London — Catherine, Princess of Wales, has said she is “enormously touched” by the support she has received from around the world following her shock announcement that she is being treated for cancer. 

Catherine, 42, revealed Friday that she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy in a video message to the UK, triggering a wave of support from global leaders, family members and the public.   

“The prince and princess are both enormously touched by the kind messages from people here in the UK, across the Commonwealth and around the world in response to Her Royal Highness’ message,” Catherine and her husband Prince William, the heir to the throne, said in a statement released late Saturday.   

“They are extremely moved by the public’s warmth and support and are grateful for the understanding of their request for privacy at this time.”   

The announcement ended weeks of speculation about Catherine’s health, with many praising her courage and others criticizing the conspiracies that spread over her absence.  

The candid disclosure leaves the British monarchy in crisis with King Charles III just weeks ago revealing he was also battling cancer.    

Charles — who was just 17 months into his reign when Buckingham Palace announced in February he would be cancelling all public engagements — led tributes to his “beloved daughter-in-law.”  

The 75-year-old monarch spoke of his pride in “her courage in speaking as she did.”  

Global support 

Following other warm words from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the White House, British newspapers hailed her courage.   

“Kate, you are not alone” read the front page of The Sun. The tabloid said it was “hugely comforting” to hear Kate say she was getting stronger.   

“Perhaps the world will now appreciate why so much secrecy surrounded her surgery in January,” it added.   

The Daily Mail tabloid denounced the “social media trolls who have been peddling disgusting conspiracy theories to explain her absence from public life.”

Finance minister Jeremy Hunt, whose younger brother died of cancer last year, told Sky News on Sunday that “the thing that really cut me to the quick was when she explained the hardest thing of all for people who’ve had cancer in their family, which is how you tell your kids.”  

Outside Kensington Palace in London, Nathaniel Taylor, a 24-year-old government worker, said: “I think it’s really damning what happened to them, what the media has done, how they’ve reacted over these past couple of months.   

“I think some speculation is inevitable but the lengths people were going to try and make things up, it’s just… Hopefully people take a look in the mirror.”   

Royal health woes 

In her statement, Kate, as the princess is widely known, said the diagnosis was a “huge shock” and asked for “time, space and privacy” as she completes chemotherapy.    

In the video — recorded on Wednesday in Windsor, west of London, where the future queen and king live with their three young children — she insisted she was “well.”  

She said it had taken them time to explain the situation to Prince George, aged 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and five-year-old Prince Louis, “and to reassure them that I am going to be OK.”  

Buckingham Palace had announced on February 5 that tests had identified Charles had “a form of cancer”, without giving further details.     

He has cancelled all public engagements except audiences with the prime minister and ambassadors, and is working on official papers while receiving treatment.    

He has been photographed several times since then, and seen attending church.    

“There’s no doubt at all that it’s a very, very difficult time for the institution of monarchy,” royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told AFP.   

Kate was last seen at a public engagement on December 25.   

Kensington Palace announced on January 17 that she faced up to two weeks in hospital and several months’ recuperation following abdominal surgery.    

She was not expected to be ready to return to public duties until after Easter on March 31, a statement at the time said.   

But Kate disclosed that tests after the operation “found cancer had been present” and that she was now undergoing “preventative chemotherapy.”   

Kensington Palace said she would return to official duties “when she is cleared to do so by her medical team.” 
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Rome — Pope Francis decided at the last minute to skip his homily during Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, avoiding a strenuous speech at the start of a busy Holy Week that will test his increasingly frail health.

Hobbled by bad knees and persistent respiratory problems, Francis also didn’t participate in the procession of cardinals around the obelisk in the piazza at the start of the Mass. Instead, the 87-year-old pontiff blessed the palm fronds and olive branches carried by the faithful from the altar.

Francis had been expected to deliver a homily halfway through the service and had pronounced the prayers during the Mass. But after several seconds of silence, announcers said Francis had decided not to deliver the homily itself.

Vatican officials estimated some 25,000 people attended the Mass, held under a sunny, breezy spring sky.

Palm Sunday kicks off a busy week for Francis leading up to Easter Sunday when the faithful commemorate the resurrection of Christ. On Thursday, Francis is due to travel to a Rome women’s prison for the traditional washing of the feet ritual. On Friday he is scheduled to preside over the nighttime Way of the Cross procession at Rome’s Colosseum re-enacting Christ’s crucifixion.

The following day marks the Easter Vigil, during which Francis presides over a solemn nighttime service in the basilica, followed by Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square and his noontime blessing from the loggia above.

