took action as soon as he found out about the sexual abuse allegations — many years later.

The archbishop did not comment publicly before his trial, but one of his lawyers says the cleric expects to be acquitted.

Barbarin reportedly sought advice about how to handle the allegations from a Vatican official who will not be present at the trial on grounds of diplomatic immunity.

Francis Devaux, who heads French victims’ group “Freed Speech” [La Parole Liberee], told local TV what is most important about the case is that it was covered up for so long and that alleged victimizer Father Preynat was protected.

Devaux was the first alleged victim to go public, claiming in 2015 he was abused by Preynat, who was subsequently removed from his post. A year later, investigators dropped the case against the priest. But the victims’ group carried on, ultimately succeeding in landing Barbarin and five others in court.

This is not the French Church’s first sexual abuse scandal, but it is the highest profile one to date. It comes before a key Vatican meeting in February that Pope Francis says aims to shed full light on sex scandals and alleged cover ups by Catholic clergy.

The chair of Catholic reform group “We Are Church International,” Colm Holmes, said Cardinal Barbarin’s trial is an encouraging step. But he is disappointed in Pope Francis, who has praised Barbarin.

“He has backed the Cardinal all the way,” he said, “but he has not listened to any of the victims.And now at last the victims will have their say when it comes to [the] court now.”

Holmes said he is skeptical next month’s Vatican meeting will lead to real church reform.

He also pointed to his native Ireland, one of a number of countries rocked by pedophilia scandals, and where church attendance has plummeted in recent decades.

“And that has happened in other countries as well, where people are so disappointed with the reaction of the hierarchy of the people in charge to the whole abuse scandal,” he added.

A historically Catholic nation that is now staunchly secular, France has also seen emptying pews.

Last year, French bishops announced they would create an independent commission to investigate sexual abuse.A poll found most French Catholics support a parliamentary probe.
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The brother of an American man being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying is raising the possibility that his sibling is being used as a pawn in a potential exchange for a Russian woman behind bars in the U.S.

Paul Whelan’s brother told The Associated Press that he can’t help but question if the events are connected.

“You look at what’s going on and you wonder if this is just a large game of pieces being moved around,” David Whelan told the AP via Skype from Newmarket, Ontario. “You start to wonder if all of these things are connected. But at the same time, they could just be arbitrary events.”

Asked about the matter by reporters at the White House on Sunday, President Donald Trump said: “We’re looking into that.”

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who also holds Canadian, British and Irish citizenship, was detained in Moscow in late December. His arrest has led to speculation that Russia could be using him to bargain for a Russian woman who has pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign agent in the U.S.

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Saturday that discussing a possible swap involving Whelan and Maria Butina would be premature because Whelan hasn’t been formally charged, according to Russian news agencies.

“As to the possibility of exchanges of one sort of another, it’s impossible and incorrect to consider the question now when an official charge hasn’t even been presented,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA-Novosti.

“Charges will be presented in the near future,” he said, according to the Interfax agency.

Some Russian news reports earlier cited unnamed sources as saying Whelan had been indicted on espionage charges that carry a possible prison sentence of 20 years.

Russian officials haven’t given details of Whelan’s suspected activities and he was initially identified only as an American. His concurrent Canadian, British and Irish citizenships became known on Friday.

U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. visited Whelan on Wednesday in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison, a 130-year-old facility noted for strict conditions. Britain, Canada and Ireland have applied for consular access to him.

Whelan, 48, was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct. He works as the global security director for a U.S. automobile parts manufacturer and lives in Michigan. His family has said he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.

His brother, David, told the AP that Whelan loves to travel and likes to “interact with the people in the places that he goes,” but that Whelan would be too “conspicuous” to be selected as a spy.

David Whelan said his family had had no direct contact with Paul and had received no details about the alleged espionage charges from either the Russian or U.S. governments.

“He likes to go places and Russia happens to be a place where he knows people and when he’s there, he does go and visit,” David Whelan said.

Paul Whelan established an account on VKontakte, a social media service similar to Facebook that is popular among Russians, which showed he had scores of contacts in Russia. Many attended universities affiliated with the military, civil aviation or technical studies. Many share his interest in sports and firearms.

Also Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said it was seeking information about a Russian who was arrested Dec. 29 in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific. The ministry said Dmitry Makarenko was sent to Florida after his arrest and it wants consular access to him.

The Saipan Tribune reported that Makarenko was indicted in 2017 in Florida for the alleged illegal shipment of military goods to Russia.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international affairs committee of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Makarenko’s arrest was “the latest attack on a citizen of Russia outside the framework of international law,” Interfax reported.

 
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Russia’s space agency is complaining that the invitation for its head to visit the U.S. has been cancelled without informing the organization.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told The Washington Post in a story Saturday that he has rescinded the invitation to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin after several senators raised complaints.

Rogozin is under U.S. sanctions for his role in the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, when he was a deputy prime minister.

Roscosmos spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko told state news agency Tass on Sunday that “it seems strange to us that our NASA colleagues dealt with us through the media and not directly.”

Russian lawmaker Frants Klintsevich said the decision shows that “the U.S. political establishment doesn’t intend to change its Russophobic vector.”
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British Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday that a delayed vote in Parliament on her Brexit deal will “definitely” go ahead later this month, as she promised to set out measures to win over skeptical lawmakers.

May told the BBC that in the coming days she will give more details about measures addressing Northern Ireland and concern over the Irish border. She also promised a greater role for Parliament in negotiations over future trade relations with the European Union as a sweetener, and added that “we are still working on” getting extra assurances from Brussels to secure domestic support for her deal.

May struck a withdrawal agreement with the EU in November, but that deal needs Parliament’s approval. In December, May decided to postpone a parliamentary vote intended to ratify the agreement at the last minute after it became clear that it would be overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons.

