Ghanaian politician Vicky Hammah has been listed alongside heavyweights like Russian President, Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the controversial compendium “The Fat Boy with the Bomb and 299 of the World’s Craziest Politicians”.
Authored by Brian O’Connell and Norman H. Chung and released in 2015, the book throws the spotlight on a variety of global political figures famed for their outlandish behaviour and statements.
The National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Vicky Hammah, did not shy away from acknowledging her unexpected feature.
According to a series of screenshots from a post she made on social media, Vicky, in a seeming response to this revelation wrote, “My name made it into this book among some of the most powerful leader[s] yeeey 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 😂😂😂. Number 10 in Africa 💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾. I’m a great ☺️”.
Characterised on Amazon as an “illustrated international dossier of lunatic statesmen and insane leaders,” the book profiles 300 politicians in a range of political and mental hues. It’s an anthology of the peculiar, ranging from benign eccentrics to those with more severe delusions. With caricatures and brief accounts from across the political spectrum, it delves into the lives of those who have made absurd claims and taken extreme actions.
The write-up on Hammah dubs her a “Goddess of beauty”, highlighting her tenure as Deputy Minister of Communications and her notorious dismissal following the emergence of a tape wherein she claimed she would not exit politics until amassing at least a million dollars.
Additionally, the book recounts an incident with her alleged former boyfriend, Richard Frimpong Dardo, who was arrested for purportedly assaulting her in a dispute over sexual matters.
Vicky Hammah, unfazed by the uncomplimentary aspects of her depiction, optimistically wrote, “In darkness light shines brightest😁😃,” accompanied by smiling emojis.
Notable figures such as Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, also find mention in this controversial ‘register’.
Despite the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin conducted a scaled-back Victory Day celebration in Moscow on Tuesday. He reaffirmed his bogus claim that the West had started a “true war” against Russia.
A patriotic display commemorating the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II saw thousands of people throng the streets surrounding Moscow’s Red Square.
The most important day in Putin’s calendar is Victory Day because he has long used it to mobilize the populace, show off the nation’s military superiority, and denounce the historical injustices he believes Western countries have inflicted on his country.
The Russian leader has historically led the annual military parade on Red Square with displays of military hardware including tanks, missiles, and other weapons systems, before a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall, to honor the memory of those who perished in the battles.
More than 10,000 people and 125 units of various types of weapons and equipment were expected to be displayed at this year’s parade, according to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Last year the ministry announced 11,000 people and 131 types of weapons were involved in the military parade, with an airshow of 77 aircraft and helicopters.
But there was just one ancient World War II-era T-34 tank leading the mechanized column on Tuesday, as Moscow seemingly toned down its annual parade.
Tigr-M and VPK-Ural armored vehicles were also on display, but the main focus was the country’s S-400 air defense system and its intercontinental ballistic system – the Yaris.
The usual fly-past above the Red Square was canceled, state media reported, without providing an explanation.
Putin used the annual Victory Day parade to launch yet another scathing attack on the West, accusing it of holding Ukraine hostage to its anti-Russian plans.
“A true war has been unleashed against our motherland,” Putin said on Tuesday, claiming falsely that the West had provoked the war in Ukraine. “We have repelled international terrorism and to fit we will defend the residents of Donbas and secure our own safety. Russia has no unfriendly nations in the West or in the East.”
He also again drew comparisons between the conflict in Ukraine and the fight against Nazi forces in the World War II, saying that civilization is once again at a turning point.
Throughout his short address, Putin praised Russian troops fighting in what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, saying the country is “proud” of everyone who fights on the frontlines.
“There is no more important thing now than your combat work,” Putin said.
However, no mention was made of the high casualties suffered by Russian troops, which are estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
World leaders such as former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had attended the military parade in previous years. But such displays of solidarity have faded in recent years, after Putin’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 and the war in Ukraine fractured diplomatic ties.
Moscow had been under pressure to strengthen its show of defenses and unity on Tuesday, after last week’s alleged drone strike on the Kremlin shattered the most powerful symbol of the Russian presidency.
Kyiv and its Western allies exchanged thorny memos with Moscow after it accused Ukraine of carrying out orders from the US in an attempted assassination against Putin. Ukraine and Washington vehemently denied the allegations.
The cause of the explosions is unknown, but the optics of a symbolic attack against the Kremlin gave it an opportunity to rally support for Putin from Russians as critics continue to speak out against Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Similarly, Russia’s wrath appeared neutered when a wave of drone and missile attacks was thwarted by Ukraine’s air defenses on Tuesday.
Over the past week, lives have been lost and civilians injured by debris from destroyed drones, or missiles that have punctured Ukrainian resistance. But above all, Kyiv’s air-defenses have proved potent, and Moscow’s less so.
On Monday, Russian oligarch Andrey Kovalev called Moscow’s military campaign “a terrible war.”
“The whole world is against us,” he said in a video speech later shared on Telegram.
At the same time, strained relations between senior Russian officials exploded into a public display of disunity as Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a fiery tirade criticizing the Russian military’s focus on the Victory Day parade – ahead of an expected spring offensive from Kyiv in the south.
“Today they [Ukrainians] are tearing up the flanks in the Artemovsk (Russian name for Bakhmut) direction, regrouping at Zaporizhzhia. And a counteroffensive is about to begin,” he said on his social media accounts on Tuesday.
“They absolutely clearly say that the counteroffensive will be on the ground, not on TV. In our country everybody thinks that we should do everything on TV and celebrate the Victory Day.”
He also chose the moment of the parade to release a statement saying in fact Russian defense ministry troops had abandoned positions around the city of Bakhmut – a key battleground in eastern Ukraine – and said he had been threatened with treason charges if he left.
“Victory Day is the victory of our grandfathers,” he added. “We haven’t earned that victory one millimeter.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared Russia to Nazi Germany as he proposed moving Victory Day celebrations a day earlier in a bill presented to lawmakers, in an effort to distance Kyiv from the Kremlin’s celebrations.
Like Russia, Ukraine traditionally commemorates victory over the Nazis on May 9, but that date has become increasingly associated with a parade in Moscow.
“It is on May 8 that most nations of the world remember the greatness of the victory over the Nazis,” Zelensky said Monday.
Zelensky said on Tuesday that Russia had failed to capture Bakhmut before the May 9 deadline of the Victory Day parade.
“They were not able to capture Bakhmut, this was the last important military operation that they wanted to complete by the nineth of May,” Zelensky said in a joint press conference with European President Ursula von der Leyen.
“Unfortunately, the city does not exist anymore everything is fully destroyed.”
Svetlana Maniovich is a woman of expensive tastes: invite-only Parisian jewelers, couture clothing and yacht vacations on the Mediterranean. The lifestyle isn’t unusual for people in her elite Russian circle, and her lavish spending has been on display on social media and in Russia’s society pages. But she’s no ordinary Moscow highflyer.
Her former partner, Ivanov, is a senior architect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a man who, on paper, reportedly has an official income of around $175,000 per year. He’s also the subject of European Union (EU) and American sanctions over the war on Ukraine.
Maniovich is the subject of an extensive investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), an investigative team founded by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny. The ACF, which organized the Paris protest, alleges that it is Ivanov, and ill-gotten gains brought in by his government position, that has funded Maniovich’s lifestyle.
“For the uber-corrupt people, it’s almost like it was – almost like nothing changed,” said Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations for the ACF, in reference to the impact of Western sanctions.
Drawing on a trove of 8,000 leaked emails, Pevchikh and her team assembled a picture of a woman who has seemingly escaped all scrutiny for Ivanov’s role in Ukraine, and the extreme profits he’s allegedly reaped. A video about Maniovich produced by the ACF has racked up over six million views on YouTube.
Using invoices found in her email, the ACF investigation claims, for instance, that on March 25, 2022 – as Russian missiles were raining down on Kharkiv – Maniovich spent more than $100,000 in a top Paris jewelry store on the famed Place Vendome.
Just last month, and more than five months after the EU placed Ivanov on its sanctions list, a Ukrainian video crew caught Maniovich on camera shopping and dancing in Courchevel, the elite French ski resort.
Maniovich – who also goes by Svetlana Ivanova, as well as by her maiden name, Svetlana Zakharova – did not return CNN’s request for comment.
CNN has not independently verified the source of Maniovich’s apparently unexplained wealth. Her lifestyle is funded, the ACF alleges, by the graft of Ivanov, who holds “one of the most lucrative jobs that one can have in the Ministry of Defense,” according to Pevchikh.
“He is responsible for construction,” Pevchikh said. “So every building site (that) there is for the Russian army, that’s his domain.”
His extreme wealth – with assets including, the ACF says, a historical house in one of Moscow’s most expensive districts, and a luxurious dacha – has a simple explanation.
“The answer is corruption,” Pevchikh argued. “Corruption, and specifically kickbacks. This is the system, the core concept of Russian corruption.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
The ACF alleges that Ivanov, already a wealthy man, is benefitting extensively from the invasion of Ukraine.
The minister is frequently pictured in Russian-occupied Mariupol by state media, cutting ribbons on various construction projects. When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mariupol in March, he held what was billed as an impromptu middle-of-the-night encounter with residents at one of Ivanov’s new apartment blocks.
“They destroyed Mariupol first, and then they designated a little plot of land where they built display houses,” Pevchikh said.