Off and on this winter, Francis has been battling what he and the Vatican have described as a case of the flu, bronchitis or a cold. For the last several weeks he has occasionally asked an aide to read aloud his speeches and catechism lessons to spare him the effort. 
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — A pro-Western career diplomat defeated a close ally of Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico in the first round of the presidential election Sunday to set up a runoff between the two to decide who will succeed Zuzana Caputova, the country’s first female president. 

Former Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok had 42.13% of the votes late Saturday, with nearly all polling stations counted by Slovakia’s Statistics Office. Peter Pellegrini was in second with 37.28%.

Because no candidate won an outright majority, a runoff will be held April 6 in this central European nation of 5.4 million people. 

A former justice minister and judge, Stefan Harabin, 66, who has openly sided with Russia in its war with Ukraine, was a distant third with 11.79%. 

In all, nine male candidates sought to become Slovakia’s sixth head of state since it gained independence in 1993 after Czechoslovakia split in two. 

Caputova, a staunch backer of neighboring Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, didn’t seek a second term in the largely ceremonial post. 

Korcok called the result “encouraging” and “promising,” but added that “we have to do more to win the runoff.” 

“I’m planning to approach all voters,” he said. 

Korcok also has served as Slovakia’s ambassador to the United States and Germany and firmly supports his country’s membership in the European Union and NATO. 

Pellegrini was considered a favorite in the race, and opinion polls suggested he would beat any candidate in the runoff. 

He congratulated Korcok on his victory in the first round and predicted a close contest in the runoff. 

“It will likely be a tight race,” Pellegrini said. 

A victory for Pellegrini, who currently serves as Parliament speaker, would cement Fico’s power by giving him and his allies control of strategic posts. 

Pellegrini, 48, who favors a strong role for the state, heads the left-wing Hlas (Voice) party that finished third in the September 30 parliamentary elections. His party joined a governing coalition with Fico’s leftist Smer (Direction) party and the ultranationalist Slovak National Party. 

The new government immediately halted arms deliveries to Ukraine. Thousands have repeatedly taken to the streets across Slovakia recently to rally against Fico’s pro-Russian and other policies, including plans to amend the penal code and take control of the public media. 

Critics worry Slovakia under Fico will abandon its pro-Western course and follow the direction of Hungary under populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. 

Pellegrini said Saturday that Slovakia’s membership in the European Union and NATO hasn’t been questioned. 

“That we talk about a more sovereign voice of Slovakia or about a sovereign foreign policy … doesn’t necessarily mean that we change the basic direction of our foreign policy,” Pellegrini said. 
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ATHENS — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Cyprus should be a Turkish state.

Erdogan defended his country’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus, saying there would be no “Cyprus problem” had Turkish forces gone farther and taken over the entire state.

The remarks angered Greece, sparking fresh tension between the two age-old foes. The government in Athens slammed what it called the “provocative remarks.”

Officials in Athens attribute the outbursts to upcoming local elections in Turkey and efforts by Erdogan to spoil what opinion polls show as growing gains being made by his party’s main opponent in the key city of Istanbul.

There is no doubt, Greek Immigration Minister Dimitris Keridis said, that Erdogan will polarize voters as they head to the elections and that Erdogan is “bound to continue appealing to the hardline nationalist vote to support his key candidates.”

Erdogan’s remark came during an iftar dinner this week with top military commanders. Turkish media quoted him as saying that had Turkish troops pushed south, “there would be no more north and south, and Cyprus would be completely ours.”

The timing of Erdogan’s remarks comes as the United Nations is exploring new ways to jump-start peace talks on Cyprus, which after 50 years remains divided between a Turkish-Cypriot north and a Greek-Cypriot south. Since 1974, several efforts by the United Nations and the United States to reunite the island have failed.

However, attempts by Athens and Ankara in recent months to bridge long-standing differences and to ease tensions have given the U.N. new incentive to revisit the peace talks.

Constantinos Filis, director of the Institute of Global Affairs in Athens, said Erdogan’s remarks aim to set his country’s conditions.

“The immediate message he wants to send to the U.N. is that Turkey is a strong player, in control of developments on the ground, and that all efforts should be focused on it if the talks are to restart,” Fillis said.

Turkey has long supported the permanent partition of Cyprus, a solution that the U.N. and the global community have refused on grounds it would legalize the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island.

Whether Turkey’s uncompromising stance will scupper the U.N.’s latest peace efforts remains to be seen.

Greek government officials contacted by VOA say that nonetheless, the latest tiff with Turkey will not spoil plans by the prime minister to meet with Erdogan in high-level talks set to take place in May.
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tel aviv, israel — China conducted joint military drills this week with Russia and Iran in the Gulf of Oman, a critical water conduit near the entry to the Persian Gulf.

