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Opponents of Britain’s departure from the European Union are floating the idea of setting up a new anti-Brexit political party.

James Chapman, a former aide to Brexit Secretary David Davis, has become an outspoken critic of Britain’s looming departure from the 28-nation bloc.

He is calling for a new centrist political party because both the governing Conservatives and main opposition Labour parties say they will go through with the decision to leave.

Chapman said Friday “there is an enormous gap in the center now of British politics” that could be filled by an anti-Brexit force.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has also called for pro-EU politicians from all parties to unite.

Britain is currently negotiating its divorce from the EU and is due to leave in March 2019.
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Croatia revoked on Thursday its decision to raise import fees on some farm products by 220 percent, avoiding a trade war with its Balkan neighbors who had threatened to hit back with counter-measures.

European Union-member Croatia last month raised its fees for phytosanitary controls — agricultural checks for pests and viruses on fruits and vegetables — at its borders to 2,000 kuna ($317.52) from 90 kuna, citing compliance with EU standards and protection of its consumers.

EU candidates Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as fellow EU aspirant Bosnia, have called on Croatia to withdraw its decision, saying otherwise each of them would take counter-measures it considered adequate to protect its economic interests.

Serbia, which is the only country in the region that operates a trade surplus with its neighbor, has already stepped up phytosanitary controls on all organic produce from Croatia and said it would increase them further.

Croatia’s agriculture ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it cut the import fee for a shipment of one brand of fruits and vegetables to 90 kuna, and that the decision will become effective on Friday.

The ministry also agreed with neighboring countries that agricultural inspections on their borders will go back to normal routine as of Friday, while all other pending issues will be analyzed and discussed, it said in the statement.

Most countries in the region import more than they export to Croatia, except for Serbia. Serbia’s exports to Croatia in 2016 reached 116 million euros ($136.04 million) versus imports worth 79 million euros.

Neighboring countries welcomed Croatia’s move.

“Bringing the prices back at the previous level will contribute to the relaxation of relations among the countries of the region,” said Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.

($1 = 0.8527 euros)

($1 = 6.2989 kuna)
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A former investigative reporter for Russia’s independent RBC media group was found guilty and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday on charges of organizing an extremist group and attempting to overthrow the government.

Authorities said Alexander Sokolov, 29, was the mastermind behind the group “For Responsible Government,” or FRG, a Moscow-based organization alleged to be a cover for banned extremist group “People’s Will Army,” which was created by Sokolov associate Yuri Mukhin.

Moscow judge Alexey Krivoruchko sentenced Mukhin, a newspaper editor, to a four-year suspended term, while two other activists – Valery Parfenov and Kirill Barabash – both received four-year sentences. All deny the charges.

Sokolov said his trial and sentencing are persecution for his investigative reporting. The human rights group Memorial called Sokolov “a political prisoner,” and media rights group Reporters Without Borders testified on his behalf.

During the proceedings, independent Russian channel TV Rain recorded video of Sokolov making brief remarks before the press was ordered to leave.

“The idea of a referendum in Russia has been equated with ‘extremism,’” said Sokolov on camera, wearing a white T-shirt with the same message printed on the front. “It is a crime, as you see, to want a referendum in Russia….” Sokolov’s speech was interrupted by a guard shouting, “Press, this is it, you’re leaving! Press, out!”

Sokolov was arrested July 29, 2015, weeks after RBC published a report he wrote on the alleged embezzlement of $1.55 billion from a project initiated by President Vladimir Putin – construction of a new space launch site in Russia’s Far East. Additionally, Mukhin, Parfenov and Barabash were taken into custody the same day. Prosecutors alleged that as members of FRG, the four were advocating for a referendum on government in Russia.

The article that Sokolov wrote was passed to the Auditing Chamber of the Russian Federation, which in December 2015 confirmed his findings and issued a statement about “financial irregularities” during the construction project.

Sokolov had been monitored by the Russian authorities since 2014, when police investigator Natalia Talaeva opened the criminal probe into Sokolov and his associates. Court records dealing with Sokolov’s arrest said Talaeva considered his work at the FRG, including publications calling for the referendum in Russia, to be incriminating evidence against him. Talaeva added that the real goal of Sokolov’s group was the “dismantlement of Russian statehood” and “an illegal transition of power” through a referendum.

The same year, Sokolov was finishing his thesis on government losses from corruption, looking at government companies Rosnano, Rostech, Olympstroi, and Rosatom. Police, suspecting him of extremist activity, searched his home at 5:00 one morning and confiscated all data storage devices, accusing him of plotting a regime change.

In an interview with Russia’s independent media outlet Novaya Gazeta after the search, Sokolov said, “I am not afraid because the truth is on my side. This will be more proof that the government is scared of responsibility before the people. I am not even considering moving away or leaving and hiding somewhere. I have absolutely nothing to hide. It’s they who are potentially going to compensate me for the damages…”

Sokolov and the other defendants have already spent two years in jail and plan to appeal their sentences.
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U.S. military experts are lining up on either side of a debate on whether to supply lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine, a move that would mark a turning point in U.S. policy on Kyiv’s 3-year-old conflict with Russian-backed separatists.

Supporters of the move, which is under active consideration by President Donald Trump’s administration, argue that it is long overdue. The current policy of supplying only non-lethal military gear has neither deterred Russian aggression nor created an opening for cooperation with Moscow to resolve the conflict, they argue.

“I don’t think Russia has given us a window for more positive cooperation on Ukraine,” said Molly McKew, an independent analyst with consulting firm Fianna Strategies. “Maybe other places. But, I certainly don’t see it.So, I think it’s time to reconsider what our strategy has been and what that means.

“And … Ukraine is not asking for foreign troops to come and stand beside them,” she told VOA’s Ukranian Service. “They’re asking for the ability to fight the war in the way that they know they need to fight.”

Other advocates argue that sending a message of strength would be timely after Russia retaliated against U.S. sanctions by expelling U.S. Embassy staff from diplomatic property in Moscow and demanding their numbers be reduced by 755 people by September 1.

But opponents of the move worry that supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine could escalate the conflict and provoke retaliation from the Kremlin, which has already denounced the possibility.