“The same company that built the display houses in Mariupol is paying for Timur Ivanov’s personal bills, personal construction projects, like his house on the outskirts of Moscow and his house in the center of Moscow,” she claimed.
So how is Maniovich able to get away with her luxurious, European lifestyle?
“It’s a very simple trick that they’ve played,” Pevchikh said. First, she said, Maniovich has an Israeli passport, through her first husband.
But more to the point, the ACF alleges, Maniovich and Ivanov have severed their ties – at least on paper. The pair finalized their divorce in August 2022, according to court documents included by ACF in their investigation – six months after the war began and just two months before the EU placed an asset freeze and travel ban on him – but not her.
Yet no public records show Maniovich and Ivanov have even begun the process to divide assets or custody (which can take years), the ACF says.
“The biggest indication of a real divorce is the division of assets afterwards. We see none of that,” Pevchikh said, referring to the evidence uncovered by ACF’s investigative team.
“In terms of the things that legally point to a real divorce, we don’t see any changes. It all still looks the same.”
In a statement to CNN, the French Foreign Ministry said it does not comment on individual cases, but that it had targeted 1,499 Russian officials with sanctions.
“We are continuing discussions with other member states in order to adopt new sanctions, to maintain pressure on Russia and to hinder its war effort,” the ministry said.
Whether the protesters’ demand that Maniovich herself face a reckoning is, so far, a question without a satisfactory answer.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) said that Russia is unable to fulfil its obligations to deliver weaponry to India as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, putting significant strain on New Delhi’s relationship with its top defence supplier as Moscow tries to increase weapon manufacturing.
A “big delivery” from Moscow “is not going to take place,” an IAF spokesperson told a committee of Indian lawmakers.
The statement, which was made public in a report by India’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday, is the first official denial by Indian authorities following a flurry of rumours and media reports that suggested Russian capacity was lacking.
“They have given us in writing that they are not able to deliver it,” the representative said, according to the report.
CNN has contacted the Russian Embassy in New Delhi but did not receive a response at the time of publishing.
The report did not mention the specifics of the delivery.
The biggest ongoing delivery is the S-400 Triumf air defense system units India bought in 2018 for $5.4 billion. Three of these systems have been delivered and two more are awaited, Reuters reported.
IAF also depends on Russia for spares for its Su-30MKI and MiG-29 fighter jets, the mainstay of the service branch, according to Reuters.
Russia is the world’s second-largest arms exporter, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a large-scale effort to build up capacity to produce more weapons for the war in a move he said was “urgently needed.”
Putin’s order also followed repeated complaints by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin that his mercenaries were not receiving sufficient munitions in their prolonged battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut.
New Delhi has strong ties with Moscow dating back to the Cold War, and remains heavily dependent on the Kremlin for its military equipment – a vital link given the ongoing tensions along India’s shared Himalayan border with an increasingly assertive China.
The admission by the IAF is “very serious,” according to Harsh V. Pant, vice president of studies and foreign policy at the New Delhi-based think thank Observer Research Foundation.
“I think it underscores the problems that (India) has been bedeviling this relationship for quite some time,” he added. “And the Ukraine crisis has accelerated the trend that India, for a very long time, has been trying to diversify, and was concerned about its over dependence on Russia.”
A SIPRI report published this month said Russia remains India’s largest arms supplier, despite a drop in defense imports from 62% to 45% between 2017 and 2022.
Experts have suggested the drop could be because India is looking to diversify its imports and push more home-grown equipment.
Last September, a US State Department official said Washington was in “deep” talks with India over its reliance on Russian arms and energy.
Russia “is no longer a reliable weapons supplier” and Indian representatives are “coming to understand that there could be real benefits for them (in finding other markets),” the official told reporters in New York.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, India, the world’s largest democracy, has carefully navigated a middle path.
New Delhi has refused to condemn Moscow’s brutal assault in various United Nations resolutions. And rather than cutting economic ties with the Kremlin, India has undermined Western sanctions by increasing its purchases of Russian oil, coal and fertilizer.
India has also maintained close ties to the West – particularly the United States – as it works to thwart China’s rise.
As Putin continues his aggression, driving food and fuel prices to soar, experts have suggested Moscow’s actions in Ukraine could be testing New Delhi’s patience.
And the Indian Air Force going public about Russia’s arms delivery failure could be a sign of that strain, said Pant, from the Observer Research Foundation.
“I think the relationship (between India and Russia) has been under stress for a long time,” he said. “It’s now becoming clear that the present trajectory of this relationship is becoming increasingly unsustainable (because of) what is happening in Ukraine.”
A powerful warlord close to Putin has demanded that Russia use nuclear weapons against the UK for providing depleted uranium shells to Kyiv.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, made a public appearance once more last week amid rumors that he had been poisoned.
Since then, he has claimed to be “absolutely” healthy, despite being a little bloated, and has resumed his irrational rants in support of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He asserted that “Western nations have long been open about their derogatory rhetoric toward Russia.”
‘They have even managed to “reassure” everyone that it is not radioactive uranium.
‘In Russia there are a thousand times fewer fools who are not aware of the properties of heavy metal.’
He warned: ‘I will not mention consequences of usage of such dirty shells….’
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is Putin’s deputy in the Kremlin security council (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov at the Kremlin on March 13, 2023 (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Kadyrov then urged Putin to ‘demonstrate once to the West the consequences of uranium contamination on their own territories – then the desire to argue about this topic will disappear by itself.’
Meanwhile, ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, who is now Putin’s deputy in the Kremlin’s high-powered security council, defended the bloody war and claimed Ukraine was part of Russia.
While he admitted Putin is acting like gangster Al Capone in Ukraine, he blamed the west and warned the conflict could go on for ‘decades’.
‘As we know, a kind word and a gun brings more results than a kind word alone – this is attributed to Al Capone, although he never said it,’ Medvedev said.
‘But it is unfortunately an immutable fact of modern political life…’
Medvedev has his finger on Russia’s nuclear button and warned any attempt to arrest Putin for war crimes would be seen as a declaration of war.
Putin’s warlord pal urges nuclear attack on UK over depleted uranium ammo
Leading Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said Putin is acting like gangster Al Capone in Ukraine (Picture: autolada.ru/East2West News)
The UN and multiple human rights agencies have detailed a ‘vast network’ of detention facilities and convoys in which civilians are systematically forced out of their homes by invading Russian soldiers.
The warrant seeks to haul him before a tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for allegedly trafficking Ukrainian children from occupied territories into Russia.
‘Let us imagine – obviously, this is a situation that will never come to be, yes – but let us imagine that it has indeed happened,’ Medvedev said.
‘An incumbent president of a nuclear power comes to, for example, Germany, and got arrested.
‘What is it? A declaration of war against the Russian Federation.
‘In this case, all our means [firepower] will fly to the Bundestag, the chancellor’s office and so on.’
A warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been issued after more than a year of widespread condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and appalling atrocities.
Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova were named as defendants by the International Criminal Court on Friday in connection with an alleged plot to forcefully transfer thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Russia rejected the allegations Friday, and a ministry of foreign affairs spokeswoman said the court has “no meaning” in Russia.
There have long been calls for the court to bring charges against Putin. It has been investigating allegations of war crimes in Ukraine since Russia first invaded part of the country in 2014. Those calls intensified with the all-out invasion last year.
Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, has talked about his efforts and the need to methodically build cases with proof. That said, the likelihood that Russia’s president will ever actually physically see the inside of a courtroom as long as he remains in power in Russia seems beyond slim.
Here’s a very broad look at war crimes and the international justice movement.
Note: Some of what’s below comes from CNN’s research library, which compiled information about the International Criminal Court.
The International Criminal Court has specific definitions for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. Read about them in this guide published by the ICC.
Specifically, targeting civilian populations, violating the Geneva Conventions, targeting specific groups of people and more could be potential Russian war crimes.
Khan said there can be justified attacks in civilian areas if they are being used to launch attacks. But even then, he said, attacks in civilian areas cannot be disproportionate.
There is a method of gathering evidence from testimony, satellite images and elsewhere to meet a burden of proof.
Located in The Hague, Netherlands, and created by a treaty called the Rome Statute first brought before the United Nations, the International Criminal Court operates independently.
Most countries on Earth – 123 of them – are parties to the treaty, but there are very large and notable exceptions, including Russia and the US. And, for that matter, Ukraine.
Anyone accused of a crime in the jurisdiction of the court, which includes countries that are members of the ICC, can be tried. The court tries people, not countries, and focuses on those who hold the most responsibility: leaders and officials. While Ukraine is not a member of the court, it has previously accepted its jurisdiction.
Putin is therefore eligible for being indicted by the court for ordering war crimes in Ukraine.
However, the ICC does not conduct trials in absentia, so he would either have to be handed over by Russia or arrested outside of Russia. That seems unlikely as long as Putin is in power.
The ICC is meant to be a court of “last resort” and is not meant to replace a country’s justice system. The court, which has 18 judges serving nine-year terms, tries four types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes.
Court proceedings can be brought in one of two ways: Either a national government or the UN Security Council can refer cases for investigation.
Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has veto power over council actions. It was requests by 39 national governments, most of them European, that sparked the current investigation.
Khan previously told CNN, “I want to emphasize that I’m willing to speak to all sides, and not just the Ukrainian side, but also the Russian Federation, state parties and non-state parties alike. This institution is not political. We’re not part of the geostrategic or geopolitical divisions that we witness around the world.”