The five-day exercise, “Maritime Security Belt 2024,” involved both naval and aviation forces, with the primary objective of enhancing the security of maritime economic activities, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defense.

The drills may have been planned long in advance of the current Israel-Hamas war, but their implication and message to regional players and the West are highly significant, analysts say.

More than 20 ships, combat boats, support carriers and navy helicopters participated in the exercise.

Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) debuted new warships in the exercise, including the Shahid Soleimani corvette.

“That’s a game changer,” Wendell Minnick, an arms specialist and “China in Arms” podcaster,  told VOA.

“Pay close attention to anti-ship missiles on ships,” Minnick said. “The U.S. Navy has a real problem with these types of missiles.”

The IRGC-operated Shahid Soleimani corvette is equipped with long- and short-range anti-ship cruise missiles. It’s the first Iranian warship outfitted with advanced VLS, or Vertical Launching Systems, for firing surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles.

“This gives the U.S. Navy a nightmare scenario of being saturated by multidirectional vectors of attack that they cannot possibly defeat en masse,” Minnick said. “Like being attacked by bees or ants. Eventually they will get you.”

Rear Admiral Mohammad Nozari, the IRGC commander of Iran’s base at Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman, told the Mehr News Agency the drill’s chief objectives were consolidating regional security, promoting China-Russia-Iran cooperation, and safeguarding global peace and maritime security.

Analysts say Chinese, Russian and Iranian objectives go far beyond the IRGC top naval commander’s stated claims.

“The Chinese and the Russians are using this exercise as a variety of tools disposable to them to show their presence and to pressure the West,” said Meir Javedanfar, who teaches Iranian security studies at Reichman University, in Herzliya, Israel.

“The Chinese are saying these exercises are normal and have nothing to do with what’s happening in the Middle East,” Javedanfar said in an interview with VOA.

“Nevertheless, the fact that these exercises are taking place against the background of an unprecedented U.S. and Western naval presence in the Middle East shows that the rivalry between the China-Russia-Iran front against the Western front is now heating up, and the Middle East waters are playing an important part in this rivalry.”

The rivalry takes on heightened significance when weighed against the recent uptick in Chinese participation in regional drills.

In November, China collaborated with Pakistan in “Sea Guardian 3” joint naval exercises in the Arabian Sea. It was the biggest joint People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and Pakistani Navy drill to date and included land and sea phases.

China’s warships are stationed at a naval base in Djibouti near the Red Sea waters where Iranian-backed Houthis declaring solidarity with Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas conflict have since last year repeatedly fired drones and missiles at ships. China has not publicly condemned the attacks.

“If China really wanted the Houthis to stop these attacks against Western shipping, they could pressure the Iranians and the Iranians would listen, but they’re not doing this because they want to pressure Western economies and to show that they have influence in the region,” Javedanfar said.

“The drills play a part in the larger strategy led by China and Russia and Iran,” Javedanfar said.

Sophie Kobzantsev, a Russia analyst and research fellow at the Misgav Institute in Jerusalem, says the Gulf of Oman drill is part strategy, part message.

“From the beginning — the Russia-Ukraine war — Russia’s goal was to create a new world order in which it gets a role or a place as super world power,” Kobzantsev told VOA.

“Part of this concept of the new world order is to partially create a military balance vis-a-vis the West. The drill serves Russia — and Iran and China — in creating the image and the message to the West that there is a counterstrategic military coalition.”

Leading the Russian contingent was the missile cruiser Varyag from its Pacific Fleet, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. Naval representatives from Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Oman, India and South Africa served as observers during the exercises.

The drills come just a week after NATO’s Nordic Response exercises, the most expansive NATO drills since the Cold War ended in 1991. Nordic Response incorporated military participation of NATO’s newest member states Sweden and Finland.

With an increased U.S. foothold in the Middle East due to its role in mediating the Israel-Gulf States Abraham Accords, pursuing the normalization of Israel-Saudi ties and now mediating between Israel and Hamas, the drill also takes on “countermessage” significance, said Kobzantsev.

The area where the joint drills are taking place is also significant.  An estimated 20% of globally traded oil moves through the narrow Strait of Hormuz passage linking the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

Since 2019 the Gulf of Oman has seen a series of ship seizures and attacks that the U.S. has blamed on Iran, although Tehran has denied any involvement.

“We actually see a kind of formation of the world that is reminding us of the Cold War and that there is a new clash between superpowers in this world,” said Kobzantsev. “The West vs. Russia, China and Iran.”

Marine Security Belt 2024 is the fourth joint China-Russia-Iran military exercise since 2019. 