Lawmakers are resuming debate on the deal Wednesday, before a vote expected to be held around Jan. 15.

If the deal is voted down, Britain risks crashing out of the EU on March 29 with no agreement in place, a messy outcome that could plunge the country into its worst recession for decades.

May’s Brexit deal is unpopular with British lawmakers across the spectrum, and the main sticking point is the insurance policy known as the “backstop” – a measure that would keep the U.K. tied to EU customs rules in order to guarantee there is no hard border between the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland, which won’t belong to the bloc after Brexit.

EU officials have insisted that the withdrawal agreement can’t be renegotiated, although they also stressed that the backstop was meant only as a temporary measure of last resort.

As part of her efforts to win support for her deal, May on Sunday reiterated that the agreement she negotiated was the only one that respects the 2016 referendum result, protects jobs and provides certainty to people and businesses.

She warned in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that critics of her Brexit deal risk damaging Britain’s democracy and its economy by opposing her plan.
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Germany has Alternative for Germany, France has the National Front, Italy has The League and Spain now has VOX, the latest far-right actor to emerge on Europe’s political scene after an unexpectedly strong showing in local elections last month in Andalusia, the Spanish southern region until now considered a Socialist bastion.

Violent protests erupted following the Dec. 2 vote, as leftist leader Pablo Iglesias called for an “anti-fascist mobilization.”

His followers camped out in front of the regional parliament in Seville, threatening to block access to VOX party representatives.

Protesters set cars on fire and vandalized businesses.

But the results were clear and the protests did not change the reality that the populist, anti-establishment fever had arrived in Spain.

​Seats lost

The Socialist party and its far left ally, Podemos, lost seats and could no longer muster a governing majority in the regional parliament. Support for the mainstream center-right People’s Party and the Citizens party remained static while 11 percent of votes were swept up by VOX, whose support may be crucial to form a new regional government.

“While polls anticipated gains by VOX, these results have exceeded all expectations by wide margins,” said Ignacio Jurado, a political science professor the University of York. VOX, he said, “becomes for the first time a parliamentary force in Spain.”

VOX leader Santiago Abascal, a political upstart whose violent discourses against immigration, feminism and regional separatism have gained him a strong national following, declared he would go on to “throw Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez out of the Moncloa,” the palace that serves as the official residence.

VOX votes in Andalusia rose from 18,500 in the 2015 elections to almost 400,000 last month, and analysts expect the numbers to multiply by similar proportions in other parts of Spain.

Unlike other populist movements that are sweeping Europe, Spain’s emerging rightists are not necessarily pushing for an exit from the European Union.

Abascal said he wants to keep Spain in the European Union. He has in the past told VOA he instead seeks to change the bloc from within and is focusing his strategy on winning seats in the European Parliament elections set for May. Previously ignored, Europe’s leaders see this year’s poll as the most decisive ever: a de facto referendum on modern European liberal democracy.

​Far right parties

At a meeting of far right parties in Belgium in December, French National Front leader Marine Le Pen called on like-minded forces to take control of the European parliament. She had earlier sent a message of congratulations to Abascal.

Iglesias’ Podemos party had until now been the main beneficiary of disenchantment with the bipartisan status quo that had prevailed in Spain for the past half century.

Iglesias provided key parliamentary support for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to form a government earlier this year. But disdain for Spanish national symbols like the monarchy and the flag alienated many of the kingdom’s traditionally minded voters.

Abascal says much of his support is driven by growing African immigration, which he blames on what he says are overly permissive government policies.

Analysts say the issue was undoubtedly a factor in Andalusia, which has become a main landing zone for migrants crossing the Strait of Gibraltar from northern Africa.

Voter resentment over the rising number of immigrants was palpable in the run-up to the elections.

“These people are better treated than we are,” said one voter in the town of Jimena de la Frontera, pointing to a hotel that is being used to house migrants.

Her sentiment is providing fertile ground for the populists.

“We will expel anyone who enters our house without permission,” Abascal said before cheering multitudes recently. He pledged to ban the practice of Islam and shut down mosques.

Abascal denies suggestions that his movement bears any resemblance to what Spain saw in the 20th century.

“The stigma attached to the far right over memories of the Franco dictatorship,” Abascal said, “are fading.” Today, he claims, those memories are eclipsed by the seemingly endless corruption scandals plaguing the establishment at large, from the Socialists to the conservative People’s Party.

A controversial bid by Sanchez to exhume Franco’s remains from their resting place in a national mausoleum could be intended to distract public opinion from other issues, Abascal said.

“People want change,” Abascal said. But he says there is no thirst for radical revolutions. “They won’t go the way of Castro Chavismo,” he said, referring to the radical socialist regimes in the former colonies of Cuba and Venezuela, which Iglesias and other Spanish leftists have at times praised.

​Wide following

The Andalusian election results last month also indicate that VOX has a wide following, cutting across income groups. While Abascal received 30 percent of the vote in the wealthy province of Almeria, he also drew 14 percent of votes in the city of La Linea, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in Spain.

Feminist leader Lidia Falcon says despite the electoral upset, Abascal’s support is limited. His opposition to a law targeting violence against women recently passed unanimously by Spain’s parliament has alienated women voters, Falcon said.

The number of incidents in which male spouses abused their wives rose dramatically, by almost 18 percent, in 2017, according to a study by Spain’s high court.

Differences over the law against gender violence has been a stumbling block in forming a governing coalition between VOX and the center-rightists in Andalusia.

Analysts doubt Abascal can ever hope to score a majority in Catalonia or his native Basque region, whose autonomous governments he wants to abolish, he says, to streamline bureaucracy and create a more efficiently managed central state.