If justice in general moves slowly, international justice barely moves at all. Investigations at the ICC take many years. Only a handful of convictions have ever been won.
A preliminary investigation into the hostilities in eastern Ukraine lasted more than six years – from April 2014 until December 2020. At the time, the prosecutor said there was evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Next steps were slowed by the Covid-19 pandemic and a lack of resources at the court, which is conducting multiple investigations.
That perception of slow and ineffective justice will test the system of international law, Khan told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last year.
“This is a test for the court. It’s a test for me, it’s a test for the office,” he said.
The international outcry against Russia is unique, and that could give the court the ability to operate differently, according to Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University and co-editor-in-chief of Just Security, an online forum.
“It’s hard to judge the ICC’s investigation based on past practice,” Goodman said in an email after the court initially launched its investigation back in 2022. “In the Ukraine situation, the prosecutor is buttressed by an extraordinary outpouring of support from dozens of countries, which I expect will be followed by an infusion of resources.”
“For better or for worse, the ICC investigation may affect the diplomatic space for negotiations,” said Goodman, arguing Putin and other Russians might not want to risk arrest if they travel outside the country.
The investigation could also, he argued, weaken Putin at home.
“Russians may come to realize this is another reason Putin can no longer serve their country,” Goodman said.
Previous trials for war crimes were brought by special UN tribunals, such as those empaneled for the former Yugoslavia, focusing on the Serbian autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, and for the Rwandan genocide.
All of this stems from the precedent of the Nuremberg trials to bring Nazis to justice after World War II and held by the Allies, including the US, the Soviet Union, France and Germany.
So it is interesting that neither the US nor Russia are members of the ICC.
Both the US and Russia are signatories to the treaty that created the court – meaning their leaders signed it – but neither is a member.
Russia pulled out of the court in 2016 days after an ICC report published what CNN called a “damning verdict” on Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014. The court also launched a probe in 2016 into Russia’s 2008 efforts to support breakaway regions in Georgia.
At the time, France had also accused Russia of committing war crimes in Syria.
As for the US, while President Bill Clinton signed the treaty creating the court in 2000, he never recommended the Senate ratify it.
The George W. Bush administration, to a fair amount of criticism, pulled the US from being a party to the treaty in 2002. The Pentagon and many US policymakers have long opposed joining such an international court system since it could open US service members to allegations of war crimes.
“The president (George W. Bush) thinks the ICC is fundamentally flawed because it puts American servicemen and women at fundamental risk of being tried by an entity that is beyond America’s reach, beyond America’s laws and can subject American civilians and military to arbitrary standards of justice,” then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said at the time.
Opposing America joining the court did not mean the Bush administration opposed the court itself. It supported ICC efforts to seek justice for genocide in Sudan.
There has always been an awkwardness to how American presidents deal with the court, noted CNN’s Tim Lister in 2011. He wrote about Barack Obama applauding ICC efforts to bring justice to people like former Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, while not endorsing the court for oversight of the US.
President Joe Biden told CNN’s Jeremey Diamond on Friday that the ICC’s case against Putin “makes a very strong point,” and voiced support for the investigation into Putin’s alleged war crimes.
“I think it’s justified,” Biden said. “But the question is, it’s not recognized internationally by us, either. But I think it makes a very strong point.”
The White House issued a statement earlier Friday that welcomed accountability for perpetrators of war crimes but stopped short of a full-throated endorsement of the ICC’s arrest warrant.
At the opening of discussions with Xi Jinping at the Kremlin,Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed China’s proposal to resolve the “acute crisis” in Ukraine.
The Chinese leader met with Mr. Putin as he arrived in Moscow for a high-profile visit the following days.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Putin last week, but the president disobeyed it by traveling to Crimea and Mariupol over the weekend.
Observers have argued that the fighting in Ukraine has made Russia increasingly dependent on China for support as the country becomes isolated from the West.
The pair will hold talks over a number of different high-profile subjects in the coming days (Picture: AP)Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in Russia for talks with Mr Putin over the coming days (Picture: Reuters)Mr Jinping was welcomed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko at Vnukovo airport (Picture: AFP)After an informal meeting today the pair will enter into further talks tomorrow (Picture: EPA)
President Vladimir Putin was not waiting at the end of the red carpet to greet Chinese leader Xi Jinping when he arrived in Russia for a high-profile visit on Monday, but it was not a snub.
Mr Putin, meanwhile, was far away in central Moscow, busy with other commitments before his high-stakes dinner with the Chinese leader later this evening.
He began his day by making an appearance at a meeting of the Interior Ministry’s top officials, and also addressed a parliamentary conference involving politicians from African nations.
At the airport, Mr Xi listened as a Russian military band played the national anthems of China and Russia. He then walked past a line of honorary guards accompanied by Mr Chernyshenko.
The Russian leader earlier showered his Chinese guest with praise in an article published in China’s top People’s Daily newspaper.
He described Mr Xi’s visit as a ‘landmark event’, saying it offers a ‘great opportunity for me to meet with my good old friend with whom we enjoy the warmest relationship’.
He also wrote in detail about their first meeting in 2010, adding that he and Mr Xi have met about 40 times and citing a line from Chinese philosopher Confucius: ‘Is it not a joy to have friends coming from afar!’
After Monday’s private dinner, Mr Putin and Mr Xi will hold official talks on Tuesday that will also be attended by top officials from both countries.
They are expected to issue conclusive statements after the negotiations.
The Chinese leader said his first state visit since the war would give ‘new momentum’ to bilateral ties (Picture: Getty)Putin has said the visit of Mr Jinping was a ‘landmark event’ (Picture: Reuters)
Analysts say that Western sanctions have made Russia increasingly reliant on China.
Alexander Gabuev a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment who has long studied Russia-China ties said ‘This relationship is increasingly asymmetrical – China has much more leverage.’
He noted that Mr Xi could be expected to maintain strong support for Mr Putin amid mounting Western pressure.
He said: ‘The reality is that China sees absolutely no upsides in dumping Vladimir Putin, because there will be no incentives or no points earned in the relationship with the US.’
While others say that Beijing will be unlikely to offer Moscow military assistance as the US and other Western allies fear, the alliance with Beijing would allow the Russian leader to pursue his course in Ukraine.
Mr Putin also spoke today and said that deepening ties between Russia and Africa was a key goal for the Kremlin, as Moscow seeks to expand its influence on the continent.
He added that Russia would continue supplying the continent with grain if Moscow exits a landmark agreement with Ukraine to allow exports from the country’s Black Sea ports.
Putin said: ‘Let me emphasise that our country has always given — and will continue to give — priority to cooperation with African states.’
‘If we decide not to extend this deal after 60 days, then we are ready to supply free of charge the volumes that were sent to the countries most in need in Africa.’
Pope Francis has acknowledged that he might resign if he gets too worn out to perform his duties.
The Pope, 86, warned of “a tiredness that causes him not see things properly” when asked by Italian media, what would cause him to leave
Because of a knee injury, he admitted that he felt “a little humiliated” to use a wheelchair.
‘I am old. I have less physical resistance, the knee [problem] was a physical humiliation, even if the recovery is going well now.’
Last month, the Pope said that papal resignations should happen in exceptional circumstances, and said quitting was not ‘on [his] agenda’.
Pope Francis has been head of the Catholic Church since March 2013, on Monday marking 10 years of his papacy.
In an interview with Italian Swiss television RSI, with extracts published in La Repubblica, La Stampa, and Corriere della Sera, he also said that the war in Ukraine had been driven by the interests of several empires.
He said the conflict was fuelled by ‘imperial interests, not just of the Russian empire, but of empires from elsewhere.’
While the Pope has repeatedly called for an end to the war and denied being pro-Putin he has previously suggested the invasion of Ukraine was ‘perhaps in some way provoked’.
Asking himself in June last year whether this made him a supporter of Putin, he said: ‘No, I am not. It would be simplistic and wrong to say such a thing.’ He added: ‘I am simply opposed to reducing complexity to distinction between good and bad’.
The Pope denounced the injustice of war at the Christmas Eve mass last year from a wheelchair.
The congregation was there warned that the Pope was unable to stand for long periods of time due to pain in his knee.
The leader of the Catholic Church has for over a year suffered with pain in his right knee.
Despite last month saying quitting was not on the agenda, the Pope has progressively added to speculation that he would at some point stand down from his position should his health worsen.
He previously claimed to have signed a resignation letter in case of a deterioration of his health: ‘In practice, there is already a rule. I have already signed my renunciation.’
‘I signed it and said, “If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my resignation. Here you have it,”‘ he said, referring to Cardinal Bertone, to whom the letter was given.
In January, he gave a sermon on the ‘virtue of stepping aside at the right time’.
He said: ‘It is easy to become attached to roles and positions, to the need to be esteemed, recognised and rewarded.’
He continued: ‘It is good for us too to cultivate, like [Saint] John [the Baptist], the virtue of setting ourselves aside at the right moment, bearing witness that the point of reference of life is Jesus.
Tuesday saw the arrival of a significant autocratic supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin for a state visit to China, despite concerns from American officials that Beijing may be considering supporting Moscow in its current offensive against Ukraine.
Following confirmation of the leader’s arrival on Tuesday, Belarus’ state news agency Belta said that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko would remain in China until Thursday and meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss a variety of topics, including trade and investment as well as “acute international challenges.”