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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united nations — Ukraine, joined Friday by more than 55 countries at the United Nations, condemned Russia’s attempts to organize elections on occupied Ukrainian land, saying they were not valid.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the Russian Federation’s illegitimate attempts to organize Russian presidential elections in temporarily occupied areas within the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine,” the group said in a statement read by Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, flanked by his counterparts.

“Holding elections in another U.N. member state’s territory without its consent is in manifest disregard for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said. “Such elections have no validity under international law.”

Starting Friday and continuing through Sunday, Russians are casting votes in polls that international election observers have dismissed as having no chance of being free or fair and are designed to return President Vladimir Putin to power for another six years.

Ukraine, supported by council member Slovenia, requested that the U.N. Security Council meet Friday to discuss Russia’s holding of the vote in areas of Ukraine that Russian forces have seized and occupied, including Crimea and the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

“You convened an entire Security Council meeting to criticize Russia for Russia’s conduct of democratic elections on territories which administratively, politically and economically are part of our country — like it or not,” Russia Deputy Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said.

Ukraine’s envoy dismissed the Russian election as a “travesty” and said residents in the occupied areas have been subject to broad intimidation by local authorities to participate in the “sham” election.

“Among them, threats against life, illegal detention, denial of access to health care and social services, threats of deportation and deprivation of property,” Kyslytsya said. “We should not forget that these actions take place at gunpoint.”

“Let’s call this what this is: It’s a blatant propaganda exercise, undertaken in the hopes of somehow strengthening Russia’s false claim to the parts of Ukraine it illegally invaded,” said U.S. envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said as the occupying power, Russia is obligated to uphold Ukrainian laws in the occupied territories. She said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned Russia’s intention to conduct presidential elections in these areas as “unacceptable.”
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BERLIN — Ukraine’s backers will use windfall profits on frozen Russian assets to finance arms purchases for Kyiv, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said following a meeting with his French and Polish counterparts aimed at showing unity after weeks of friction. 

At a joint news conference in Berlin, Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reaffirmed their support for Ukraine, whose ammunition-starved troops face their toughest battles since the early days of Russia’s invasion two years ago. 

European support has become increasingly key as U.S. President Joe Biden has been unable to get a big Ukraine aid package through Congress and much of his foreign policy energy is focused on the war in Gaza. 

Scholz said the leaders had agreed on the need to procure more weapons for Ukraine on the global market and to boost the production of military gear, including through cooperation with partners in Ukraine. 

“We will use windfall profits from Russian assets frozen in Europe to financially support the purchase of weapons for Ukraine,” Scholz said as he listed European Union efforts to increase support for Ukraine. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called last month for the EU to consider using such profits to “jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine.” 

The Commission is expected to make a concrete proposal in the coming days. 

Some EU member countries such as Hungary have signaled reservations about the idea, according to diplomats in Brussels. But Scholz’s comments suggested he is confident that EU countries will ultimately approve the proposal. 

Scholz said the leaders also agreed on the need for the Ukraine Defense Contact group — a U.S.-led group of some 50 countries that provide military support to Ukraine — to set up a coalition to provide long-distance artillery to Kyiv. 

A proposal to set up a long-range missile coalition had already been agreed to in Paris on February 26. It was unclear whether Scholz’s comments referred to this or how Germany, which has opposed sending its long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, would participate. 

Defense ministers from the contact group are set to meet early next week at the Ramstein U.S. Air Base in Germany. 

Macron reiterated his warning that it was not just Ukrainian but European security at stake. 

“We will do everything as necessary for as long as needed so that Russia cannot win this war,” Macron said. “This determination is steadfast and implies our unity.” 

He added that the three leaders had agreed on the need to reinforce support for Moldova, which says Russia is trying to destabilize it through a “hybrid war.” 

He said the three leaders had agreed to never initiate an escalation with Russia, a possible way to downplay talk of sending Western ground troops to Ukraine, which has irked Germany. 

The meeting of the so-called Weimar triangle — Germany, France and Poland — came after weeks of tensions, in particular between Scholz and Macron, that had alarmed officials in Kyiv and across the continent. 

A hastily arranged summit in Paris last month had aimed to give fresh impetus to stagnating Western efforts to help Ukraine repel a full-scale Russian invasion that has entered its third year. 

Instead, Macron’s refusal to rule out deploying Western troops to Ukraine triggered a dressing down from Scholz. 

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told Reuters that “indecision and uncoordinated action” among Kyiv’s allies was leading to “grave consequences.” 

“Russia starts to get cocky and begins to believe that it can quantitatively squeeze Ukraine,” he said. “Ukraine, in turn, is experiencing a severe shortage of specific resources, primarily shells, and is partially losing the initiative.” 

Tusk said the meeting on Friday showed “that some malicious rumors that there are differences between European capitals are very exaggerated.” 