“I think it would make much more sense to re-think some of the aid and capabilities that are being given … and not plan them for a short-term fight, since major battles in the fronts are now passed,” said Michael Kofman, a researcher at CNA Corporation, a private research organization.

He said the U.S. should “think much more about the medium and long term of the Ukrainian military and the kind of Ukrainian military we would like to help them build.”

Kurt Volker, the Trump administration’s special envoy to Ukraine, rejected the argument that lethal arms sales would provoke Russia during a July 25 interview with Current Time, a Russian-language network jointly operated by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and VOA.

“I hear these arguments that it’s somehow provocative to Russia or that it’s going to embolden Ukraine to attack,” he said. “These are just flat out wrong. First off, Russia is already in Ukraine, they are already heavily armed. There are more Russian tanks in there than in Western Europe combined. It is a large, large military presence. And, there’s an even larger military presence surrounding Ukraine from Russian territory.”

Analysts on both sides agree that Russia’s overwhelming military advantage over Ukraine means the supply of U.S. weapons would provide more of a political and morale boost for Kyiv than a defense one.

Nevertheless, Moscow is likely to raise the issue with Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, when it gets the chance. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the special envoy is expected to visit Russia for talks on Ukraine in the near future, although U.S. officials have yet to confirm the trip.

“It will be interesting because Mr. Volker has been in a number of capitals already including Kyiv, Paris, Berlin, London,” Lavrov said. “We would be interested to see what impression the U.S. special envoy has on the current state of affairs.”

During a trip to Ukraine last month, Volker visited front-line areas in the east where Ukrainian troops have been in a stand-off against Russia-backed separatists for the past three years.

He blamed Russian aggression for the violence, which has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014, when Russian forces seized Ukrainian military bases in Crimea, annexed the Black Sea peninsula, and began covert support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
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The European Union recorded the largest increase in slavery of any world region in 2017, with the arrival of more than 100,000 migrants, many of them extremely vulnerable to exploitation, analysts said Thursday.

The risk of slave labor in farming, construction and other sectors rose across the region, with 20 of the EU’s 28 member states scoring worse than in 2016 in an annual global slavery index by British analytics company Verisk Maplecroft.

“The migrant crisis has increased the risk of slavery incidents appearing in company supply chains across Europe,” said Sam Haynes, senior human rights analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.

Globally there are 21 million people in forced labor, including children, in a business worth $150 billion a year, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The index, which assessed incidents of human trafficking or slavery, as well as laws and law enforcement in 198 countries, ranked Romania, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Bulgaria as the countries with the most slave labor within the EU.

All are key entry points for migrants in the region, Verisk Maplecroft said.

Some 115,000 migrants and refugees have reached Europe by sea so far in 2017, with more than 80 percent arriving in Italy, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Many agree to pay large amounts of money for the journey and end up working virtually for free, trapped by debts owed to the agents who brought them across the border, said Alexandra Channer, principal human rights analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.

“Many illegal migrants entering the EU are so in debt to a trafficking gang or unscrupulous agents that they have no hope of paying that cost,” she told Reuters.

Local authorities are struggling to manage the slavery issue effectively due to the large numbers of arrivals, she added.

Globally, North Korea retained the top spot as having the worst record of slave labor, while, outside the EU, Turkey lost the most ground in the ranking, slipping into the “high risk” category.

India improved the most, jumping from 15 to 49, while Thailand also made significant gains in the fight against slavery, moving up 21 places to 48.

But both countries remained rated as at “extreme risk” with severe abuses reported in construction, brick kilns, garment production, manufacturing, farming, fishing and rubber production, according to the analysis.

Channer said the index aimed at helping businesses identify countries most at risk of slave labor.
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Bosnia’s religious leaders say politicians are standing in the way of peaceful coexistence between Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities trying to forgive and forget after the atrocities of a devastating 1990s war.

Hundreds of churches, mosques and synagogues bear witness to more than five centuries of Bosnia’s multi-faith past, and the capital Sarajevo is known locally as a “small Jerusalem” with its main ethnic groups – Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks – all worshiping within meters of each other.

But Mufti Husein Kavazovic, head of the Islamic community in Bosnia, says people of faith cannot achieve peace alone.

“It is up to political elites to do more. For a start, it would be good that they stop their ideological manipulation of religion for their own political goals. It is up to us, of course, not to allow them to do that,” he said.

Even though nationalists from all three ethnic groups still insist on exclusivity for their own groups, religious leaders are keen to heal rifts after the 1992-1995 war in which about 100,000 civilians were killed and millions displaced.

Friar Zeljko Brkic at Kraljeva Sutjeska – among the oldest Franciscan monasteries in Bosnia and dating from 1385 – said: “Bosnia can only survive as a multi-ethnic state, no matter how much politicians try to convince us that this is not possible.”

His Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim peers agree.

“It is very important that we have here different cultures and religions, and that based on that we can easily build and verify our own identities,” said Nektarije, a deacon at the Orthodox monastery Zitomislici in what is now the Catholic Croat-dominated southern part of the country.

Jakob Finci, the president of the Jewish community in Bosnia, gives Sarajevo as an example of close cooperation, citing Muslims there helping Jews to hide during War World II and Jews providing food for people of all faiths in the three-year siege by Bosnian Serb forces.

“Sarajevo is the best proof that living together is possible and that it represents the only way of life for us,” he said.

This week, about 120 leaders from 27 countries arrived in Sarajevo to take part in a meeting of the youth-led Muslim Jewish Conference, founded by Ilja Sichrovski in Vienna in 2010.

“We feel at home here,” Sichrovski said.
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A 10-year-old refugee, who has been nicknamed “the little Picasso” for his artistic talent, is holding his first exhibition — and donating all the money raised to a sick Serbian boy.

Farhad Nouri’s drawings and photographs were put on display Wednesday in Belgrade, where he has lived in a crowded migrant camp with his parents and two younger brothers for the past eight months.

The family was forced to flee conflict and poverty in their home country of Afghanistan two years ago, traveling through Greece and Turkey before arriving in Serbia.

The boy’s gift for art was spotted during language and painting workshops in Belgrade that were organized by local aid groups for refugees and migrants.

“We quickly realized how talented he was and sent him to a painting school as well as a three-month photography workshop, so this is a retrospective of what he learned there,” said Edin Sinanovic from the Refugees Foundation, a local NGO.