But his polarizing message is securing the support of Spanish unionists in both regions who have lost confidence in the ability of mainstream parties to contain the separatists.

It may also attract votes in poorer regions like Andalusia, which depends on revenues from the richer industrial north.
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The leaders of the populist parties that formed Italy’s government sparred Saturday over more migrants who are stranded on private rescue vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, exposing the widening cracks in their coalition’s position on immigration.  

German humanitarian groups Sea-Watch and Sea Eye are seeking a port where two ships can disembark passengers who were picked up from unseaworthy smugglers’ boats, 32 of them on Dec. 22 and 17 more in recent days.  

Malta allowed the aid boats to shelter from bad weather near its coast and to take on fresh crew, food and water. But the tiny island nation has refused to let any of those migrants step onto Maltese land, saying the rescues took place outside the country’s search-and-rescue area. 

Italian Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio, who heads the 5-Star Movement, insisted Saturday that Malta had to allow the 49 people off the ships. De Maio said Italy was willing to take the 10 mothers on the aid vessels and their children.  

Strict policy

Since the coalition government came to power in mid-2018, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads the right-wing, anti-migrant League party, has made it strict policy that no private aid group receive authorization to transfer rescued migrants to land in Italian ports.  

Both he and Di Maio have likened private aid vessels to “taxi services” for Libya-based human traffickers. Amid criticism of the Italian government’s new hard-line stance, they also have reminded other European Union nations that Italy has taken in hundreds of thousands of rescued migrants as asylum seekers in recent years. 

Di Maio stressed Saturday that Italy was offering to accept the limited number of women and children from the rescue ships to keep families together. Such a gesture, he said, would also give “a good moral slap” to EU nations that have ignored Italy’s insistence that the burden of caring for rescued asylum seekers be shared.  

“We’re not going backward on migration policy, which has allowed us to reduce disembarking considerably,” Di Maio said. 

But Salvini contradicted his governing partner, telling journalists Italy intended to stick with its private rescue vessel ban and wouldn’t be taking the 10 mothers and their children. 

“We opened our hearts and our wallets. Now, it’s someone else’s turn,” Salvini said.  

As for any possible softening of Italy’s immigration policy, Salvini also tweeted, “I’m not changing my mind.” 

Both politicians slammed Malta for refusing to let the 49 disembark, but the EU nation retorted that it had rescued and permitted onto on its shores 250 migrants between Christmas and New Year’s.  

‘Strain on our services’

The recent rescues “are putting a strain on our services,” Maltese Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia said, adding that Italian authorities had not articulated a clear position about the migrants on the aid boats because of the contradictory statements by Italy’s leaders. 

Farrugia has said the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, was working on an ad hoc plan to find countries where the 250 migrants in Malta and the 49 on the aid boats could have asylum applications processed. 

While politicians squabbled, Sea-Watch appealed on Twitter for a rapid, “reasonable solution that guarantees a port, medical care and food to women, children and men at the mercy of the waves.”  

Di Maio’s opening to taking some of the migrants appeared calculated to placate a faction of his party uncomfortable with the government’s rejection of rescued migrants.  

Championing that 5-Star faction is Roberto Fico, the speaker of the Italian Parliament’s lower chamber.  

“We can’t allow human beings, who are fleeing from pain, death and suffering, to be left in unacceptable conditions,” he wrote on Facebook.  
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Russia’s deputy foreign minister brushed back suggestions Saturday that an American being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying could be exchanged for a Russian citizen. 

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, who also holds Canadian, British and Irish citizenship, was detained in Moscow in late December. His arrest has led to speculation that Russia could be using him to bargain for a Russian who pleaded guilty of acting as a foreign agent in the United States. 

But Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that discussing a possible swap involving Whelan and Maria Butina would be premature because Whelan hasn’t been formally charged, according to Russian news agencies. 

“As to the possibility of exchanges of one sort of another, it’s impossible and incorrect to consider the question now when an official charge hasn’t even been presented,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA-Novosti.  

“Charges will be presented in the near future,” he said, according to the Interfax agency. 

Espionage charges

Some Russian news reports earlier cited unnamed sources as saying Whelan had been indicted on espionage charges that carry a possible prison sentence of 20 years. 

Officials haven’t given details of Whelan’s suspected activities and he was initially identified only as an American. His concurrent Canadian, British and Irish citizenships became known on Friday. 

U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. visited Whelan on Wednesday in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison, a 130-year-old facility noted for strict conditions. Britain, Canada and Ireland have applied for consular access to him.  

Whelan, 48. was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct. He works as the global security director for a U.S. automobile parts manufacturer and lives in Michigan. 

His family has said he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.  In a column published by The Washington Post on Friday, his twin brother, David, urged the U.S. government to pressure Russia to release him. 

“Paul is a kind and considerate brother, son and uncle, and a generous and loyal friend,” he wrote. “He travels as often as he can, both for work and pleasure. He is many things to many people, but he is not a spy.” 

Paul Whelan established an account on VKontakte, a social media service similar to Facebook that is popular among Russians, which showed he had scores of contacts in Russia. Many attended universities affiliated with the military, civil aviation or technical studies. Many share his interest in sports and firearms. 

Another arrest

Also Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said it was seeking information about a Russian who was arrested Dec. 29 in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific.  

In a statement, the ministry said Sergei Makarenko was sent to the U.S. state of Florida after his arrest and that it wanted consular access to him. 

The Saipan Tribune reported that Makarenko was indicted in 2017 in Florida for the alleged illegal shipment of military goods to Russia. 