His visit follows a September summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Uzbekistan, which Putin also attended, where the two leaders decided to upgrade their nations’ relations to a “all-weather comprehensive strategic cooperation.”
Lukashenko met with outgoing Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday and called for the two countries to “intensify” their relations, according to a readout from the Belarusian government.
“We have no closed topics for cooperation. We cooperate in all avenues,” Lukashenko told Li, per the readout, adding “we have never set ourselves the task of … working against third countries.”
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Wednesday reported that Lukashenko visited Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and laid a wreath in front of the Monument to the People’s Heroes, which honors revolutionary figures in the Chinese Communist Party.
The visit from the Belarusian leader – who allowed Russian troops to use Belarus to stage their initial incursion into Ukraine last year – comes as tensions between the US and China have intensified in recent weeks, including over concerns from Washington that Beijing is considering sending lethal aid to the Kremlin’s struggling war effort.
In some of the most specific comments to date about the US response to any such support, Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a trip to Kazakhstan on Tuesday warned that Washington would target Chinese firms or citizens involved in any effort to send lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
Report obtained by CNN shows Russia is getting military support from China
Beijing has pushed back on claims it is considering sending lethal aid, with its Foreign Ministry on Monday saying China was “actively promoting peace talks and the political settlement of the crisis,” while the US was “pouring lethal weapons into the battlefield in Ukraine.”
And despite its “no-limits” partnership with Russia, China claims to be a neutral party to the Ukraine conflict.
On Friday, Beijing released a 12-point position on the “political solution” to the crisis in a document calling for peace talks to end the year-long war. Its release, however, was criticized by Western leaders, who accused China of already having taken Russia’s side.
Xi has yet to speak with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky since Russia’s invasion began, though he has spoken with Putin on multiple occasions, including in person during the SCO summit.
In an interview with Chinese state news agency Xinhua released ahead of his visit, Lukashenko is cited as saying the position paper was a testimony to China’s peaceful foreign policy and a new and original step that would have a far-reaching impact.
While burgeoning economic ties between China and Belarus are expected to be a key component of talks this week, the conflict in Ukraine will loom over discussions.
See why Ukraine thinks Russia will launch new offensive from Belarus.
Belarus has been targeted by sweeping sanctions from the US and its allies in response to Moscow’s aggression after Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to invade Ukraine through the 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) Ukrainian-Belarusian border north of Kyiv.
Belarus already had fraught relations with Western powers, with the European Union not recognizing the results of Lukashenko’s 2020 election win – which sparked mass pro-democracy protests in the country and were followed by a brutal government crackdown.
There have been fears throughout the conflict in Ukraine that Belarus will again be used as a launching ground for another Russian offensive, or that Lukashenko’s own troops would join the war. Before visiting Moscow earlier this month, Lukashenko claimed there is “no way” his country would send troops into Ukraine unless it is attacked.
Hear the message the Belarusian president told a CNN reporter to relay to Biden
The backdrop of Belarus’ damaged ties with the West – and an interest in diversifying a Russia-dependent economy – could see Lukashenko keen to focus on boosting economic ties with China during this visit.
Belarus was an early joiner of China’s Belt and Road development initiative, launched a decade ago, and trade between the two last year increased 33% year-on-year to surpass $5 billion, according to Xinhua.
In a call between Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Belarussian counterpart Sergei Aleinik on Friday, Qin pledged that China would “support Belarus in its efforts to safeguard national stability and development,” and “oppose external interference in Belarus’s internal affairs and illegal unilateral sanctions against the country,” according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout.
On Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a regular briefing that Lukashenko’s visit would be “an opportunity to pursue further progress in the all-round cooperation between the two countries.”
The majority of analysts predicted a swift win for the invaders when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces into Ukraine a year ago.
Early forecasts of Russian victory have not come to pass due to a number of variables, according to experts, including stronger morale and superior military strategy on the Ukrainian side as well as – importantly – the delivery of Western weapons.
While recent headlines have made much of the potential for Patriot air defence systems or Western battle tanks to alter the course of the war, these weapons have not yet been deployed in Ukraine.
But there are other weapons that have already helped to change the course of the war. Here are three key ones that the Ukrainians have used to devastating effect.
At the very beginning of the war, fighters on both sides were expecting Russian armored columns to begin rolling into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv within days.
The Ukrainians needed something that could blunt that attack – and found it in the form of the Javelin, a shoulder-fired, guided anti-tank missile that can be deployed by a single individual.
Part of its appeal lies in its ease of use, as manufacturer Lockheed Martin, which co-developed the missile with Raytheon, explains: “To fire, the gunner places a cursor over the selected target. The Javelin command launch unit then sends a lock-on-before-launch signal to the missile.”
The Javelin is a “fire and forget” weapon. As soon as its operator takes the shot, they are able to run for cover while the missile finds its way to the target.
This was particularly important in the early days of the war as the Russians tended to stay in columns when trying to enter urban areas. A Javelin operator could fire from a building or behind a tree and be gone before the Russians could fire back.
The Javelin is also good at targeting the weak spot of the Russian tanks – their horizontal surfaces – because its trajectory after launch sees it curve upwards then fall on the target from above, according to Lockheed Martin.
‘Fire and forget’: See the US weapons being used in Ukraine
This could be seen in images early in the war of Russian tanks with their turrets blown off. Often, it was a Javelin that had done the damage.
Indeed, so great was the Javelins’ impact that two-and-a-half months into the war US President Joe Biden visited the Alabama plant where they are made to praise the workforce for their help in defending Ukraine.
“You’re making a gigantic difference for these poor sons of guns who are under such enormous, enormous pressure and firepower,” Biden said at the time.
There was one other advantage to the Javelins, particularly pertinent at the start of the war: they were politically acceptable.
“Their low cost and defensive usage make them politically easier for other countries to provide,” Michael Armstrong, an associate professor at Brock University in Ontario, wrote on the Conversation. “By contrast, governments disagree about sending more expensive offensive weapons like warplanes.”
The full US Army name is the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. It’s “a full-spectrum, combat-proven, all-weather, 24/7, lethal and responsive, wheeled precision strike weapons system,” the US Army says.
That’s a mouthful, but to put it more plainly, HIMARS is a 5-ton truck carrying a pod that can launch six rockets almost simultaneously, sending their explosive warheads well beyond the battlefield’s front lines, and then quickly change positions to avoid a counterstrike.
“If Javelin was the iconic weapon of the early phases of the war, HIMARS is the iconic weapon of the later phases,” Mark Cancian, senior adviser for the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International studies, wrote in January.
HIMARS fires munitions called the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) that have a range of 70 to 80 kilometers (about 50 miles). And their GPS guidance systems make them extremely accurate, within about 10 meters (33 feet) of their intended target.
Exclusive video shows Ukrainian drones targeting Russian positions
Last July, Russian reporter Roman Sapenkov said he witnessed a HIMARS strike on a Russian base at Kherson’s airport in territory Moscow’s forces had occupied at the time.
“I was struck by the fact that the whole packet, five or six rockets, landed practically on a penny,” he wrote.
HIMARS has had two key effects, Yagil Henkin, a professor at the Israel Defense Forces Command and Staff College, wrote for the US Marine Corps University Press.
The strikes have forced “the Russians to move their ammunition depots farther to the rear, thereby reducing the available firepower of Russian artillery near the front lines and making logistical support more difficult,” Henkin wrote.
And using the long-range rockets to hit targets such as bridges has disrupted Russian supply efforts, he said.
The HIMARS system is manufactured and patented in the United States by Lockheed Martin.
The Turkish-designed drone has become one of the world’s best-known unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) due to its use in the Ukraine war.
It’s relatively cheap, made with off-the-shelf parts, packs a lethal punch and records its kills on video.
Those videos have shown it taking out Russian armor, artillery and supply lines with the missiles, laser-guided rockets and smart bombs it carries.
“Viral videos of the TB2 are a perfect example of modern warfare in the TikTok era,” Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, wrote on the Atlantic Council’s website.
The Bayraktar TB2 was not a “magic weapon,” but it was “good enough,” he wrote.
He cited as its weaknesses its lack of speed and vulnerability to air defenses. Battlefield statistics appear to bear that out. Seventeen of the 40 to 50 TB2s that Ukraine has received have been destroyed in combat, according to the Oryx open source intelligence website.
Turkish drone is so effective, Ukrainian troops are singing about it
But Stein says the number of losses are outweighed by the low cost of the drone, which means they can be relatively easily replaced.
Indeed, a plan to set up an assembly line for the drones in Ukraine was in the works even before the war. And using the drones potentially has saved the lives of Ukrainian pilots who would otherwise have had to carry out the missions.
Recent reports from Ukraine indicate the TB2 may be playing less of a role as Russian forces figure out how to combat it, yet its fans say it delivered when Ukraine’s position was most precarious.
Its videos of Russian kills were “a great morale booster,” Samuel Bendett, adjunct senior fellow at the Center of Naval Analyses Russia Studies (CNAS), told CNN early in the war.
“It’s a public relations victory.”
The TB2 even had a music video made about it. That’s the status it has attained among Ukrainians.
During a three-day journey that included a stop in Ukraine, President Joe Biden stumbled once more as he ascended the stairs of Air Force One in Poland.
On the tarmac in Warsaw on Wednesday evening local time, Biden, 80, staggered as countless dignitaries bid him farewell.