Among Nouri’s works exhibited in the garden of a Belgrade cafe were his drawings of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Harry Potter. His photographs mostly include scenes from around Belgrade.

In addition to holding his first exhibition, “Farhad wanted to help someone, so he chose to dedicate it to a six-year-old Serbian boy who needs funds for his therapy after brain cancer,” Sinanovic said.

Nouri, who is dreaming of one day moving to Switzerland to become a painter and a photographer, said he wanted to help someone else as well to show how important it is to be good to other people.

“We all need kindness,” he said.
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German prosecutors say they’ve arrested a 29-year-old Syrian man on allegations he committed war crimes as a member of the Islamic State group in his home country.

The federal prosecutor’s office said Wednesday that Fares A. B., whose last name wasn’t released in line with privacy laws, is also accused of membership in a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors allege that he joined the Nusra Front extremist organization in 2013, and then moved to IS in 2014.

There, he was detailed to a jail and allegedly abused three prisoners. He’s also accused of beating a pickup truck driver with his assault rifle at a traffic control point, and executing an IS prisoner in 2014.

He was arrested in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg July 31 and brought before a judge Tuesday.

 
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A car rammed into a group of French soldiers Wednesday in a suburb of Paris, injuring six of them in what authorities say was a deliberate attack.

The incident happened as the soldiers left their barracks in Levallois-Perret to go on patrol.  Mayor Patrick Balkany said “without a doubt” the attack was intentional.

“The vehicle did not stop,” Balkany said. “It hurtled at them … it accelerated rapidly.”

Authorities were searching for the driver of the car, while the Paris prosecutor’s office said it has opened a counterterrorism investigation.

The attack follows a series of other Islamic State-inspired strikes on soldiers and police, large numbers of whom have been deployed in France in response to IS calls for attacks against France and other countries that have bombed IS positions in Iraq and Syria.

All told, more than 230 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in attacks inspired by the militant group over the past two years, including two 2015 attacks in Paris and another in the coastal city of Nice in mid-2016.

 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia Tuesday to express his support for separatists there and in South Ossetia on the ninth anniversary of a deadly five-day war between Moscow and Tbilisi.

The Georgian government protested against the Kremlin leader’s visit to Abkhazia’s Black Sea resort Pitsunda, and the foreign ministry in Tbilisi denounced Putin’s “cynical action.” NATO said Putin’s trip was “detrimental to international efforts to find a peaceful and negotiated settlement” of the war the two countries fought in 2008.

The foreign ministry said Putin’s trip to Abkhazia was a gesture meant only “for legitimization of forceful change of borders of the sovereign state (Georgia) through military aggression, ethnic cleansing and occupation.”

Georgia sees both Abkhazia and South Ossetia as its sovereign territory, and most of the world agrees. Russia is one of only four nations to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru are the only states to side with Russia on the issue.

Minister urges calm

Georgia maintains that Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been illegally integrated into Russia’s military, political, economic and social system.

Despite Putin’s appearance just 400 kilometers from Tbilisi Tuesday, some Georgian officials counseled calm. “We must not be provoked,” said Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, the minister for reconciliation and civil equality. Writing in the journal Foreign Policy, she noted: “We should keep the peace, as it is vitally important for us.”

Georgia and Russia have never restored diplomatic relations since the brief but deadly war nine years ago. A fact-finding mission commissioned by the European found that more than 400 Georgians were killed during five days of clashes, and nearly 1,750 others were wounded; casualties among Russians and residents of Abkhazia were in the same range, and overall, 150,000 Georgians were displaced from their homes.

Just outside Tbilisi, Georgian leaders marked the anniversary Tuesday by laying wreaths at a military cemetery to honor soldiers who died in the conflict.

Addressing the gathering, President Giorgi Margvelashvili vowed that no Georgian would ever tolerate Russian occupation, and he emphasized his government’s commitment to peaceful negotiations with the aim of fully reintegrating the entire country.

Multiple protests, in Georgia and abroad

Less than 400 meters from Russian military garrisons in South Ossetia, several hundred Georgians linked arms to form human chain along a main road leading into the Russian-controlled territory, according to BBC.

At United Nations headquarters in New York, Georgian-American demonstrators called for a coordinated international response to growing Russian military aggression in Eastern Europe.

Based on the bitter memories of subsequent Russian expansionist moves, such as its invasion of Crimea in 2014, Daniel Kochis of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation said the U.S. should have levied sanctions against Russia as far back as 2008, when it intervened in Georgia.

“I think the administration (of former President George W. Bush) was caught very flat-footed in Georgia,” Kochis said. “We didn’t learn a lesson from Russian actions; we didn’t impose any sort of sanctions and I don’t think we were strong enough discussing illegal actions by Russia. Again, we saw this sort of aggression a few years later in Crimea, and by then, of course, Russia had learned many lessons from the war with Georgia.”

Recent U.S. and EU sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine suggest that Russia may now anticipate consequences for such actions.

US had few options in 2008

Jeffrey Mankoff of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies said the U.S. administration in 2008 had few military or diplomatic choices.

“The U.S. denounced Russian actions in Georgia in 2008, but did not move in a kinetic way,” Mankoff said. “But I also think the U.S. did not have a lot of options: Russia moved very quickly and the fighting was over in five days.”

The Bush and Obama administrations’ efforts to normalize ties with Russia despite its aggressive move into Georgia, Mankoff said, may have militarily emboldened Moscow.

“It is an issue for debate and I do not fault any of them for going down that path [of seeking normalized relations), but the Russians took a lesson (away from Georgia),” Mankoff added. “They determined they could get away with a similar scenario in Ukraine. In some ways, it has been a miscalculation, and it got Russia bogged-down in a conflict in Ukraine. But, ultimately, it has also changed the contours of (Western relations with Russia) in pretty fundamental ways, in a way that the invasion of Georgia did not.”

Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed. In 2008, Russia sent troops into Abkhazia and South Ossetia, claiming that Georgian authorities had abused local residents.

Russia’s forceful intervention gave both regions de-facto independence from Tbilisi, and Moscow has since tightened its control. Despite international condemnation, Russia keeps thousands of troops in the breakaway regions; Georgia considers them an occupation force. The standoff is not static: Georgian authorities have accused Moscow and the separatists of seizing additional territory in recent months.