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international affairs committee of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Makarenko’s arrest was “the latest attack on a citizen of Russia outside the framework of international law,” Interfax reported.  
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A former North Korean diplomat who staged a high-profile defection to the South on Saturday urged an old colleague who has gone missing in Italy to defect to Seoul, following a report that he was seeking asylum in the United States.

Jo Song Gil, the 44-year-old who was until recently North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, disappeared with his wife after leaving the embassy without notice in early November, South Korean lawmakers said Thursday.

Jo has applied for asylum in the United States and is under the protection of Italian intelligence, Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper said Friday, citing an unidentified diplomatic source.

The State Department and the U.S. embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to a query from Reuters regarding the report.

In an open letter, Thae Yong Ho, Pyongyang’s former deputy ambassador to Britain, who said he went to the same university and worked with Jo before defecting to South Korea in 2016, urged Jo to follow in his footsteps.

To defect to the South is an “obligation, not a choice” for North Korean diplomats committed to unification, Thae said, calling Seoul “the outpost” for that task.

“If you come to South Korea, the day when our suffering colleagues and North Korean citizens are liberated from the fetters would be moved forward,” Thae said in the letter released on his website. “If you come to Seoul, even more of our colleagues would follow suit, and the unification would be accomplished by itself.”

Thae said his family visited Jo in Rome in 2008, where the latter was studying from 2006 to 2009. He guided them to sites such as St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

South Korea could not be “heaven on earth” but a place where Jo can realize his wishes, Thae said, highlighting the ardent desire for unification among many of the roughly 32,000 defectors there.

“The defectors may not be as wealthy as South Koreans,” Thae added. “But isn’t it the only thing you and I, as North Korean diplomats, should do the rest of our lives — to bring about unification and hand over a unified nation to our children?”
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For any world-class athlete, losing most of his or her vision would be a devastating setback. For former Portuguese boxer Jorge Pina however, it was an opportunity to give back to young people in his country. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff has more.
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Norwegian Air Shuttle said Friday one of its Boeing 737s has been stuck in Iran for three weeks after an unscheduled landing because of engine problems, as U.S. restrictions reportedly create headaches for the airline and possibly passengers.

The aircraft was en route from Dubai to Oslo with 192 passengers and crew members when it carried out a “safety landing” in Shiraz in southwestern Iran because of engine trouble Dec. 14, a Norwegian Air Shuttle spokesman, Andreas Hjornholm, told AFP.

While passengers were able to fly on to Oslo the following day on another aircraft, the Boeing 737 Max has been stuck on Iranian soil where the airline’s mechanics are trying to repair it, Hjornholm said.

Parts needed

According to specialized websites, the repair work has encountered problems because international sanctions bar the airline from sending spare parts to Iran.

With the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Trump administration decided to re-impose sanctions on Tehran.

Norwegian Air Shuttle refused to comment on those reports.

“I can only say that we are working with several options to get the plane back on the wings, and right now we are waiting for our technicians to be able to service the plane and to get it working,” Hjornholm said.

The incident has fueled jokes on social media.

“Iran has become a Bermuda Triangle that feeds on planes,” one Iranian Twitter user wrote.

Problem for passengers, crew

It could also pose problems for the plane’s passengers and crew members if they want to travel to the U.S. in future.

Since 2015, anyone who has traveled to seven countries considered at risk (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) since March 2011 is excluded from the U.S. visa waiver program applied to most Europeans.

According to Hjornholm, the passengers and crew on the Dubai-Oslo flight officially entered Iran and stayed overnight at a hotel, Dec. 14-15.

The US embassy in Oslo was not available for comment.

Last year, former NATO secretary general Javier Solana was refused entry to the U.S. because he had visited Iran for the inauguration ceremony of President Hassan Rouhani in 2013.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will host the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan for a meeting geared toward bringing peace to Afghanistan.

Erdogan spoke Friday at a joint news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is making his first visit to Turkey since he came to power in August.

Erdogan said the trilateral meeting would take place in Istanbul after Turkey’s March local election.

Khan told reporters he hoped the meeting would bring “badly needed peace” to Afghanistan.

Erdogan, meanwhile, welcomed Pakistan’s decision to hand over schools affiliated with exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen to a Turkish government foundation. Turkey blames Gulen for a 2016 failed coup.

Khan on Thursday visited the tomb of the 13th-century Sufi mystic Jalaladdin Rumi in the city of Konya.

 
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A suspected case of the deadly Ebola virus has been reported by a Swedish hospital, officials said Friday, adding that the patient has been isolated.

Region Uppsala, which oversees several hospitals and medical clinics north of Stockholm, says a test had been carried out on the patient, who was not identified, adding a result would be available late Friday.

In its statement, Region Uppsala said it was so far “only a matter of suspicion,” adding “other diseases are quite possible.”

It did not say where the patient had traveled, but Sweden’s TT news agency said the patient had returned from a trip to Burundi three weeks ago and had not visited any region with the Ebola virus.

The authorities said the hospital in Enkoping where the patient was first admitted had its emergency room shut down and the staff who treated the patient were “cared for.” The patient was eventually transferred to an infection clinic in Uppsala.

“The patient came in Friday morning and reportedly was vomiting blood which may be a symptom of Ebola infection,” hospital spokesman Mikael Kohler told local newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning. He was not immediately available for further comment.

Eastern Congo currently faces an Ebola outbreak. All major outbreaks have been in Africa, though isolated cases have been reported outside the continent. The hemorrhagic fever’s virus is spread via contact with the bodily fluids of those infected.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have held telephone consultations centering on Syria.

In the Friday call, Putin and Netanyahu “focused on developments in Syria, including in light of the United States’ stated intention to withdraw its troops from that country. They pointed to the need for the final defeat of terrorism and speedy achievement of a political settlement in Syria,” a Kremlin statement said.