Video footage shows Biden walking up more than a dozen steps of the stairs and reaching a flat platform. On the next incline, he stumbles on his second step and falls forward and catches himself.
Biden continues up the flight of stairs and upon reaching the top, turns around and pauses a moment before waving to the officials and walking inside Air Force One.
Joe Biden trips on airplane stairs leaving Warsaw
It was not clear what caused Biden to trip. The White House did not immediately comment.
Biden is returning to Washington, DC, after a whirlwind Eastern Europe trip that started with a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday. In remarks from Kyiv and Warsaw ahead of the one-year anniversary Friday of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Biden ripped Russian President Vladimir Putin and assured that NATO will continue united.
Wednesday was not the first time Biden has stumbled on Air Force One. He fell on the jet steps at Joint Base Andrews in March 2021, two months into the start of his presidency.
‘It’s pretty windy outside, it’s very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself. He is doing 100% fine,’ White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time.
President Joe Biden left Warsaw, Poland, after a three-day Eastern Europe trip that included a surprise visit to Ukraine (Pictures: Reuters)
Biden is not the only American official who has tripped. On Monday, a female White House staffer fell down the Air Force One stairs as Biden arrived in Warsaw.
The US president has faced criticism back home for visiting Ukraine instead of East Palestine, Ohio, where a February 3 toxic train derailment forced about 4,000 residents to evacuate.
‘That was the biggest slap in the face,’ East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway told Fox News on Monday night.
It was not the first time that President Joe Biden has tripped on the Air Force One steps (Picture: AP)
‘That tells you right now he doesn’t care about us.
‘He can send every agency he wants to, but I found out this morning that he was in Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there and not to us… on Presidents’ Day in our country, so I’m furious.’
Meanwhile, Trump Force One, the name of former President Donald Trump’s jet, trended on Twitter on Wednesday morning. Videos showed Trump, who has announced his 2024 bid for the White House, flashing a thumbs up and walking up stairs without incident to board his plane.
Trump headed to the East Palestine trail derailment site, where he reportedly planned to meet with officials and donate thousands of gallons of cleaning supplies and water.
The Russian foreign ministry responded to an article by American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that claimed the US military was responsible for the attacks on Nord Stream 2.
According to Russia’s foreign ministry, the United States needs to explain its alleged involvement in the explosions that destroyed the undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines last year.
It was a response to a blog entry written earlier on Wednesday by renowned American journalist Seymour Hersh, who claimed that President Joe Biden had authorised the operation and implicated the US military in the explosions.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, urged the White House to respond to Hersh’s “facts.”
Quoting one unnamed source with “direct knowledge of the operational planning”, Hersh detailed how “skilled deep-water divers” from the US Navy planted C-4 explosives during a training exercise last June, then detonated the payload remotely three months later.
“President Joseph Biden saw the pipelines as a vehicle for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to weaponise natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions,” Hersh wrote.
Hersh is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who exposed the 1969 massacre of Vietnamese civilians by American forces. He also broke the story of US troops brutalising Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib after the US invasion in 2003.
Russia, without providing evidence, has repeatedly said NATO nations were behind last September’s explosionsaffecting the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines – multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects that carried Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Western officials have denied those accusations.
“The White House must now comment on all these facts,” Zakharova said in a post on her Telegram page, where she summarised Hersh’s main claims regarding the alleged US involvement.
The White Houseon Wednesday dismissed Hersh’s post. “This is utterly false and complete fiction,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council. A US Department of State spokesperson said the same.
A Central Intelligence Agency spokesperson echoed the White House denial, calling the report “completely and utterly false”.
‘Something to hide’ The US and NATO have called the Nord Stream explosions “an act of sabotage“.
Investigators from Sweden and Denmark – in whose exclusive economic zones the blasts occurred – have said the ruptures were a result of sabotage, but have not said who they believe was responsible.
Russia said the countries “have something to hide” and are purposefully blocking Russia from the investigation. Its defence ministry previously accused British navy personnel of blowing up the Nord Steam pipelines.
Construction of Nord Stream 2, designed to double the amount of gas Russia could send directly to Germany under the sea, was completed in September 2021. But the pipeline was never put into operation after Berlin shelved certification just days before Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
According to the man who masterminded the prosecution of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, says Russian President Vladimir Putinshould stand trial in Ukraine this year for war crimes committed there.
Sir Geoffrey Nice told the BBC that Mr Putin was a “guilty man” in the wartime attacks on civilian targets.
The British barrister voiced his surprise that prosecutors and politicians were not “stating this out much more freely and honestly”.
Russia denies any involvement in war crimes.
But, speaking to Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme, Sir Geoffrey described Moscow’s actions during the invasion as “crimes against humanity” – as civilian targets were being attacked.
Crimes against humanity are considered to be among the most serious offences under the so-called “rules” of war.
These laws ban attacks on civilians – or infrastructure vital to their survival – and are set out in international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions.
For example, Russia’s repeat attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid over the winter have been described as war crimes because of the harm done to civilians. Russia insists it is hitting military targets only.
Moscow’s troops have been accused by the international community of thousands of abuses since their full-scale invasion of the neighbouring country last February.
The prosecutor-general in Kyiv says more than 62,000 war crimes have so far been recorded, including the deaths of more than 450 children. The BBC has not been able to verify these figures.
Sir Geoffrey worked with International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) between 1998 and 2006.
He led the case against former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who went on trial in The Hague in 2002 for war crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
Mr Milosevic – once known as the “butcher of the Balkans” – died in prison before the trial concluded.
Commenting on the war in Ukraine, Sir Geoffrey said the case “couldn’t be clearer” against Mr Putin, and there was “no doubt” of a chain of command leading to the man in the Kremlin.
This meant the “most important thing” was to try the Russian leader himself, rather than low-ranking soldiers, he told Broadcasting House.
He added that any trial “could be tomorrow morning, as far as I’m concerned” and should be held by Ukrainians in the Ukrainian language. Mr Putin himself would not need to be present, he said.
Sir Geoffrey speculated over a possible reason why the Russian leader had not faced tougher action so far – suggesting there could be a move to exempt him from prosecution as part of a peace deal.
He said the International Criminal Court (ICC) –which has jurisdiction over Ukraine – “has still not made a pronouncement about Putin’s responsibility for this crime”.
Sir Geoffrey said this “reluctance” raised the question of whether there was some sort of “political advantage” to not indicting the president.
But he said the idea of any peace settlement that prevented a trial of Mr Putin was an “appalling prospect” which would be “a complete denial of justice to the people of Ukraine”.
In response, the ICC rejected any assertion of “pressure or influence” on the prosecutor, Karim Khan, to delay any investigations.
Mr Khan had “gone on record repeatedly… to demonstrate that accountability is an imperative that must be achieved”, an ICC statement said.
It added that the prosecutor had been working on the ground in Ukraine to collect evidence of war crimes – and arrest warrants would be issued when enough proof had been gathered.
Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin spoke yesterday in Minsk, sparking rumours that Putin may be trying to convince Belarus to join the conflict.
According to experts, Belarus will not directly enter the conflict because Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko “likely deflected” Mr. Putin’s efforts.
Belarus needs to defend its borders against the West and NATO, according to US-based think tank The Institute for the Study of War, which claimed Mr. Lukashenko was doing this to avoid taking part in the invasion.
In a joint news conference after the talks, both presidents refrained from discussing the invasion.
The ISW said that if Mr Lukashenko were planning on joining the war, he would likely “adjust his rhetoric to create some plausible explanation to his own people about why he was suddenly turning away from the fictitious NATO invasion threat”.
This is not to say the Kremlin hadn’t planned to pressure Belarus.
According to the think tank, Moscow has “attempted to conceal Putin’s likely original intentions to pressure Lukashenko”.
The ISW pointed out that Kremlinspokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the speculation as “foolish” – and that he had avidly denied Russia’s intention to invade days before the war.
“But this denial is more likely an attempt to cover up Putin’s desperation to involve Lukashenko in the war and apparent failure – again – to do so,” the ISW said.
On Wednesday, Russia’s upper house of parliament unanimously voted to strengthen a contentious law prohibiting what the bill refers to as “LGBT propaganda,” making it applicable to Russians of all ages.
After being passed by the Federation Council, the bill must be signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin. On November 24, it was approved by the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.
The proposed law prohibits all Russians from promoting or “praising” homosexual relationships or publicly implying that they are “normal,” as well as “propaganda” of paedophilia and gender reassignment in advertising, books, and films.
The original version of the law, passed in 2013, prohibited “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” among minors. It is now being applied to adults by Russian legislators.
Individuals who spread what the bill calls “LGBT propaganda” or attempt to do so, will be fined up to 400,000 rubles ($6,600). Legal entities can be fined up to 5 million rubles ($82,100). Foreigners can be arrested for up to 15 days or deported, according to the text of the bill.
“The louder they squeal in the West, the more we will be sure that we are on the right track. This topic should become a sin in Russia like it is in many of our religions,” said one of the Senators, Taimuraz Dzambekovich, before voting for the bill to pass.
The bill says that materials published online that include information about pedophilia, sex changes or so-called LGBT propaganda will be included in the list of websites that will be monitored or blocked by Russia’s Internet watchdog Roskomnadzor.
But in the following weeks Ukraine began to make gains in the south of the country, advancing along Dnipro river towards Kherson and putting Russian forces under increasing pressure.