Pence visit contrasted with Putin’s

On his visit Tuesday, the third since the 2008 war, Putin said he would ease border controls and customs procedures between Russia and Abkhazia, to encourage travel and facilitate trade.

The Kremlin leader’s visit contrasted with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s trip last week to Tbilisi, where he was warmly received. Pence strongly reaffirmed Washington’s support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and denounced Russia’s “aggression” and “occupation” of Georgian territory.

An independent fact-finding mission on the conflict by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights said the brief war killed 171 Georgian servicemen, 14 policemen, and 228 civilians, leaving 1,747 wounded.

“Sixty-seven Russian servicemen were killed, and 283 were wounded, and 365 South Ossetian servicemen and civilians (combined) were killed,” the report said. The conflict also left an estimated 150,000 people internally displaced.

This story originated in VOA’s Georgian Service.

Some information is from AP and Reuters.

 
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A German man believed to have provided logistical support to the Hamburg-based September 11, 2001, hijackers has died, according to a newly-released audio message from the leader of al-Qaida.

The announcement by Ayman al-Zawahri came in an August 2 audio message posted online in which he says a man he identifies as Zuhair al-Maghribi who worked for As-Sahab, the terror network’s media arm, is a “martyr.”

He says al-Maghribi is one of several who “sacrificed their lives” but doesn’t provide details on when or how they died.

Al-Maghribi is a known alias of Said Bahaji, who authorities have said worked for As-Sahab. He’s been wanted on an international arrest warrant issued by Germany shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Germany-born Bahaji, who is of Moroccan descent, is believed to have helped suicide hijackers Mohamad Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah when they were in Hamburg, and to have fled shortly before the September 11 attacks.

In an operation in 2009, the Pakistani military battled their way into a Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border and found Bahaji’s German passport, among others. It included a tourist visa for Pakistan and a stamp indicating he had arrived in the southern city of Karachi on September 4, 2001.

The authenticity of the al-Zawahri recording could not be independently confirmed but it resembled previous messages released by the al-Qaida leader.

SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. organization that monitors militant messaging, reported on the recording, noting that in it, al-Zawahri also “revealed that Khalid Sheikh Muhammad,” a top al-Qaida leader in U.S. custody, founded As-Sahab.

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, would not comment on Tuesday on the recording, citing organizational policy.

Bahaji was long suspected of having died, but al-Qaida never publicly acknowledged his death until al-Zawahri’s audio recording a week ago.

In a list published by the United Nations Security Council of people and entities against whom there are sanctions, Bahaji is said to be “reportedly deceased in September 2013 in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area.”
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Spanish police said Tuesday they have arrested a Turkish-Swedish reporter and writer in Barcelona on an international arrest order from Turkey for alleged terrorism.

Barcelona National Police spokesman Jose Antonio Nin said Hamza Yalcin was detained at Barcelona airport Aug. 3 and is now being held pending an extradition hearing. He said Yalcin has been handed over to National Court authorities.

Jonathan Lundqvist, head of the Swedish branch of Reporters Without Borders, said the arrest was an attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to show “he can reach critical voices even if they are not in the country.”

Lundqvist said Yalcin has written in the magazine Odak Dergisi – which is critical of the Turkish regime – since he fled to Sweden in 1984. He said Spain has now to decide whether to hand him to Turkey where “over 100 other journalists have been charged by the Erdogan regime for similar crimes.”

“This is worrying that exiled journalists can be arrested,” he told The Associated Press.

Elisabeth Asbrink, chairwoman of the Swedish branch of writers’ association PEN International, called for the release of Yalcin as well of another Swedish citizen, IT consultant Ali Gharavi, who was arrested July 5 while attending a seminar about freedom of the internet in Turkey.

“It is obvious that Turkey and President Erdogan show a lack of respect for EU citizens. Sweden must of course do everything to ensure the release of these two and it is urgent,” said Asbrink.
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A Turkish media report says Turkey has begun construction of a wall along the country’s frontier with Iran, mimicking the Turkish barrier along the Syrian border.

The private Dogan news agency said the governor of Agri province, Suleyman Elban, inspected the construction of the security wall on Tuesday. The Turkish authorities are constructing the 2-meter wide, 3-meter high barrier with portable blocks, the report said.

Turkey is building the wall along parts of the Iranian border to boost its security by halting the infiltrations of Kurdish militants and illegal smugglers.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in January plans to build a wall along its borders with Iraq and Iran, similar to the one currently being erected along the 911-kilometer (566-mile) frontier with Syria.
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The Balkans have become embroiled in a trade war over agricultural health checks after Croatia raised import fees on some farm products by around 220 percent, triggering countermeasures by Serbia and threats from others.

Last month European Union-member Croatia raised its fees for phytosanitary controls — agricultural checks for pests and viruses — on fruits and vegetables at its borders to 2,000 kuna ($319) from 90 kuna.

It cited compliance with EU standards and protection of its consumers.

But ministers from EU candidates Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as from fellow EU aspirant Bosnia, said the move violated their respective pre-accession agreements with the bloc under which they were guaranteed equal access to markets.

“These measures are absolutely protectionist in an economic sense. They are populist in political sense and cannot be justified, They are [not] in the spirit of good neighborly relations,” Serbian Economy Minister Rasim Ljajic told reporters after meeting his Balkan counterparts in Sarajevo.

The ministers from the four countries called on Croatia to withdraw its decision and invited the European Commission to get involved to solve an issue they said violated the free trade principles.

They also asked for an urgent meeting with the Croatian agriculture minister. However, until the issue has been resolved, each country will take counter-measures it considered adequate to protect its own economic interests, they said.

Economic War in Sight?

Ljajic said that Serbia has already stepped up phytosanitary controls on all organic produce from Croatia and will increase them further. This means that goods, including meat and dairy products, could be held up at borders from 15-30 days.

“Our goal is not to wage any kind of economic war but to protect our economic interests and the free flow of goods,” he said.

Macedonia and Montenegro said they would file complaints to the World Trade Organization, of which they are members, and seek mechanisms through the body for compensation from Croatia, which raised import fees at a peak of the high season for export of fruits and vegetables from their countries.