Tusk, who is seeking to revitalize the Weimar Triangle after eight years of nationalist rule in Warsaw, said Macron and Scholz had accepted his invitation to meet again in early summer to present their next joint plans. 
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BRUSSELS — The European Union’s executive arm Friday proposed sacrificing even more climate and environmental measures in the bloc’s latest set of concessions to farmers apparently bent on continuing disruptive tractor protests until the June EU elections.

Angering environmentalists across the 27 nations, the Commission proposed to further loosen rules imposed on agriculture that they said, not so long ago, were inherent parts of the bloc’s strategy to become climate neutral by 2050. That iconic challenge put the EU in the global vanguard of fighting climate change.

“The main goal of these legislative proposals is to further ease the administrative burden for EU farmers and give farmers and Member States greater flexibility for complying with certain environmental conditionalities,” said a statement from Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission.

Under the proposals, the conditions to move farming to become more climate friendly were weakened or cut in areas such as crop rotation, soil cover protection and tillage methods. And small farmers, representing some two-thirds of the workforce and the most active within the continentwide protest movement, will be exempt from some controls and penalties under the new rules.

Politically, the bloc has moved rightward over the past year and the plight of farmers has become a rallying cry for populists and conservatives who claim EU climate and farm policies are little more than bureaucratic bungling from elitist politicians who have lost any feeling for soil and land. The Christian Democratic European People’s Party of von der Leyen had been among the most vocal and powerful in defending the farmers’ cause.

Scientists and environmentalists from around the globe have insisted drastic measures are necessary to keep global warming from getting worse and have pointed out Europe as one of the places with the bleakest prospects.

The Commission’s proposals still need to be endorsed by the member states, but considering previous concessions, they stand a good chance of being accepted quickly, observers said.

Friday’s plans were the EU’s latest concessions in reaction to protests that have affected the daily lives of tens of millions of EU citizens and cost businesses tens of millions of euros due to transportation delays. Others have included shelving legislation on tighter pesticide rules and requirements to let some land lie fallow.

On top of the EU itself, member states have also caved in to several of the demands as the tractor protests shot up the political agenda. Complaints have centered on excessive bureaucracy, intrusive environmental rules and unfair competition from third countries, including Ukraine.

The Commission said that even though more-flexibile measures for farmers were now proposed, the overall EU climate goals remained valid.

“We are the first continent to have made a binding legal commitment to reach climate neutrality by 2050. Not only have we done that,” said Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer, “but we actually fixed a roadmap to 2030 with the legal act to ensure that we are on the right path to meet that objective.”

He insisted Friday’s proposals would not veer from that commitment, even though the fact that “we … adapt from time to time to changing circumstances is obvious.”
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Russia has rebranded its Wagner paramilitary group as an “expeditionary corps” now controlled by Moscow’s military intelligence arm, and the force is offering a “regime survival package” to autocratic regimes in Africa, Britain’s Royal United Services Institute says. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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london — Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied he is seeking to oust Western influence in Africa, as new analysis suggests the Kremlin’s military intelligence arm has taken over activities of the disbanded Wagner Russian paramilitary group on the continent.

In a television interview broadcast in Russia on March 13, Putin dismissed claims that Moscow is seeking to displace France as the major partner of countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

“We have not ousted anyone. It’s just that the African leaders of certain countries made agreements with Russian economic operators, wanted to work with them and did not want to work in certain areas with the French. It wasn’t even our initiative, it was an initiative of our African friends,” Putin said.

“We are not instigating anyone and do not seek to turn anyone against France. To be honest, overall, we do not have national tasks at the Russian state level there. We’re just being friends with them, that’s all,” the Russian president added.

‘Regime survival package’

In the past decade, analysts say Moscow has sought to extend its influence in Africa through the deployment of Russian forces — often under the guise of paramilitary fighters — and arms deals with African governments, in return for access to resources.

A recent analysis by Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) suggests that Russia has rebranded the former Wagner paramilitary group as an expeditionary corps which is now under the control of Moscow’s military intelligence arm — known as the GRU — and is offering what it calls a “regime survival package” to autocratic governments in Africa.

“At a time when many Western states were trying to economically isolate Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin saw the development of economic ties with Africa and the Middle East as a means to sanction-proof Russia, and he had a pitch for the leaders of these states,” the report said.

“It centered on the proposition that the ‘international rules-based order’ advocated for by the West structurally favored Western interests, whereas Russia’s emphasis on sovereignty would offer a mutually beneficial partnership. The reality — as Russian officials acknowledged internally — was a renewed Russian colonialism,” the RUSI report added.

Wagner rebranded

Wagner fighters have been deployed in several African countries, including Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. They have frequently been accused of committing widespread human rights abuses.