Finally, Russian forces withdrew and Ukrainian troops entered the city on Friday.
Locals were seen celebrating, some reuniting with loved ones they had not seen for months. The mood in the city was one of jubilation and relief, but also trepidation and fear of what may come next, the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen reported.
In his visit on Monday, Mr Zelensky told troops that Ukraine is “ready for peace, peace for all our country,” the Reuters news agency reported.
He thanked Nato and other allies for their support in the war against Russia, adding that high mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars) from the United States had made a big difference for Kyiv.
The president addressed a crowd gathered in Kherson’s main square, some of whom waved Ukrainian flags or wore them draped across their shoulders, a Reuters journalist in Kherson said.
Mr Zelensky said he is “really happy” about the liberation, as are the people of Ukraine.
Asked where Ukrainian forces might advance next, he said: “Not Moscow…We’re not interested in the territories of another country.”
Mr Zelensky had previously said that investigators have uncovered more than 400 war crimes in areas of Kherson abandoned by Russian forces as they retreated.
The BBC has been unable to verify these allegations, and Moscow denies that its troops intentionally target civilians.
Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
Is Russian President Vladimir Putinseriously unwell? In the past few months, several claims and counterclaims have been made over the alleged deteriorating health of Putin.
Now, a recent report suggests that the Russian president is apparently battling Parkinson’s disease and pancreatic cancer. Citing leaked Kremlin documents, the British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that Putin is currently under medication.
The report, which has also been published by several media outlets, states that the Russian president is “regularly stuffed with all kinds of heavy steroids” in order to ease his battle with his disease.
The report also attached videos and photos of the 70-year-old Russian leader, who has been routinely seen twitching and unsteady during several public appearances.
Putin’s health has been a matter of speculation, especially, during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which led to massive food and fuel crisis across the world.
The Sun claimed it has seen emails from a Russian intelligence source, which can reveal that Putin is suffering from both early-stage Parkinson’s besides pancreatic cancer. The report also mentioned that the cancer is now spreading to other parts of his body.
The bombshell email from an insider claimed: “I can confirm he has been diagnosed with early stage Parkinson’s disease, but it’s already progressing.
The source said that “this fact will be denied in every possible way and hidden.”
It further added: “Putin is regularly stuffed with all kinds of heavy steroids and innovative painkilling injections to stop the spread of pancreatic cancer he was recently diagnosed with.”
“It not only causes a lot of pain, Putin has a state of puffiness of the face and other side effects – including memory lapses. In his close circle, there are rumours that in addition to pancreatic cancer, which is gradually spreading, Putin also has prostate cancer,” the intelligence source added.
Videos released by 🇷🇺 Government news show what could be track marks, from IVs, on the hand of Putin.
For the same event, the Kremlin released two videos: One with tons of watermarks (making the hand harder to see), the other without any shot of his hand. pic.twitter.com/a1mfs6hOud
These reports emerged after some pictures went viral on social media platforms recently showing the Russian leader’s hand with track marks from possible IV treatment.
Recently, reports also claimed that Putin’s relatives were concerned about his “coughing fits, constant nausea and a lack of appetite”. This happened after he underwent an undisclosed medical examination.
On Saturday, gunmen killed 11 people at a Russian militarytraining facility.
Two individuals opened fire on a group of volunteers who had enlisted to fight in Ukraine during a firearms training session, according to state-owned news agency Ria.
The attackers were from a former Soviet republic, the Russian defence ministry said, but did not give further details.
They were also shot dead during the incident in the Belgorod region of Russia, which borders Ukraine.
A further 15 people were wounded.
“During a firearms training session with individuals who voluntarily expressed a desire to participate in the special military operation [against Ukraine], the terrorists opened fire with small arms on the personnel of the unit,” Ria cited a defence ministry statement as saying.
“As a result of the shooting, 11 people were fatally wounded. Another 15 people with wounds of varying severity were taken to a medical facility,” it said.
The local governor said no residents of the Belgorod region had been killed or injured.
Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a mobilisation of 300,000 Russians who had previously done compulsory military service.
The order sparked protests across Russia and a surge of people attempting to leave the country.
Soon after the mobilisation was announced, a military recruiter was shot at an enlistment office in Siberia.
Last week, Putin announced that over 200,000 people had already beenmobilized, and he saw no need for additional mobilization.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that there is no need for any big strikes on Ukraine, just days after the country was bombarded with the worst bombing since the war began.
He stated that the majority of the planned targets of the strikes had been hit, but that it was not his intention to destroy Ukraine.
He predicted that Moscow‘s goal of mobilising 300,000 men would be met in two weeks.
It comes as Russian forces are mostly in retreat and Ukraine advances, almost eight months since the invasion.
Speaking to journalists after a summit with regional leaders in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, the Russian leader said that the recent strikes had destroyed 22 out of the 29 targets in Ukraine set by the military and that “they are getting” the remaining seven.
“There’s no need for massive strikes. We now have other tasks,” he said.
From Monday onwards, Russia unleashed a wave of strikes on cities across Ukraine, in what Mr Putin said was retaliation for a blast that damaged a key bridge between Russia and annexed Crimea.
Dozens of people were killed and injured in the strikes, which also damaged infrastructure. Central areas of Kyiv were targeted for the first time since the invasion.
But Mr Putin said it was not Russia’s intention to destroy Ukraine, but he did not regret the invasion.
“What is happening today is not pleasant, to put things mildly,” he said. “But all the same, [if Russia hadn’t attacked] we would have been in the same situation, only the conditions would have been worse for us. So we’re doing everything correctly and at the right time.”
President Putin said 220,000 men had been mobilised, of whom 16,000 were already in combat. He saw no need for additional mobilisation, he added.
However, the call-up has caused widespread discontent in Russia, with tens of thousands of men fleeing to neighbouring countries. The BBC has also found evidence of the poor level of training such conscripts or recruits receives before being sent to the front.
Meanwhile, the BBC Russian service says it has identified more than 7,500 Russian service personnel who have died in the Ukraine war. The actual level of casualties is believed to be much higher, and there are reports that some recently mobilised troops have been killed.
Addressing relations with other former Soviet countries, Mr Putin insisted that the war had not affected their “character and depth”.
He said it was natural for some countries to be concerned but he was keeping them informed in detail.
But analysts say Russia’s influence in the region is declining, with leaderslike Kazakhstan’s Kassym-Jomart Tokayev trying to distance themselves from Mr Putin over the war.
Two days after the only bridge connecting Russia with the annexed Crimea was broken in an explosion, Russia fired missiles at various Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv.
Here are the latest developments:
Missile strikes have been reported in cities including Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia, in what appears to be the most widespread set of Russian attacks since the early weeks of the war
Russia has partially reopened the bridge linking it to Crimea, which is an important supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine
Ukrainian troops have continued to progress after breaking through Russian defences in the southern Kherson region
In Donetsk, Ukrainian forces are pushing east, having taken the town of Lyman
Ukrainian cities hit in missile strikes
At least 12 Ukrainian cities have been hit in missile strikes two days after a strategically important bridge linking Russia with Crimea was damaged in a blast.
Kyiv has been targeted for the first time in months, but explosions have also been reported in Ternopil and Lviv in the west, which has so far escaped the worst of the war.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia has targeted energy infrastructure across the country and that energy facilities in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv are among the places hit.
Ukraine’s military commander says Russia launched 83 missiles in total.
It comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putinaccused Ukraine’s security services of attacking the Kerch bridge – although Ukrainian officials have not indicated whether their forces were behind the attack.
The 19km (12-mile) bridge, the longest in Europe, is an important supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.
Russia has used the bridge to move military equipment, ammunition, and personnel from Russia to battlefields in southern Ukraine.
Mr Putin described the blast as an “an act of terrorism aimed at destroying Russia’s critical civilian infrastructure”.
Russian authorities partially reopened the roadway part of the bridge hours after the attack but for light traffic only.
The railway part of the bridge – where oil tankers caught fire – has also reopened.
Ukrainian breakthrough in the south
Ukrainian troops have continued to advance after breaking through Russia’s defences on the west bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson.
They have retaken the village of Dudchany and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says Ukrainian sources report that Russian occupation authorities are moving their families from the Kherson region to Crimea.
Ukrainian troops have been attacking bridges, ferries and pontoons in recent weeks, attempting to make Russian positions on the west side of the river unsustainable, and thereby force a withdrawal.
Also in the south, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called for the demilitarisation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Russian and Ukrainian sources have accused each other of shelling close to the plant, which is Europe’s biggest nuclear facility.
Russia’s military took over the power station in early March, but it is still being operated by Ukrainian staff.
Intense fighting in the east
Ukrainian troops took control of the key logistical hub of Lyman in Donetsk more than a week ago and have continued to push further east towards the region of Luhansk.
The ISW says they have “made substantial gains” in the area.
Russian reports suggests their next target may be the city of Kreminna.
Analysts say the loss of Lyman is a major set-back for Russia.
Russian forces have been trying to push forward in Bakhmut, but reports suggest they have been repelled by Ukrainian troops.
The latest fighting follows a major Russian defeat in the east.
Ukraine says it recaptured 6,000 sq km (2,317 sq miles) of territory from Russia in early September, when it forced back Russian units in the Kharkiv region.