Besides discriminating against importers on its own market, Croatia is also making exports to the EU more difficult and expensive because it is vital entry point for imports to the EU from the Balkans, the ministers said.

Commenting on the explanation from Croatia that their move was not aimed against the neighbors but against all non-EU members, Bosnia’s Foreign Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic said: “Croatia does not import raspberries from Trinidad and Tobago but from Serbia and Bosnia.” He said that Bosnia was considering an “adequate response” but declined to elaborate.

Most countries in the region import more than they export to Croatia. Only Serbia operates a trade surplus with its neighbor, with exports in  2016 reaching 116 million euros ($137 million) versus imports worth 79 million euros.

Relations remain strained between the two former Yugoslav countries and bitter foes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, despite improvements in investments, the flow of people and capital.

($1 = 6.2688 kuna)
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Two members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot were briefly detained Monday after rallying for the release of a Ukrainian filmmaker outside his Siberian prison.

During Sunday’s protest in Yakutsk where Oleg Sentsov is serving his sentence, the band members unfurled a banner on a nearby bridge that read “Free Sentsov!”

Longtime Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina tweeted that she and Olga Borisova were taken to a police station following their detention earlier in the day and faced a court hearing over charges of holding an unauthorized rally.

Borisova later said on Facebook that she and Alyokhina were released after a judge found flaws in the case. It was unclear if the police would refile charges.

A Russian military court convicted Sentsov, who comes from the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, of conspiracy to commit terror attacks and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Sentsov, who made two short movies and the 2012 feature film “Gamer,” denied the charges, which he and his supporters denounced as political punishment for his opposition to Crimea’s annexation.

The U.S. and the EU have criticized his conviction and called for his release, and numerous cultural figures in Russia and abroad have urged the Russian government to free him.

Pussy Riot is a loose collective and most of its members perform anonymously. The balaclava-clad women rose to prominence with their daring outdoor performances critical of President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s ruling elite.

An impromptu “punk prayer” at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior that derided the ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin got them into trouble in 2012.

Three band members were convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for the stunt. Alyokhina and another member, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, spent nearly two years in prison.
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Turkey is building up military forces on the Syrian border, while Turkish President Recep Erdogan steps up his rhetoric suggesting an imminent military operation into Syria. Ankara is reportedly courting Moscow for its support for a possible operation into Syria’s Afrin enclave, which is now under the control of the Kurdish YPG militia.

Ankara accuses the YPG, which controls large swathes of Syrian territory along its border, of being an offshoot of the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state.

“We will take important steps to implement the new campaigns in the near future,” Erdogan declared Saturday to cheering supporters in the Turkish city of Malatya. “We would rather pay the price for foiling plans targeting our future and liberty in Syria and Iraq, than on our own soil.”

The prospect of a military operation has been praised across Turkey’s pro-government media. “Our greatest advantage is the leadership of a president who sees this threat exactly … and responds to it courageously, both by discourse and by action,” wrote Mehmet Acer in the staunchly pro-Erdogan Yeni Safak. He welcomed “this new attack-based security approach, which we define as the ‘Erdogan doctrine’.”

Erdogan is courting nationalist voters, with one eye on looming presidential and parliamentary elections which could be held as early as next year.

The rising political rhetoric has been matched by a reported surge in attacks against the YPG in Afrin by elements of the Turkish backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Turkish forces, as part of Operation Euphrates Shield, entered Syria backing elements of the FSA against both Islamic State and the YPG. The FSA is on the border with the Afrin enclave but so far further gains have been stalled.  

“Turkey’s Operation Euphrates shield was stopped by moves by both United States and Russia,” said retired senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who is now an regional analyst. Both Russia and the U.S. deployed military forces as a buffer against further gains by Turkish-backed forces in Syria.

“The problem facing Turkey is Russia and the U.S. are stopping Turkey from intervening,” said Semih Idiz,  political columnist for the Al Monitor website. “They are agreed on an overriding agenda [of] defeating ISIS (Islamic State). Now Turkey has this Kurdish agenda and it does not have support of either Russia or the Untied States … That is the dilemma facing Turkey.”

Moscow has deployed military forces in the YPG-controlled Afrin region, some of them reportedly close to the Turkish border. But, “Turkey sees a window of opportunity,” said analyst Selcen. “Now there is a change on ground between Russia and U.S.”

Selcen said Moscow is infuriated by the growing military cooperation between the YPG and the U.S. to drive the Islamic State from its self-declared capital of Raqqa. The YPG makes up a large proportion of the Syrian Democratic Forces seeking to capture Raqqa,  an operation that excludes the Syrian regime.

Russian frustrations were heightened in June when a U.S. jet shot down a Syrian government fighter-bomber reportedly targeting SDF forces.

Ankara has stepped up its diplomatic courting of Moscow, having announced plans last month to purchase an advanced Russia air defense system. The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusolgu, spoke on Sunday with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Manila.

Turkish, Russian and Iranian officials are scheduled to hold a two day meeting on Syria beginning Tuesday in Tehran.
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A midday nap is very much part of the Spanish traditional life style. However, having a public place in which to do so is new. Siesta & Go is the first nap bar in Madrid according to reporter Faiza Elmasry. VOA’s Faith Lapidus narrates.
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In a vast network of tunnels carved into the rocks under the Maltese capital Valletta, faded maps of the Mediterranean hint at the place’s role in directing key battles in World War II.

Malta is now restoring the 28,000 square meters (300,000 square feet) of tunnels, planning to open a huge section to the public.

The compound, hidden under the picturesque port city perched on cliffs above the sea, was built by the British and served as the staging ground for major naval operations. The British military withdrew in 1979 and the compound was abandoned for almost 40 years.

German and Italian forces bombarded Malta intensively between 1940 and 1942 to try gain control of the Mediterranean, but did not manage to force the British out. During the Cold War, the tunnels were used to track Soviet submarines.

Over the years, water and humidity have let rust and mold spread. Some rooms have been vandalized, but traces of the military apparatus that once occupied the complex still remain.

Military cot beds, tangled cables and dust-covered rotary phones litter the rooms.