In June 2023, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was struggling to make progress, Wagner’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led a failed mutiny against Moscow, accusing the defense ministry of depriving his fighters of ammunition. Wagner was disbanded shortly afterward. Two months later, Prigozhin died in a suspicious plane crash.

That left a dilemma for the Kremlin: What to do about Wagner’s operations in Africa?

“After that so-called mutiny, the decision was made that it would be better to have it more in-house rather than outsourced,” said Oleksandr Danylyuk, an associate fellow at RUSI and a co-author of the report.

The analysis shows that Moscow has rebranded the Wagner group as the expeditionary corps of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, with a target of recruiting a further 40,000 troops to serve in the force. Its aim is to secure Russian interests overseas — including access to resources such as oil, gas and minerals — while also reducing Moscow’s vulnerability to Western sanctions.

Russia colonialism

“What they’re doing is just expanding colonialism in the Global South countries. And right now they are very much focused on African countries, but they have plans for Latin America as well, some Asian countries. They will also have political technologists, media experts, intelligence officers who are specialized in political warfare, economic operations. So, pretty much everything to be able not only to infiltrate those Global South countries, but also to establish pro-Russian regimes there,” Danylyuk told VOA.

The RUSI report says Russia helped to foment military coups in parts of Africa and is now seeking to displace Western influence.

Mali

France and other European nations sent troops to Mali in 2013 to help fight an Islamist insurgency. They were withdrawn in 2022 after successive military coups and a breakdown in relations between Paris and Bamako. A 12,000-person United Nations peacekeeping force also pulled out last year at the request of the junta government.

Several hundred Russian-backed fighters are now in Mali supporting the military junta under interim President Colonel Assimi Goita. Moscow also has backed military governments in Niger and Burkina Faso, and is supporting General Khalifa Haftar in Libya against the unity government under Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh.

‘Plausible deniability’

The pretense that Wagner was a private army separate from the Kremlin allowed Russia to deny involvement in its Africa operations. “Many of the operations being conducted were either at the expense of other states or violated U.N. Security Council resolutions,” according to the RUSI report.

“The problem for the Expeditionary Corps is that it risks the removal of this plausible deniability… It appears that Russia has finally decided to explicitly challenge the international system rather than pretend to comply with it.”

Western challenge

The authors of the report warn that Russia’s expansion of operations in Africa could have serious consequences for Europe and the West.

“Through persistent instability, Russia can push migration into Europe, creating the conditions… to pursue political destabilization,” the report warns. “Leverage over natural resources is also expanding. Perhaps most problematic, however, is how the pitch for values is giving Russia access to communities that interface with a range of extremist beliefs.”
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Barcelona, Spain — Spain’s Parliament approved on Thursday a controversial amnesty bill aimed at forgiving crimes — both proven and alleged — committed by Catalan separatists during a chaotic attempt to hold an independence referendum in the region six years ago. 

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has promoted the amnesty as a way to move past the 2017 secession attempt by the then-leaders of Catalonia, a northeastern region centered around Barcelona where many speak the local Catalan language as well as Spanish. 

However, the bill has also met opposition from millions of Spaniards who believe that the people who provoked one of Spain’s biggest political crises should face charges including embezzlement and promoting public disorder. 

Sanchez has already pardoned nine jailed Catalan independence leaders, a move that helped heal wounds at little political cost. But the amnesty is proving to be much more divisive. 

The bill was passed by 178-172 votes in favor in the 350-seat lower house of Parliament. 

The secession crisis erupted in 2017, when a regional administration led by Carles Puigdemont staged a referendum on independence, defying orders from the national government and a ruling from Spain’s top court that doing so violated the constitution. Madrid sent in police in an attempt to stop the referendum, which were opposed by protests that turned violent. 

The Catalan Parliament declared independence on Oct. 27 that year but it failed to garner any international support. Puigdemont and several other senior officials later fled Spain. 

Hundreds or thousands of people in Catalonia face the threat of prosecutions related to the referendum or protests, and Puigdemont and other leaders remain abroad. 

Recent court probes have accused the former regional president of terrorism for allegedly masterminding massive protests that clashed violently with police and closed roads, train lines and the Barcelona airport in 2019. 

Sanchez agreed to the amnesty to secure the backing of two Catalan separatist parties, after an inconclusive national election last July turned them into kingmakers. 

The conservative opposition accuses Sanchez of selling out the rule of law in exchange for another term in the Moncloa Palace and has organized major street protests during recent months. 

Socialist party parliamentary spokesman Patxi Lopez defended the bill Thursday as a move to seek a page-turning “reconciliation” with Catalonia. 