Russian troops withdrew from the key towns of Izyum and Kupiansk, saying that the retreat would allow its troops to “regroup”.
Both towns were major logistical hubs for Russian forces in Donbas.
Annexation of four regions
Four regions of Ukraine, that are partially or almost completely occupied byRussiaare being annexed by the Russian Federation.
It follows self-styled referendums in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, held between 23 and 27 September.
IMAGE SOURCE,MAP SHOWING THE FOUR REGIONS OF UKRAINE – DONETSK,
President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia will use “all the forces and resources” it has to “liberate” the four regions.
In an address to the Russian people, Mr Putin said his country had “various weapons of destruction”, adding: “I’m not bluffing.”
The annexations follow a “partial mobilisation” of about 300,000 Russian reservists.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, but Ukrainian forces retook large areas around Kyiv in early April after Russia abandoned its push towards the capital.
Areas in the west of the country, including Lviv, have seen missile attacks but no attempt by Russian forces to take and occupy ground.
The Russianshave suffered heavy losses since the invasion began and significant quantities of Russian weaponry have also been destroyed or captured.
We reported earlier that this year’s Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to the jailed Belarus human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organisation, Centre for Civil Liberties.
The honour will be widely seen as a rebuke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin,who is celebrating his 70th birthday, and his Moscow ally Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
Here, we take a look at the winners:
Jailed Belarus human rights activist Ales Bialiatski
Mr Bialiatski, 60, was one of the leaders of the democracy movement in Belarus in the mid-1980s and has continued to campaign for human rights and civil liberties in the authoritarian country.
He founded the non-governmental organisation, Human Rights Centre Viasna, and won the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes referred to as the “Alternative Nobel”, in 2020.
The human rights activist was sentenced to three years in prison in 2011 after being convicted on tax evasion charges – accusations which he denies.
He was detained again in 2020 following anti-government protests that year and remains in jail without trial.
The Russian group Memorial
Memorial was founded in the Soviet Union in 1987 to ensure the victims of communist repression would be remembered and was initially led by the famous Soviet dissident scientist Andrei Sakharov.
For over 30 years, the group exposed human rights abuses in the country at the hands of the government.
It has continued to compile information on human rights abuses in Russia and tracked the fate of political prisoners in the country.
Tatyana Glushkova, a board member of the Memorial human rights defence Centre, noted that the award was handed to the group on the day when it once again had to appear in court in Moscow — this time on a case related to its office building in central Moscow.
International Memorial owned the building, but after the group was shut down, it gave the building to one of its affiliate organisations.
Russian authorities are contesting the deal in court, and the prosecutor general’s office filed a motion to invalidate it.
Memorial considers the move an attempt to seize the building and hinder the organisation’s operation.
Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties
The group was founded in 2007to promote human rights and democracy in Ukraine during a period of turmoil in the country.
It has played a pioneering role in holding guilty parties accountable for their crimes.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the group has worked to document Russian war crimes against Ukrainian civilians.
It has continued to play a pioneering role in holding guilty parties accountable for their crimes.
Following the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize, a representative of the group, Volodymyr Yavorskyi, said the award was important for the organisation because “for many years we worked in a country that was invisible”.
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Vladimir Putin, president of Russia,has received wishes from the president of Belarus in honour of his 70th birthday, which falls on Friday, October 7.
Aleksandr Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, has sent his congratulations to Russian President Vladimir Putin on his 70th birthday.
“Please accept my warmest congratulations on your anniversary. Being a true leader of great power, you make deliberate and difficult decisions in order to ensure the independent development of the Russian Federation, and protect the traditions and values of the Russian people,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The Belarus president said that “he cherishes open and trusting relations with the Russian President and an equal and fruitful dialogue, which serves to strengthen the allied Belarusian-Russian ties.”
“Recently, this has clearly manifested in the closer integration of our countries. I am convinced that together Minsk and Moscow will adequately respond to global challenges and reach a new level of strategic partnership.
“I wholeheartedly wish you, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, excellent health, constructive accomplishments for the benefit of the Russian state and long years in a circle of loving family and reliable friends,” the message read.
The news comes after Lukashenko to the nation of Belarus that “From October 6, all price increases are FORBIDDEN. Forbidden!”
The US president is hardly unique in saying that the risk of nuclear Armageddon is higher now than it has been since the Cuban missile crisis, or as it is known in Russia, the Caribbean crisis.
Anyone who has thought for more than five seconds about Vladimir Putin‘s nuclear threats given the geopolitical state of play would conclude the same and indeed it is a staple comment across Russian state TV.
And though the Russian president’s assertion that “this is not a bluff” is the kind of statement you make when you’re bluffing, Russia’s nuclear arsenal should be taken seriously. That is why it’s there.
Clearly, US officials are which is why they have reportedly been making firm comments behind closed doors to their Russian counterparts that a nuclear strike is the worst of all possible ideas and that retaliation would be decisive.
At their core, the power of nuclear weapons lies in their ability to persuade the opposing party to do or not to do something, that is the very nature of deterrence.
Actually putting them to use in any capacity, tactical or strategic, has undeterminable benefits and escalation risks which are in all likelihood impossible to control and potentially catastrophic for all concerned.
At a very basic level – the wind might blow in Russia’s direction, Vladimir Putin would lose his friends in China and India, and a Western conventional retaliatory strike might knock out the Russian infrastructure President Putin needs to keep his country going and his people on side.
The question is whether Vladimir Putin, who celebrates his 70th birthday today, is thinking rationally about any of that.
Russia’s nuclear doctrine allows for a first-strike nuclear attack only if the very existence of the state is deemed at risk. It is a high bar.
Russia seems to have preferred not to make too big a deal out of it. Although these illegitimate annexations mean Russia can claim these territories as its own and therefore that any Ukrainian attack is a strike on the Russian state, it is a stretch to claim that as existential and a road that Russia has so far chosen not to travel.
Nor does Russia appear to have moved to take any of its nuclear warheads out of central storage and unite the payload with the means of delivery. So far, its nuclear threats are just that – threats. There is still a long way to go in the way of signalling and warnings before we reach actual Armageddon.
And although Russia may be losing ground on the battlefield, it does still have other options beyond continuing to hammer it out in Donbass and Kherson.
Why hasn’t it taken out targets in Kyiv, for example, since the early days of the war? What about other forms of hybrid warfare, (continuing to) target energy infrastructure in Ukraine and beyond? Vladimir Putin is a master of those dark arts. A nuclear strike, one would hope, would be his weapon of last resort.
The talk now in Russia is moving increasingly toward the Kremlin’s willingness to talk. The proposition seems to be – let’s discuss ending this now with Russia claiming a huge chunk of Eastern Ukraine as its own and there is the threat of tactical nuclear weapons if you don’t or if NATO troops get involved.
Ukraine’s president is understandably not convinced. Volodomyr Zelenskyy wants his country back, whole. He is not the one thinking about potential off-ramps for Vladimir Putin, he’s thinking about winning.
Which is why it is so important that the US president is. As Joe Biden put it in comments overheard by reporters, he’s trying to figure out where Mr Putin finds a way out where he “does not only lose face but lose significant power within Russia”.
The trouble is it is incredibly hard to determine what that is and by raising the rhetorical stakes, Vladimir Putin appears to be backing himself increasingly into a corner. The prospects are deeply worrying.
In an interview with Sky News, a Russian lawmaker and TV host Evgeny Popov insisted Russia would never makethe first strike.
“Using a nuclear weapon in the 21st century is an insane decision. We are not insane and we hope you are not either,” he said.
Vladimir Putindoesn’t have many partners who are willing to send weaponry, despite the fact that the West has been arming Ukraine throughout the conflict.
It has been widely reported that Russia has received Iranian drones for use in Ukraine – but Iran, according to Kyiv, has not been upfront with them about this.
Now Ukraine has called them out on Twitter
Recently, in response to a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the ambassador of Iran stated that his country has not supplied drones to russia.
Here is the Iranian drone Qods Mohajer-6, which was launched to coordinate an attack on Odesa a few days ago. pic.twitter.com/C5Ep0kj7GZ
The decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Mr Snowden, 39, has been living in exile in Russia since exposing the National Security Agency (NSA) programme affecting millions of Americans in 2013.
Mr Snowden, who faces espionage charges in the US, has made no public comments.
In 2020, the NSA surveillance of millions of Americans’ telephone records was ruled unlawful by the US Court of Appeals.
Mr Snowden said afterward that he felt vindicated by the ruling.
Top US intelligence officials had publicly insisted the NSAhad never knowingly collected data from private phone records until Mr Snowden exposed evidence to the contrary.
Following the revelation, officials said the NSA’s surveillance program had played a crucial role in fighting domestic terrorism, including the convictions of Basaaly Saeed Moalin, Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud, Mohamed Mohamud, and Issa Doreh, of San Diego, for providing aid to al-Shabab militants in Somalia.
Four seized regions of Ukraine are being held over by Russian-backed officials, who are holding so-called referendums on joining Russia.
These so-called elections, which have been denounced as invalid and fraudulent by Ukraine and the West, are being held over the course of five days in four front-line regions: two in the east and two in the south.
An annexation could lead to a claim by Russia that its territory is coming under attack from Western weapons supplied to Ukraine.
This could escalate the war further.
What is going on and why now?
Seven months after Russia’s invasion began, Vladimir Putinis on the back foot. Ukraine’s counter-offensive has recaptured swathes of territory seized since the 24 February invasion.