Netanyahu also offered condolences following an apartment building collapse in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk this week that killed 39 people, the statement said.
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Two of Britain’s largest international airports are planning to install military-grade anti-drone defense systems to avoid attacks like the one that grounded nearly 1,000 flights at London’s Gatwick Airport over the Christmas holidays.

Last month, British authorities sought help from the military after a number of drone sightings over Gatwick, Britain’s second-busiest airport, forced it to shut down, disrupting travel plans of tens of thousands of people just before Christmas.

British media said the military deployed technology similar to the Israeli-designed Drone Dome system, which can detect and disable a drone by jamming its communication frequencies.

Airport security officials worldwide are studying the issue.

Officials at London’s Heathrow Airport and Gatwick on Thursday confirmed the purchase of the anti-drone systems but would not say if they were the same as the one used by the military. The reports of the purchase first appeared in The Times.

The airport purchases were made despite a comment last month, in which Security Minister Ben Wallace said Britain’s security forces had detection systems that could be deployed throughout the country to combat the threat of drones.
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Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey are threatening to resurface following President Donald Trump’s apparent walking back of his commitment to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and end support for a Syrian Kurdish militia. 

Washington’s backing of the YPG Kurdish militia in its war against the Islamic State group pushed U.S.-Turkish relations to a breaking point. Ankara links the militia to the Kurdish rebel group PKK, which has been fighting a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey. 

Trump’s declaration of victory over IS and vow to quickly withdraw about 2,000 American forces based mainly with the YPG ushered in hopes of a breakthrough in strained ties with Ankara. Trump on Wednesday, though, said, “I never said fast or slow. Somebody said four months, but I did not say that either.”

Adding to Ankara’s nervousness, Trump said, “We want to protect the Kurds [in Syria].” The U.S. president is facing growing national and international pressure over the decision to leave Syria and abandon the YPG. Turkish military forces continue to mass ahead of an expected strike against the YPG. 

“In Ankara, the strategic thinking is a threat to Turkish national security emanating from Syria,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen. “It’s an extension of PKK controlling the Syrian border, and Ankara has repeatedly said this will not be allowed.” 

​Green light

Trump’s initial statements of an unconditional quick pullout from Syria were widely interpreted in Turkey as a green light for a Turkish military operation against the YPG. However, Trump’s latest comments of a more gradual withdrawal and protection of the Kurds are seen as putting Ankara’s plans in question. 

“There was euphoria by the [Turkish] government. It was a historic decision for Ankara by Trump to leave Syria immediately,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. 

“But now Trump is also classically acting again, trying not to leave without giving protection to Kurds. And Turkey in this respect cannot do anything about this; Turkey will have to accept Kurds are under American protection,” Bagci added.  

Analysts suggest Ankara also is likely to be alarmed by growing calls for the creation of a buffer zone between Turkish and YPG forces along the Syrian border. South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, speaking to reporters after meeting with Trump, said the president was considering such a move. 

Roderich Kiesewetter, chair of the German parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, is backing a similar initiative. “We need a sanctuary, and the United Nations could do that for the Kurds of northern Syria, under U.N. influence,” Kiesewetter said Wednesday to German radio. 

“The creation of buffer zone is to protect the Kurds. In this respect, it’s not good for Turkey. Turkey will lose the opportunity to fight the YPG troops there,” said Bagci. “Turkey will oppose, but at the end of the day they will have to accept.”  

Pre-emptive strike

Analysts suggest Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be tempted to thwart any buffer zone by launching a pre-emptive military operation in Syria, east of the Euphrates River, where most of the YPG forces are based. Key March local elections could also enter into Erdogan’s calculations, given growing voter dissatisfaction over a slowing economy. 

“The timing of an operation east of the Euphrates may be an attempt to solidify the voter base,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of GlobalSource Partners, an investment analysis service. “But these attempts are futile at the end. People care whether they can bring bread home, and if they can’t, a very clear victory in some remote location doesn’t mean much to them.”  

Whether Ankara launches a Syrian operation is likely to depend on Moscow’s cooperation. Russian missiles control much of Syrian airspace. Turkey’s last cross-border operation against the YPG in Syria’s Afrin province relied on the use of air support.  

The Turkish defense and foreign ministers, along with the intelligence chief, reportedly failed recently to secure permission to use Syrian airspace during a visit to Moscow. Analysts suggest Moscow is balancing conflicting interests of seeking to court Ankara in a bid to draw it away from its NATO partners, while knowing Damascus will be opposed to Turkish seizure of more Syrian territory. 

Ankara also has conflicting interests. A U.S. delegation of judiciary and security officials Thursday began a two-day visit to Ankara to discuss Turkey’s bid to extradite U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen for his alleged role in masterminding the 2016 failed coup. Ankara in the past has accused Washington of foot-dragging over its extradition calls. 

Holding Gulen to account and reining in his network of followers remains a strategic priority of Ankara’s. Analysts suggest concessions by Washington to Ankara over Gulen’s extradition could well help to assuage Turkish concerns over Syria.
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Political pressure is growing on the European Union from some member states to rethink freedom of movement rules and to start introducing restrictions to stem what they see as disruptive migration.

The latest challenge doesn’t lie with the refugee crisis and the irritation with non-EU migrants easily moving across the continent and cherry-picking which European state to try to settle in, but the concern that migration between EU countries is further depopulating economically depressed regions and towns, condemning them to a gloomy future of being “left behind” permanently.

Last month, the pro-EU former British prime minister, Tony Blair, added his voice to the idea that free movement should be re-thought. Blair, who is campaigning for Britain to hold a second referendum on whether to leave the EU, said a rethink could help Britain remain in the Brussels bloc under new membership terms.