The Malta Heritage Trust, a non-governmental preservation group, began the multi-million-dollar restoration of the site in 2009.
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday that Russian interference in last year’s presidential election created “serious mistrust,” and that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed “a lot of work” that has to be done regarding U.S.-Russia relations.

The two top diplomats held talks on the sidelines of a regional forum in the Philippines where Tillerson said he told Lavrov the U.S. will respond by Sept. 1 to Russia’s order to remove hundreds of diplomats and other staff from U.S. diplomatic facilities in Russia.

“I told the foreign minister that we had not made a decision regarding how we will respond to Russia’s request to remove diplomatic personnel,” Tillerson said.

First meeting since sanctions announced

The meeting was the first high-level contact between the two countries since U.S. President Donald Trump last week reluctantly signed new sanctions into law to punish Russia for interfering in the 2016 presidential election to help him win.

Lavrov said that despite the latest round of U.S. sanctions, “We felt that our American counterparts need to keep the dialogue open. There’s no alternative to that.”

The U.S. Congress voted overwhelmingly for the sanctions. Trump, faced with the likelihood that Congress would override a veto if he rejected the legislation, approved the sanctions measure even as he called it “significantly flawed” with “clearly unconstitutional provisions.”

Former U.S. President Barack Obama, weeks before he left office, expelled 35 Russian diplomats and closed two Russian facilities in the United States after the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed the election interference.

Russia official explains staff cuts

Russia did not retaliate at the time, but with the approval of the new sanctions, Moscow ordered the U.S. to cut 755 diplomats and staff workers, many of them Russians, from its embassy and consulates in Russia. Lavrov said he explained to Tillerson how Moscow would carry out the sharp cuts in the U.S. diplomatic missions, but did not publicly disclose any details.

Trump has been largely dismissive of the investigations in Washington over the Russian election interference, calling them a “witch hunt” and an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset victory over his Democratic challenger, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Numerous congressional probes are underway, while Special Counsel Robert Mueller has opened a grand jury investigation into whether Trump campaign aides illegally colluded with Russian interests on Trump’s behalf in the election and whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired former Federal Bureau of Investigation chief James Comey, who was leading the agency’s Russia probe before Mueller took over.

Volker to meet with Russians

Lavrov also said Sunday that the U.S. is soon sending its envoy for negotiations over unrest in eastern Ukraine to Moscow for talks about the ongoing violence.

He said U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker would meet with Russia’s envoy for the Ukraine crisis, Vladislav Surkov. Volker last month visited eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv’s forces for more than three years. It is a conflict during which Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and more than 10,000 people have been killed.

Tillerson in his comments to reporters said Russia is showing “some willingness” to start discussing a resolution to the Ukraine crisis.  He said the U.S. and Russia have deep differences, but that it’s not a good idea to “just cut everything off on one single issue.”

 
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The Trump administration is sending its envoy for Ukraine negotiations to Moscow in a bid to make progress on the diplomatic crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Sunday.

After his first meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson since new American sanctions, Lavrov emerged with an upbeat assessment about the potential for finding common ground on Ukraine, Syria and other issues.

Lavrov said he and Tillerson had agreed to preserve a high-level diplomatic channel that Russia had suspended in protest of an earlier tightening of U.S. sanctions.

“We felt that our American counterparts need to keep the dialogue open,” Lavrov said. “There’s no alternative to that.”

There was no immediate reaction to the meeting from the U.S. State Department. Tillerson did not comment publicly or respond to shouted questions from journalists allowed in briefly for the start of the hour-plus meeting in the Philippines.

Lavrov said Tillerson had asked him for details about Moscow’s recent action to retaliate against U.S. sanctions by expelling American diplomats and shuttering a U.S. recreational facility on the outskirts of Moscow. The Russian diplomat said he explained to Tillerson how Russia will carry out its response, but Lavrov isn’t giving out details.

Last month, the Kremlin said the U.S. must cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755 people, a move that echoed former President Barack Obama’s action last year to kick out Russian diplomats in punishment for Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 American election. The Russian announcement has caused confusion because the U.S. is believed to have far fewer than 755 American employees in the country.

Word that U.S. special representative Kurt Volker plans to visit the Russian capital was the latest sign that Washington is giving fresh attention to resolving the Ukraine conflict. The U.S. cut military ties to Russia over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and accuses the Kremlin of fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine by arming, supporting and even directing pro-Russian separatists there who are fighting the Kyiv government.

In recent days, the Trump administration has been considering providing lethal weaponry to Ukraine to help defend itself against Russian aggression.

Lavrov didn’t say when Volker, a former NATO ambassador, would go to Moscow. Last month, Volker paid his first visit as special representative to embattled eastern Ukraine.

In their meeting, Lavrov said, Tillerson agreed to continue a dialogue between U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov. That channel was created to address what the U.S. calls “irritants” preventing the two countries from pursuing better ties. Russia had suspended the talks after the U.S. tightened existing sanctions on Russia related to its actions in Ukraine.

Lavrov and Tillerson met on the sidelines of an Asian regional gathering in the Philippines. It was their first face-to-face conversation since Congress passed new legislation in July that makes it harder for Trump to ever ease penalties on Russia. Trump signed the bill last week, but called it “seriously flawed.”

The White House said Trump’s opposition stemmed from the bill’s failure to grant the president sufficient flexibility on when to lift sanctions. Trump’s critics saw his objections as one more sign that he is too eager to pursue closer ties to Russia, or to protect the former Cold War foe from penalties designed to punish Moscow for its actions in Ukraine, election meddling and other troublesome behavior.

A U.S. Justice Department investigation is moving ahead into Russia’s election interference and potential Trump campaign collusion. Trump denies any collusion and has repeatedly questioned U.S. intelligence about Moscow’s involvement.

At the same time, Trump’s administration has argued there’s good reason for the U.S. to seek a more productive relationship. Tillerson has cited modest signs of progress in Syria, where the U.S. and Russia recently brokered a cease-fire in the war-torn country’s southwest, as a sign there’s fertile ground for cooperation.

The Syrian cease-fire reflected a return of U.S.-Russia cooperation to lower violence there. The U.S. had looked warily at a series of safe zones in Syria that Russia had negotiated along with Turkey and Iran — but not the U.S.