A vote on annexation is one of three steps taken by the Kremlin in an attempt to reset the war.
By annexing another 15% of sovereign Ukraine, Russia will be able to claim its territory is under attack from weapons provided by Nato and other Western countries to Ukraine. By calling up 300,000 extra troops, it can defend a front line of 1,000km (620 miles). The Kremlin has also criminalized desertion, surrender and going absent without leave during mobilization.
If Russia’s leader annexing territory sounds familiar, it is. When he ordered troops to seize Crimea in 2014, he followed it up with a vote rejected as an illegitimate sham by the international community.
This latest event has also been denounced as illegal by many Western countries, including international monitoring groups, the OSCE, and Russian media have already said that a Yes-vote is beyond doubt.
It is taking place over five days in Russia’s two proxy areas in Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and in occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
What makes these votes a sham?
We have already seen how Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. While the Kremlin claimed 96.7% support, a leaked report from Russia’s Human Rights Council said only around 30% had voted and barely half supported annexation.
Not a shot had been fired in Crimea, and yet in this latest case voting is expected to take place in the middle of a war.
The four regions involved are either partially or completely under occupation.
In the south, the city of Kherson is not a safe place right now, with Russian soldiers struggling to hold back a big Ukrainian counter-offensive. The central administration building was hit by a series of missiles only last week.
A secure vote is impossible, and yet officials talk of 750,000 people registered and plans to incorporateoccupied parts of another Ukrainian region, Mykolayiv, into the annexed area.
Russian media reported that elected officials would go from door-to-door with portable ballot boxes from Friday to Monday.
Polling stations will only operate on the fifth day, 27 September, with officials citing security reasons.
Hundreds of stations are scheduled to open that day, with voters also able to cast ballots in regions outside their own – and refugees eligible to vote in parts of Russia itself.
Then there’s Zaporizhzhia’s capital, which remains securely in Ukrainian hands, so any vote to annex that region makes little sense.
Donetsk in the east is only 60% under Russian occupation and very much at the heart of the conflict.
Russia does control most of Luhansk in the northeast even if it has begun to lose ground. Russian news agencies showed flyers being handed out entitled “Russia is the future”.
Much of the pre-war population has fled the conflict. The head of Russia’s proxy authority in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, ordered a mass evacuation days before the invasion.
Russian-backed leaders have been keen to stage votes for several months, but the decision to hold the vote was taken just three days in advance and smacks of desperation.
There will be no independent observers. Much of the voting will be online, although officials have promised extra security at polling stations.
What will change?
Ukrainian defense ministry adviser Yuriy Sak told the BBC the so-called referendums were doomed. “We are seeing that local populations are all in favour of returning to Ukraine, and this is why there’s so much guerrilla movement resistance in these territories.”
In any event, Kyiv says nothing will change and its forces will continue to push to liberate the territories.
Russia analyst Alexander Baunov says merely redefining the occupied areas as Russian territory is unlikely to stop Ukraine’s army, but it does send a message of intent to the populations under their control. And the Kremlin’s hope is that the West will balk at having its weapons fired at land declared by Moscow as Russian.
Alarmingly President Putin has spoken of using all means at his disposal “to protect Russia”. And in case there was any doubt at all. the deputy head of Russia’s security council, Dmitry Medvedev, made clear that nuclear weapons could also be used to protect annexed territories.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken of a“dangerous escalation”, but reaffirmed Washington’s position that no Russian claim to Ukrainian soil could take away Ukraine’s right to defend itself.
Even Turkey, which has sought to play a mediating role, has damned the vote as illegitimate.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, he said Russia has made “irresponsible nuclear threats” and that “a nuclear war cannot be won and can never be fought”.
His comments come just hours after Vladimir Putin warned the West he was not bluffing about the potential use of nuclear weapons.
Mr Biden said Russia has “attempted to erase a sovereign state from the map”, adding that the war is about “extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state, plain and simple”.
“Wherever you are, that should make your blood run cold.”
One of its candidates has been suspended by the far-right Italian party Brothers of Italy after glorifying Adolf Hitler on social media. Brothers of Italy is expected towin Sunday’s election.
Agrigento, Sicily, party coordinator Calogero Pisano compared leader Giorgia Meloni to “a great statesman of 70 years ago” in a 2014 Facebook post.
He clarified that he wasn’t referring to Benito Mussolini but rather a “German.”
The party said Mr Pisano no longer represented it at any level.
Ms Meloni has been trying to distance the Brothers of Italy from its neo-fascist roots
The party leads the polls ahead of Sunday’s vote, with promises of tax cuts and a hard line on immigration.
Ruth Dureghello, the president of Rome’s Jewish Community, criticized the comments, saying “the idea that someone who hails Hitler could sit in the next parliament is unacceptable”, Ansa reported.
Founded in 2012, Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) has its political roots in the Italian Social Movement (MSI), which emerged from the wartime dictator Benito Mussolini’s fascism. The party maintains the logo of post-war far-right parties: the tricolor flame, often perceived as the fire burning on Mussolini’s tomb.
Embracing a controversial old motto, “God, fatherland, and family”, Ms Meloni says she wants tax cuts and to have Italy’s president elected by popular vote. She also campaigns against LGBT rights, wants a naval blockade of Libya, and has warned repeatedly against Muslim migrants.
Ms Meloni strongly rejects the fascist label, saying recently it had been “consigned to history”.
In Italy’s last elections in 2018, her party received little more than 4% of the vote, but she’s now the favorite to win. Backed by two other right-wing parties, the League and Forza Italia, polls suggest they are heading for a majority in Italy’s two houses of parliament.
Putin has promised more big guns. The long touted Tsirkon hypersonic missile will be delivered to Russia’s armed forces in the coming months. According to Putin, the Tsirkon missile systems will have “no equal in the world”.
Vladimir Putin’s annual Navy Day parade looks impressive from the banks of St Petersburg’s Neva river; it looks even better on state TV.
No expense spared when it comes to showing the people of Russia quite how big and shiny their navy and armed forces are.
Think back to April though and the loss of the Moskva – the flagship warship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
A direct hit Ukraine’s defense ministry said; a fire onboard according to Russia.
Think back to April though and the loss of the Moskva – the flagship warship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
A direct hit Ukraine’s defense ministry said; a fire onboard according to Russia.
A significant blow both to Russia’s prestige and its Black Sea capabilities. Nor is it the only loss for the Black Sea fleet, against a Ukrainian navy massively diminished since the annexation of Crimea and largely barricaded inside its ports, just like its commercial shipping.
The Black Sea blockade has been a major strategic win for Russia, forcing Ukraine to mine itself in.
Stasis at Ukraine’s ports has left huge swathes of the world without grain, most significantly, but also fertilizer, sunflower oil and a host of other exports which would have brought much needed cash into the Ukrainian economy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Iran on Tuesday in just his second foreign trip since he launched the invasion of Ukraine in February.
Mr Putin will meet Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Grain exports, Syria and Ukraine will be discussed in Tehran, a Turkish official said.
The Russian leader has limited his international visits to former Soviet states since war broke out in Ukraine.
In June, Mr Putin made his first international trip since February when he visited Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, both former members of the USSR now led by authoritarian rulers and Russian allies.
Tuesday’s visit will offer Mr Putin the opportunity to deepen ties with Iran, one of Moscow’s few remaining international allies and a fellow target of Western economic sanctions.
It follows allegations by US officials last week that Tehran was planning to supply Russia with hundreds of drones for its war in Ukraine.
“The contact with Khamenei is very important,” Yuri Ushakov, Mr Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, told a media briefing on Monday. “A trusting dialogue has developed between them on the most important issues on the bilateral and international agenda.”
Turkey and Russia have backed opposing sides in the Syrian civil war and have been searching for ways to reduce the violence in recent months.
Ankara has also refused to impose sanctions on Moscow since Mr Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on 24 February and the meeting could offer an opportunity for the Turkish leader to conclude a tentative agreement struck between Russian and Ukrainian leaders to ensure the export of 22 million tonnes of desperately needed grain.
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Last week, Turkey’s defence minister said both sides had agreed on ways to ensure the safety of shipping routes for grain ships.
Russia’s Black Sea fleet is said to be stopping any shipments getting in or out, and the BBC has documented mounting evidence that Moscow’s forces have stolen and exported Ukrainian grain. Other routes have been heavily mined.
“The issue of Ukrainian grain shipment will be discussed with Erdogan,” Mr Ushakov said. “We are ready to continue work on this track.”
But the talks come as local officials and farmers near the front line of the conflict accused Russia of deliberately shelling grain fields.
Oleh Pylypenko, a local politician in southern Ukraine and a former Russian prisoner, told the BBC that farmers in his constituency near the southern city of Mykolaiv were under constant artillery and missile fire.
He said Russian forces had been “shelling the fields, agricultural machinery, and grain sheds” and said that many farmers had “become victims of such attacks and received shrapnel injuries”.
“Professional firefighters from the city of Mykolaiv are afraid to go, because it is very dangerous,” he added. “Many fires are extinguished by our own efforts. But now the shelling has increased.”
And near the eastern front line in Donetsk, farmers told Reuters news agency that they were under intense Russian artillery fire.
“We got used to it, weird is when they do not shoot. When they shoot, it is normal, we are used to it,” one farmer, Andriy, told the agency.