“If you take freedom of movement and the question of immigration, this is an issue all over European politics today,” he told the BBC. Many Britons who voted for Brexit cited free movement as their main reason for wanting to quit the EU.

‘Sacred pillar’

Freedom of movement is one of the ‘sacred’ pillars of the EU’s single market and seen by Brussels as crucial for European integration. Many younger Europeans see it as a birthright, allowing them to travel, work and study in any EU member states they want. And millions have embraced the opportunity to relocate.

But central and southern European member states have seen a hollowing out of their populations, thanks to youth emigration, which in turn is putting a brake on their economic growth and leaving behind ghost towns inhabited by pensioners and the less-skilled and resourceful. Left with aging populations, countries that have seen high levels of migration are finding there are fewer young working taxpayers to fund increased health care and pension needs.

In the past 20 years, more than 3.6 million mostly young Romanians have left their native country. And a recent survey suggests that half of all young people still living in Romania have concrete plans to leave. Since Poland joined the EU in 2004, more than 2 million Poles have left.

And Latvia has been especially impacted by migration. Since its accession to the EU, nearly a fifth of the nation has left to work in other more affluent states, mainly Britain, Ireland and Germany. The exodus has prompted fears of Latvia becoming a “disappearing nation.”

Last year, the Latvian government appointed an ambassador with the main task of wooing Latvians back home. Next door, Lithuania has also experienced an exodus, seeing its population shrink by 17.5 percent.

Time to rethink?

Blair isn’t alone among prominent European politicians to question whether it is time for a rethink.

In November, Romania’s finance minister, Eugen Teodorovici, warned that migration of many young skilled Romanians is having deleterious effects on the country by causing a “brain drain” from some industries.

“If someone goes to Germany and keeps getting the right to work, then he will never return to Croatia or Romania, where he left,” he said. “We need to learn at the European level that as one area becomes poorer, another becomes richer,” he added.

Teodorovici argues young Europeans who have migrated should be issued with five-year work permits, after which they would have to leave and possibly return home.

His remarks prompted uproar both in Romania and Brussels. But some other Central European governments are exploring ways to entice back workers, including considering offering financial incentives to encourage youngsters to return.

Advocates of free movement say migration fears are being overblown, arguing money workers send back to their families is crucial for depressed regions. They point out depopulation is being caused as much by low birth rates.

Many youngsters eventually return, they say, often coming back more skilled, affluent and entrepreneurial, which adds to development potential in their home towns. According to the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, the number of emigres returning home in 2016 was about 40 percent of those who left.

Efforts to limit freedom of movement are likely to fail, with young Europeans especially critical of the idea that there should be within Europe free circulation of money, goods and services but not of labor.

Atis Sjanits, the Latvian diplomat charged with enticing young Latvians back home, has argued that changing the rules now isn’t possible. He says the focus should be on making it more attractive for emigres to return.
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Blue was a rare, expensive color in ancient times, whether it was derived from lapis lazuli mined in Afghanistan some 6,000 years ago, made by blending copper with other elements throughout the Middle East and in ancient China, or mixing an extract of the indigo plant with clay and resin by Mayans in Mesoamerica. Now, a centuries-old tradition of dyeing blue cloth with delicate patterns in parts of eastern Europe has been recognized for its cultural importance by UNESCO. Faith Lapidus reports.
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Britain’s impending departure from the European Union poses a big risk, but domestic demand is still fueling growth in the German economy, Europe’s largest, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said in an interview published Thursday.

Altmaier said Brexit, global trade conflicts and changes in automotive industry approvals had slowed economic growth in the second half of 2018, but Germany’s gross domestic product looked set to enter its 10th year of expansion in 2019.

“The order books of industry and the trades are full,” Altmaier told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper. “The chances are good that economic growth will continue for a 10th consecutive year,” the longest period of continuous growth since the 1960s.

The German government last month cut its economic growth forecast for 2018 to around 1.5 to 1.6 percent from 1.8 percent.

The German economy has shifted into a lower gear as Brexit and trade conflicts sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies cause business uncertainty.

German exporters are also struggling with a more general slowdown of foreign demand as the global economy cools.

Altmaier cautioned that the prospects for continued economic expansion hinged on the ability of German industry to adapt to promising new areas such as electric mobility, sustainable energy production and artificial intelligence.

He said Brexit and a shortage of skilled labor posed risks to the economy, and many companies had not invested enough in expanding production. He called for quick parliamentary approval of a new immigration law aimed at filling those gaps.

Making it easier to attract skilled workers to Germany could boost economic growth by several tenths of a percentage point, he said, noting that Germany had some 57,000 unfilled trainee positions.

“The growth effects are difficult to quantify, but I expect that a functioning influx of migrants to the labor market could add multiple tenths of a percentage point of additional growth in Germany,” Altmaier told the paper.
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U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman on Wednesday visited the retired U.S. Marine who has been detained on espionage charges in Russia.

He also spoke on the phone with the family of Paul Whelan, 48, according to a State Department statement that did not release any details of the call “due to privacy considerations for Mr. Whelan and his family.” 

It did say, “Ambassador Huntsman expressed his support for Mr. Whelan and offered the embassy’s assistance.”  

Access was granted just hours after U.S. Secretary Mike Pompeo said he expected an explanation of why the American was arrested and demanded his release if the detention was not appropriate. 

On Monday, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officials said Whelan had been detained Dec. 28 “while carrying out an act of espionage” and that a criminal probe had been ordered. 

The FSB provided no further details, but Russia’s state-run TASS news agency said Whelan faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Whelan is employed as director of global security at BorgWarner, an American automotive parts supplier. 

Whelan’s family learned of his arrest only after it was reported by Russian state news outlets, prompting the family to contact congressional representatives and U.S. diplomats. 