Lavrov said there will be more talks in the coming week involving Russia, Iran and Turkey about how to ensure the truce in the last safe zone to be established, around the north-western city of Idlib. He predicted “it will be difficult” to hammer out the details but that compromise can be reached if all parties — including the U.S. — use their influence in Syria to persuade armed groups there to comply.
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Turkish police said they were working with Australian authorities to investigate a foiled plot to bomb an Etihad Airways flight using explosives which Canberra said were flown in from Turkey.

In a statement issued late on Saturday police said they had contacted Australian authorities as soon as they received news of the foiled plot.

The two sides have “started working to clarify unclear and unconfirmed matters regarding the possibility that explosive substances were sent from Turkey three months ago,” said the statement carried by Turkish media.

Australian police said on Friday that an Australian man sent his unsuspecting brother to Sydney airport last month to catch an Etihad Airways flight carrying a home-made bomb disguised as a meat grinder.

High-grade military explosives used to build the bomb were sent by air cargo from Turkey as part of a plot “inspired and directed” by the militant Islamic State group, police Deputy Commissioner National Security Michael Phelan said.

The plot targeted an Etihad Airways flight on July 15 but the bomb never made it past airport security, he said.
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Emmanuel Macron’s honeymoon didn’t last long.

Less than three months after his election, France’s energetic and image-conscious president has seen his popularity drop after announcing budget cuts, launching a divisive labor reform and engaging in a damaging dispute with the military.

A series of opinion polls last week showed the percentage of French citizens who said they were satisfied with Macron’s policies and trusted their young leader to deal with the country’s problems plunging. The reversal might not affect the visible international profile he has cut since taking office, but it could hurt Macron’s ability to secure his ambitious domestic agenda.

France’s Ifop polling agency put it bluntly: “Apart from Jacques Chirac in July 1995, a newly elected president has never seen his popularity rate falling as quickly during the summer after the election.”

His declining approval is striking given that Macron was being credited two months ago with giving France a boost of much-needed confidence after years of security fears and economic stagnation. Increasingly, he instead is portrayed as power-hungry and inexperienced.

The French media have started calling Macron “Jupiter,” a reference to the mythological king of the Roman gods and what is perceived as the president’s superior attitude after he upended France’s political landscape and shot from relative obscurity to the nation’s top post at age 39.

While struggling at home, Macron has succeeded in raising France’s diplomatic profile, hosting meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump and Libyan peace talks in Paris.

Jean-Daniel Levy, director of the Policy and Opinion Department at the Harris Interactive polling institute, connects the president’s popularity slide to the government’s plans to reduce housing aid for students and to initiate tax reform. The reform aims to help lower-income employees, but could weigh on retirees.

Macron’s image also has taken a hit during his standoff with the French military chief over budget cuts. Gen. Pierre De Villiers resigned and was quickly replaced, but some saw last month’s public dispute as evidence of the president’s authoritarian tendencies.

Macron has promised to boost defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2025 as part of France’s commitments to NATO, but the government announced a reduction of 870 million euros in military spending for this year.

The government also launched the labor reforms that were central to Macron’s campaign promise to boost France’s lagging economy through pro-free market policies. Changes would include capping the potential financial penalties for companies sued for firing employees and giving businesses greater leeway to set workplace rules instead of relying on collective bargaining agreements.

Labor unions and France’s far-left parties are fighting the reforms, saying they would weaken hard-won worker protections. Critics also resent the way Macron is trying to speed their approval. The government is invoking a special procedure to avoid a lengthy debate in parliament.

Daniel Fasquelle, a lawmaker from the conservative The Republicans party denounced Macron for what he called the “will to weaken all opposition” and for refusing to give interviews. Except for carefully choreographed photo opportunities, the president has distanced himself from the media. He canceled the traditional Bastille Day television interview.

“These are excesses the French judge more harshly and they are right,” Fasquelle said on France’s Info radio. “It simply means the president is not up to the task… He’s paying for his own lack of experience. Maybe he got too quickly, too soon, high responsibilities that are overwhelming him.”

Government spokesman Christophe Castaner acknowledged that Macron has been standoffish with the press, but offered an alternative explanation.

“No one can blame him [Macron] for rarely speaking,” Castaner told reporters. “I understand it can irritate a bit. I understand it can be questioned. But I think you and me should get used to it because the president has decided not to be a commentator [of the news], but an actor.”

Macron is expected to return from his August vacation to a tough September, with unions and far-left parties calling for street protests against his proposed labor reforms.

 
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Britain is prepared to pay up to 40 billion euros ($47 billion) as part of a deal to leave the European Union, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported, citing three unnamed sources familiar with Britain’s negotiating strategy.

The European Union has floated a figure of 60 billion euros and wants significant progress on settling Britain’s liabilities before talks can start on complex issues such as future trading arrangements.

The government department responsible for Brexit talks declined to comment on the Sunday Telegraph article. So far, Britain has given no official indication of how much it would be willing to pay.

The newspaper said British officials were likely to offer to pay 10 billion euros a year for three years after leaving the EU in March 2019, then finalize the total alongside detailed trade talks.

Payments would be made only as part of a deal that included a trade agreement, the newspaper added.

“We know ([the EU’s] position is 60 billion euros, but the actual bottom line is 50 billion euros. Ours is closer to 30 billion euros but the actual landing zone is 40 billion euros, even if the public and politicians are not all there yet,” the newspaper quoted one “senior Whitehall source” as saying.

Whitehall is the London district where British civil servants and ministers are based.

‘Go whistle’

A second Whitehall source said Britain’s bottom line was “30 billion euros to 40 billion euros,” and a third source said Prime Minister Theresa May was willing to pay “north of 30 billion euros,” the Sunday Telegraph reported.

David Davis, the British minister in charge of Brexit talks, said on July 20 that Britain would honor its obligations to the EU but declined to confirm that Brexit would require net payments.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a leading Brexit advocate, said last month that the EU could “go whistle” if it made “extortionate” demands for payment.

Last week, the Bank of England said Brexit uncertainty was weighing on the economy. Finance Minister Philip Hammond wants to avoid unsettling businesses further.

If Britain cannot conclude an exit deal, trade relations would be governed by World Trade Organization rules, which would allow both parties to impose tariffs and customs checks and leave many other issues unsettled.