The opposition Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo hit back saying that “this is not reconciliation but submission.” 

It was not clear whether the deal will add stability to Sanchez’s minority government: Junts, a separatist party led by Puigdemont, has said they would vote for Sanchez to form a government in return for the amnesty, and nothing more. 

The bill still faces a number of procedural hurdles. The Senate, which has a conservative majority is expected to reject it, which would mean that Parliament’s lower house will have to vote for it a second time to push it through. 

Sanchez’s party has had a very hard time crafting a bill that satisfies the separatists and which will surely be highly scrutinized by the courts. Parliament rejected an earlier version of the bill in late January when Junts said it didn’t do enough to protect Puigdemont. The bill then went back to a parliamentary committee, where it was tweaked to suit Junts’ needs. 

Puigdemont now lives in Belgium, where he has become a European Parliament member. A fugitive from Spanish justice, he calls himself a political exile. 

Thursday’s vote comes a day after Catalonia’s regional leader called early elections. That decision added more uncertainty to Spanish politics and led to Sanchez canceling plans for a 2024 budget because of the difficulty he would have had trying to get the support of the two separatist parties during election time. 

Spain granted a sweeping amnesty during its transition back to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. But legal experts are divided over the constitutionality of an amnesty for the Catalan separatists. Its legal critics say that it violates the principle of equality among Spaniards by favoring those of one region. 

The government says the amnesty could help hundreds of people, while the pro-independence Catalan organization Omnium Cultural says it should benefit some 4,400 people, mostly minor officials and ordinary citizens who either helped to organize the referendum or participated in protests. 

The application of the amnesty will be decided by the courts on a case-by-case basis.
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london — Britain’s government outlined plans on Wednesday to stop foreign states from owning newspapers, potentially giving ministers the power to block Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI’s bid to buy The Daily Telegraph. 

The battle over one of Britain’s most famous newspapers has raised questions about the independence of the media and the role of foreign investors acquiring ownership of politically influential assets. 

The Telegraph has close connections with Britain’s governing Conservative Party and the political struggle for ownership of the 168-year-old newspaper is as much about power and influence as it is about money.  

Stephen Parkinson, the culture minister in the House of Lords, said the government would make changes through an amendment to legislation going through parliament to prevent foreign states from having ownership of British newspapers. 

“We will amend the media merger regime explicitly to rule out newspaper and periodical news magazine mergers involving ownership, influence or control by foreign states,” Parkinson told the Lords. 

The proposed changes to the law would in effect block the Telegraph’s takeover bid by RedBird IMI as currently structured, one government official said. 

RedBird IMI — run by former CNN boss Jeff Zucker but which has the majority of its funding from Abu Dhabi — declined to comment.  

The deal is already under a separate investigation based on existing laws, but the new plan is more explicitly targeted at preventing foreign state control. 

The right-leaning Telegraph is nicknamed the “Torygraph” for its long-standing support for the Conservative — or Tory — Party. Former Conservative prime ministers such as Winston Churchill and Boris Johnson have written for it. 

The contest for ownership of the Telegraph is playing out against the backdrop of an unpopular Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, that is set to lose the next election expected later this year, according to polls. 

Pressure had been building on the government after Tina Stowell, a former Conservative leader in the Lords, proposed an amendment to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill that would give parliament a veto on foreign governments taking over British media organizations. 

Her amendment had won the support of more than 100 members of parliament who cited concerns including the possibility of editorial interference and censorship. 

Having forced the government to come up with their own plan, Stowell withdrew her amendment.  

The new ban on foreign control is expected to be put to a vote in the House of Lords in the next few weeks. It would have to be passed there and in the lower House of Commons before the new rules would come into force. 

Parkinson said the new measures would create a new obligation for the government to refer any relevant media merger to the Competition and Markets Authority watchdog.  

If the CMA determined that the merger “has resulted, or would result, in foreign state ownership, influence or control over a newspaper enterprise,” then the government would be legally required to order the merger be blocked or unwound. 
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VIENNA — Austria has declared two diplomats from the Russian embassy personae non grata for actions “incompatible with their diplomatic status,” ordering them to leave the country within a week, Austria’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. 

The move brings to 11 the number of Russian diplomats Austria has expelled since 2020 in four separate rounds. It is not clear whether the expulsions are connected. 

Officials have said that some previous expulsions involved spying, but as before the ministry gave no specifics. 

“Two diplomats from the Russian embassy have acted in a manner that is incompatible with their diplomatic status,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, using its standard phrasing for such cases. They must leave the country by the end of Tuesday, it added. 

Before Austria even announced the move, Russia already said it would retaliate. Its foreign ministry called the decision “groundless,” according to state news agency RIA. 