“We are deeply concerned for his safety and well-being,” the family said.  “His innocence is undoubted and we trust that his rights will be respected.”

Scandals

Whelan’s arrest coincided with several spy scandals that have exacerbated tensions between Russia and the West, including the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain. 

News of Whelan’s detention came less than 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a New Year’s greeting to U.S. President Donald Trump in which he said Moscow was amenable to a continuing dialogue with Washington on a range of topics.

In 2016, Izvestia, a Kremlin-aligned news outlet, reported there were 13 U.S. citizens in Russian jails at the time. The Kremlin has not since published any details on other Americans currently in Russian detention. 

VOA’s Peter Cobus in Moscow contributed to this report.
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The suspect in the stabbing of three people on New Year’s Eve in Manchester was being held under mental health laws, British police said Tuesday.

Manchester police, however, said in a statement they were continuing to investigate the attack because of suspected terrorism links.

A suspect, whose identity has not been disclosed, has been detained on suspicion of attempted murder, police said. He has not been charged.

Police released no other details, but said the suspect’s home was being searched late Tuesday.

“There is nothing to suggest the involvement of other people in this attack, but confirming this remains a main priority for the investigation,” police said in a statement, adding the counterterrorism probe “remains ongoing.”

A witness to the attack, BBC producer Sam Clack, recalled, “I just heard the guy shout, as part of a sentence, ‘Allah.’ ”

“I heard the man say, ‘As long as you keep bombing these countries this is going to keep happening,’ ” Clack told BBC 5 Live radio, according to a Reuters report.

Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said intelligence suggests there is not a wider threat but that additional police would patrol the streets to reassure the public.

Two of the victims were treated at a local hospital for knife wounds. The third victim was a police officer, who was treated in a hospital for a stab wound to the shoulder and released.

Victoria Station is located near Manchester Arena, where a suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017.

Britain’s threat level is “severe,” the second-highest level, meaning an attack is considered highly likely.
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Think of public spaces in big cities, and formal parks, bustling markets and grand squares come to mind.

Think again.

In the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, residents have redrawn the map and come up with innovative ways for locals to congregate in their ancient and fast-changing city.

A boxing ring was built on a bridge. Next to it — architects installed art to amuse commuters as they hurried over the river.

The grimy gaps between garages were turned into a ‘stadium’ where locals could face off over dominoes. Inside the disused garages, bakeries, barbers and beauty salons plied their trade.

It is not how most cities do public spaces, but Tbilisi — which stands at the crossroads of Europe and Asia — has a long history shaped by diverse masters, all of whom left their architectural imprint on the Caucasus.

As the city shakes off decades of Soviet rule and reinvents itself again, developers have bent once-tight planning rules and a building boom is underway — one that is changing the face of the city and jeopardizing the open areas where Georgians meet.

“Left behind … (in) the construction boom, public spaces are still important and constitute a resource, a big treasure to be preserved,” says Nano Zazanashvili, head of the urban policy and research division at Tbilsi’s Department of Urban Development, a city office. “The main challenge of the City Hall is to protect these areas.”

Boxing Bridge

The DKD bridge — which connects two Soviet-era residential districts — is a perfect example of how locals adapted centrally-imposed urban design to fit their own suburban needs.

Flat dwellers in this northeastern sprawl live in the sort of anonymous, concrete blocks typical of any Soviet city.

Beauty is not their selling point, so in the 1990s architects installed informal shops, a hotel and a boxing gym on the bridge, which connects two identikit micro-districts.

The bridge building was part of an outdoor exhibition created for the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial earlier this year.

The event – the first since Georgia regained independence in 1991 – brought together experts to study the city’s rapid transformation and to involve locals in the debate.

“It is the very beginning, not even a first step,” Tinatin Gurgenidze, co-founder of the Biennial, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “The local community needs to understand what is the necessity of working on these issues.”

Rich Mix

Downtown, the cityscape makes for an eclectic backdrop.

Deco mansions jostle with Soviet constructivism. Ancient sulphur baths and tiny churches squat at the feet of futuristic skyscrapers, while rickety wooden houses lean into the hills, their gaily painted balconies perched in thin air.

Much of this history is fading into oblivion, sagging walls propped up with outsize beams to stop whole ghost streets crashing to dust.

Other parts of town are bulldozed and built over.

The city center is a decade into a frenetic construction boom, but the drab Gldani suburb mostly cleaves to its 1970s integrity, an era when uniform blocks were built to accommodate workers relocated from older, central neighborhoods.

This dormitory suburb became the area of the city with the highest density of population – and as communism and central control began to crumble, residents stole the chance to tack on ad-hoc balconies, garages and makeshift gardens.

With Georgian independence came a headlong rush to architectural deregulation, free of any supervision or control, changing the look, feel and use of once sacred public spaces.

“People came up with their own solutions to the problems,” said Gurgenidze, who trained in Georgia as an architect. “The informal structures need to be taken into consideration when decision makers and architects plan the future of these areas.”

Informal and Changed

Take the garages — erected in front of flats to park cars in the 1990s, they were later transformed into basic fruit and vegetable shops, bakeries, barbers and beauty salons.

Rented for 40-100 lari ($15 to £38) a month, the self-declared shops generate extra income for the residents and many were legalized after the fact into formal commercial spaces.

Now they face a possible next life.

The mayor of Tbilisi, former soccer star Kakha Kaladze, this year launched an initiative with local backing to replace the ‘garages’ with playgrounds or gardens.

So far, the plan has had limited success.

But according to architect Nikoloz Lekveishvili, locals are regaining the tiny spaces in between to play dominoes, soak up the greenery and relax with neighbors.

“People see this public space as an opportunity,” he said.