The EU also wants agreement by October on rights of EU citizens already in Britain, and on border controls between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland, before trade and other issues are discussed.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin stripped to his waist to brave the cold waters of a mountain lake as part of a three-day fishing and hunting trip in the Siberian wilderness, the Kremlin said.

Putin, 64, is renowned for his strong-man publicity stunts, which have contributed to his sky-high popularity ratings. The trip comes eight months before Russia’s presidential election next March and, though he has yet to announce his candidacy, Putin is widely expected to run and to win comfortably.

The hunting and fishing expedition took place on Aug. 1-3 in the republic of Tyva in southern Siberia, on the Mongolian border, some 3,700 km (2,300 miles) east of Moscow.

Pictures and video footage released by the Kremlin on Saturday showed Putin — who is also a keen practitioner of martial arts and ice hockey — spear-fishing, swimming and sunbathing alongside Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

“The water in the lake doesn’t get warmer than 17 degrees, but this didn’t stop the president from going for a swim,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

“He went hunting underwater with a mask and snorkel … The president chased after one pike for two hours, there was no way he could shoot it, but in the end he got what he wanted.”

 
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Russia’s former ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak, said on Saturday his conversations with former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn had been transparent and focussed on matters of U.S.-Russia cooperation.

Kislyak ended his tenure in Washington in July but remains a key figure in ongoing U.S. investigations into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Flynn was forced to resign in February after it became known that he had failed to disclose the content of conversations he had with Kislyak and misled U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence about their meetings.

“We only spoke about the most simple things… but the communication was completely correct, calm, absolutely transparent. In any case, there were no secrets on our side,” Kislyak said during a panel discussion on Russian television.

“There are a number of issues which are important for cooperation between Russia and the United States — most of all, terrorism. And that was one of the things we discussed.”

 
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A new study shows that deaths that result from extreme weather in Europe could increase 50 times by the end of the century if the effects of global warming are not curbed.

In the study published Saturday by The Lancet Planetary Health journal, scientists say weather-related disasters could kill more than 152,000 people a year by 2100, up from 3,000 per year recently. The researchers say the toll could be especially high in southern Europe.

“Unless global warming is curbed as a matter of urgency and appropriate adaptation measures are taken, about 350 million Europeans could be exposed to harmful climate extremes on an annual basis by the end of this century,” the report said.

Study’s assumptions

The study’s predictions are based on an assumption that there is no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and that no improvements take place to curb the effects of climate change.

The team of scientists looked at the most harmful weather-related disasters — heat waves, cold snaps, wildfires, droughts, floods and windstorms — across the European Union, plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. They looked at records of weather-related events in those countries for a 30-year stretch and compared them with projections for population growth and future weather disasters.

Heat will be deadliest

Their findings predicted that heat waves would be the most lethal weather disasters, causing 99 percent of all future weather-related deaths in Europe. The researchers said deaths from coastal flooding would also increase sharply, from six deaths per year at the beginning of this century to 233 a year by the end of it.

“Climate change is one of the biggest global threats to human health of the 21st century, and its peril to society will be increasingly connected to weather-driven hazards,” said Giovanni Forzieri of the European Commission Joint Research Center in Italy, who co-led the study.
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Alaska is the biggest – yet one of the least populated American states. There are just over 741,000 people living there – oil industry workers, adventurers from all over the U.S., Native Alaskans, immigrants. Within this complex cultural mosaic there is a group known as Russian Old believers. Nearly 50 years ago, they established a village called Nikolaevsk on Alaska’s Kenai peninsula. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya reports from there.
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Top U.S. intelligence officials are refusing to back down over concerns about Russia, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian officials lament what they describe as deteriorating relations between the two countries.

“Our values and our interests are not aligned naturally,” Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a small group of reporters this week.

“Russia desires to be the center of influence in the European theater,” Stewart said. “There will be a perpetual contest between us and the Russian state for either regional or global dominance.”

Stewart, who spoke before the latest public sparring between Trump and Congress over Washington’s approach to Russia, also warned of Moscow’s ability to interfere and shape the playing field.

“They’ve got their heads wrapped around the idea that 21st-century warfare is as much cognitive as it is kinetic,” Stewart said.

This is not the first time Stewart, who has led the DIA since July 2015, has warned about Russia’s intentions.

In the DIA’s “Russia Military Power” report, released in late June, Stewart cautioned that Russia “is manipulating the global information environment” and was especially successful in Crimea and in Syria at “shaping the information environment to suit its interests.”

Despite such warnings from Stewart and other high-ranking intelligence officials, Trump has pushed for improving ties with Russia.

This past week, the president signed legislation authorizing new, tough sanctions against Russia but took to Twitter, warning of the consequences.

“Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low,” President Trump tweeted, adding, “You can thank Congress.”

Trump has also dismissed concerns about multiple investigations into allegations of possible collusion between his presidential campaign and the Russians, telling a rally in West Virginia on Thursday, “The Russia story is a total fabrication.”

Russian officials have been quick to echo Trump’s sentiments.

“We fully share this opinion,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Friday, when asked about ties between the U.S. and Russia being at a “very dangerous low.”

A tweet from Russia’s embassy in South Africa said the U.S. was using “primitive Cold War era cliches.”

Those themes were also picked up and disseminated by Russian disinformation networks on Twitter, according to a new online dashboard from the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Hashtags with “trumprally” and “westvirginia” were used with heavy or increased frequency during the course of Thursday and Friday based on the dashboard’s look at about 600 Twitter accounts with links to Russia’s propaganda efforts.

In addition to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency director, other top U.S. intelligence officials have warned about Russia’s influence activities.

“They’re trying to undermine Western democracy,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Aspen Security Forum late last month, admitting Russia’s influence efforts are “quite a bit more sophisticated than they used to be.”

CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who like Coats was nominated by Trump, told the same forum there was no doubt in his mind Russia would continue efforts to meddle in U.S. elections.

“They have been at this a hell of a long time,” Pompeo said.  “And I don’t think they have any intention of backing off.”

Still, Pompeo refused to rule out working with Russia in areas where Moscow and Washington could find common ground, such as counterterrorism.

He said that “if Russia has information that can help us fight the CT [counterterror] fight around the world, it’s my duty” to work with them and “the right thing to do.”
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