Russian news agencies, quoting a statement issued by the Russian embassy in Vienna, expressed “outrage” at the expulsions. 

“As in previous episodes of expulsions, this time we have not been presented with the slightest evidence, let alone proof of any violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the agencies quoted the statement as saying. 

“This is a purely political decision by the Austria authorities which we categorically reject. There can be no doubt of Moscow’s resolute response,” the statement said, according to the agencies.  

After previous expulsions from Austria, Moscow has responded by expelling diplomats from the Austrian Embassy in Moscow, which has only a fraction of the number of diplomats that Russia has stationed in Austria. 

Vienna is a major diplomatic center hosting the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and United Nations organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency. 
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amsterdam — Dutch politician Geert Wilders said on Wednesday he was ready to forgo the job of prime minister in an effort to facilitate the formation of a new right-wing government, nearly four months after an election in which his party won the most votes. 

Wilders has been in talks with potential allies since the November 22 election – more than 100 days – but they have borne no fruit. A negotiator appointed to assist in the process is scheduled to report his findings to parliament on Thursday. 

“I can only become the prime minister if ALL the parties in the coalition supported it. That was not the case,” Wilders said on social media platform X. 

“I really want a right-[wing] cabinet. Less asylum and immigration. … Love for my country and the voters is big and more important than my own position.” 

Dutch national broadcaster NOS had earlier reported that Wilders was prepared to give up his hope of becoming prime minister as he struggled to form a viable government. 

Citing political sources in The Hague, NOS said Wilders’ Freedom Party and three other conservative parties attempting to form a right-wing coalition were weighing a scenario in which the party leaders would remain in parliament and not join the new government. 

In that scenario, known as an extraparliamentary cabinet, politicians and experts not considered closely allied to any of the parties would be appointed to top government posts and work closely with parliament. 

Wilders said February 14 that he was willing to consider “all options” to form a government, a minority government or an extraparliamentary government, rather than call new elections. 
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vilnius, lithuania — Lithuania blamed Moscow on Wednesday for an overnight attack by a hammer-wielding assailant on an exiled top aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny outside the aide’s home in Vilnius. 

President Gitanas Nauseda said the attack on Leonid Volkov was clearly planned and tied to other provocations against Lithuania, which is a member of NATO and the European Union. 

“I can only say one thing to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin: nobody is afraid of you here,” Nauseda said. 

Lithuania’s State Security Department counter-intelligence agency said the attack was probably carried out to stop the Russian opposition from influencing Russia’s presidential election.  

Russia’s embassy in Vilnius declined to comment on the accusations.  

Putin, in power for nearly a quarter of a century, is expected to extend his rule by a further six years in the March 15-17 election. 

The Kremlin views Navalny’s team as “the most dangerous opposition force capable of exerting real influence on Russia’s internal processes,” the Lithuanian security agency said. 

Volkov himself pointed the finger directly at Putin. In a post on Telegram, he said he had returned home on Wednesday morning after a night in a hospital, having suffered a broken arm and injuries from about 15 hammer blows to the leg. 

“This is an obvious, typical criminal ‘hello’ from Putin, from criminal Petersburg,” Volkov wrote. 

“We will keep on working and we will not surrender,” he added. “It hard but we’ll handle it. … It’s good to know I’m still alive.” 

Navalny, Putin’s most prominent critic, died last month in an Arctic prison. Russian authorities say he died of natural causes. His followers believe he was killed by the authorities, which the Kremlin denies. 

In an interview with Reuters hours before Tuesday night’s assault, Volkov said leaders of Navalny’s movement in exile feared for their lives. 

“They know that Putin not only kills people inside Russia, he also kills people outside of Russia,” Volkov said in the interview. “We live in very dark times.” 

Former Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh posted images of Volkov with a bruise on his forehead, blood coming from a leg wound, and a vehicle with damage to the driver’s door and window. 

A lone police car could be seen on patrol on Wednesday afternoon outside Volkov’s house, in a pine forest on the outskirts of the Lithuanian capital. 

Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the perpetrators must “answer for their crime.” 

Lithuania’s police commissioner Renatas Pozela said police were investigating the assault. 

He said the attack did not mean that Lithuania was no longer safe. The Baltic nation of 2.8 million people, which borders Russia and Belarus, has become a base for Russian and Belarusian opposition figures. 

“This is a one-time event which we will successfully solve. … Our people should not be afraid because of this,” Pozela said. 

The U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania, Kara McDonald, condemned the attack on Volkov. 

“His resilience and courage in the face of recent attempts to silence and intimidate him are inspiring. The Navalny team remains an outspoken voice against Kremlin repression and brutality,” she said on X. 
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