Lali Pertenavi, an artist who grew up in Gldani, temporarily turned Block 76 — a local residential building — into an exhibition space in October as part of the biennial. Residents opened their homes to artists, who in turn transformed them into social spaces recalling the best of Soviet-era collectivism.

While a master plan for the whole city is under discussion at municipal level, public spaces for ordinary people are low in the pecking order of priorities.

“Public spaces and green areas are a hot topic in the local debate but people don’t have enough time to fight for it,” said Anano Tsintsabadze, a lawyer and activist managing the Initiative for a Pubic Space, an NGO that focuses on urban planning and supports residents fighting for public spaces.

In parts of the city, such as Saburtalo and Didi Digomi, the community is slowly mobilizing against the privatization of public spaces amid a drive to keep them free and accessible.

“The social tissue has grown more than the local government.

People know what happens in Europe and are asking for more organised, clean urban spaces,” said architect Nikoloz Lekveishvili, co-founder of Timm Architecture, an international network stretching from Milan to Moscow, Istanbul to Tbilisi.

($1 = 2.6550 laris)
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Populist forces returned with a vengeance to Europe in 2018, seizing power in Italy and extending their grip in countries like Hungary and Poland. In France, street protests erupted demanding the resignation of the president. The populist wave could have major implications for European parliamentary elections scheduled this coming year where the political center now faces an assault from both right and left. Henry Ridgwell has more from Brussels.
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Ukrainian officials are warning that Russia may be about to escalate its conflict with Ukraine, including possibly launching a breakout offensive from Crimea.

And they accuse Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region of violating the latest cease-fire — dubbed a “New Year’s Truce”— by attacking Ukrainian positions with a heavy-caliber weapon banned under the Minsk peace agreements.

An increasing number of Russian military convoys have been spotted moving toward the border between Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, and Ukrainian-held territory, and there have been ominous fighter-jet redeployments to Crimean airfields, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

“Russia continues to build up and prepare its military forces for possible offensive operations against Ukraine from the Crimean peninsula and the East,” the institute has reported. It says Russia could conduct such operations on short notice.

Analysts say the movements are threatening, but they are divided over the intent, with some suggesting President Vladimir Putin is keeping the West guessing.

“The data suggests that Putin is preparing to attack, although alternative interpretations are possible,” the institute said.

“The unpredictability is the point,” a senior European defense official told VOA. “Putin is testing Ukraine and the West to see if he’ll be checked, to see what he can get away with, and maybe with an eye to securing another summit early this year with [U.S. President] Donald Trump,” he added.

The Russian leader issued New Year greetings to dozens of global leaders on Sunday, including Trump, saying relations between the U.S. and Russia are the key to “ensuring strategic stability and international security.” Putin added that Russia is “open to dialogue with the United States on the most extensive agenda.”

With tensions running high between Ukraine and Russia after Russian coastal forces seized three Ukrainian vessels on Nov. 25 — a tugboat and two patrol boats — in international waters in the Black Sea near Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula, fears are mounting in Kyiv of another major confrontation.

The press service of the Joint Forces Operation, the military command structure overseeing Ukraine’s defense against the Russian-led military intervention in eastern Ukraine, said Ukrainian positions near Novotashkivsk were struck by 120 millimeter mortar rounds Monday night.

Weapons with calibers of more than 100mm are banned under the 2015 Minsk II agreement from a 50-kilometer zone running along the front line between Ukrainian and Russian-led forces in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.

Russian-led forces shelled Ukrainian positions also near the port city of Mariupol with 82mm mortars, the press service said.

A former adviser to Putin, Andrey Illarionov, now one of the Russian leader’s most strident critics, warned last month that Moscow is ready to deploy special forces to seize a vital Communist-era canal that used to provide 85 percent of Crimea’s fresh water before Ukraine blocked it in 2014. He says the peninsula will face a severe water shortage in the summer, impacting farms and factories, as well as households.

llarionov told the Kyiv Post he believes the West has inadvertently given Moscow the green light for further adventurism by failing to sanction Russia for the November incident in the Azov Sea when Russian coastal forces rammed, fired upon and seized three small Ukrainian vessels.

“Putin [thinks he] has nothing to lose. We’ve seen since the Azov Sea incident that the West has not imposed any serious penalties.”

In recent weeks, Russian news outlets have published articles about water shortages on the Crimean peninsula, as well as about Russian military exercises taking place near the narrow land corridor linking Crimea to Ukraine’s Kherson region.

Some analysts suggest that Putin might cast any seizing of the canal as an intervention necessitated to prevent a Ukraine-provoked humanitarian crisis on the peninsula. An occupation of parts of the Kherson region would give Russian forces the ability to tighten their stranglehold on Ukraine’s ports and to interfere with ship movements in and out of Mykolaiv and Mariupol, which are already experiencing sharp decreases in freight traffic.

Among the Russian military movements being observed by Kyiv and Western powers are the redeployments of fighter jets. Just before Christmas, Reuters reported more than a dozen Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets were relocated to Belbek Airbase near Sevastopol from Krymsk airfield in Krasnodar Territory.

The redeployments and military build up is alarming the former commander of U.S. Army Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who retired last year from active service. The Russia government is seeking to redraw the borders more, he fears. In an interview with the Military Times newspaper Monday, Hodges said, unless there’s greater Western pushback, “they won’t stop until they completely own the Sea of Azov and have choked out Ukraine’s very important seaport of Mariupol.”

“The next phase will probably be land and sea operations that would eventually secure maybe even Mariupol but continue to take the Ukrainian coastline and connect Crimea back up to Russia along the Sea of Azov,” Hodges said. “It’s not going to happen in the next six months, but this is the direction they’re taking until they completely own the Black Sea and they’ve isolated Ukraine,” he added.

 
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