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Veteran federal prosecutor Andrew Adams is the director of the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency initiative launched in March to enforce sweeping sanctions that the United States and its allies imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

On Thursday, Adams, during a visit to Washington, sat down with VOA Justice Correspondent Masood Farivar to discuss the task force’s investigations and asset seizures, the challenges it faces, and the unprecedented level of cooperation between law enforcement agencies.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

VOA: It’s been more than nine months since the attorney general [Merrick Garland] launched the Task Force KleptoCapture and appointed you as director. Can you give us an update on the task force’s activities to date and how the asset seizure process is going?

Andrew Adams: In the early days of the task force, we locked down, we seized a few mega yachts, one in Spain, one in Fiji. We took some action against bank accounts and financial institution accounts here in the U.S. and abroad. And we were engaged heavily in providing information to our foreign partners so that they, too, could take similar kinds of steps.

Since then, we have seen essentially an escalating series of seizures. It has included real estate, it has included airplanes and other luxury assets. And at the same time, you’re beginning to see the fruits of a secondary focus, which has been on facilitation. Separate and apart from people who are on the sanctions list or entities that are on the sanctions list, what we have been looking at from the jump has been money laundering and sanctions evasion committed by people who are not on those lists but professional money launderers.

In the last several weeks, what you’re seeing are the fruits of that effort in the form of criminal indictments against people like [British businessman] Graham Bonham-Carter with respect to Mr. [Oleg] Deripaska and others who are essentially professional money movers engaged in poking holes in the sanctions regime.

VOA: And who else falls under that category of facilitator? Is it banks, is it brokers, who are they?

Adams: What we look at are really any kind of gatekeepers to the otherwise legitimate financial system. So you’re right, we look at banks, but we look at financial institutions more broadly. We look at family funds, hedge funds, venture capital funds. We look at cryptocurrency and more novel fintech institutions where there may be opportunities to move money. We look at real estate brokers, dealers, security brokers, dealers. Truly across the spectrum of the financial sector.

 

VOA: The last number on seized elite Russian assets was roughly $39 billion to $40 billion. Do you have a more up-to-date figure?

Adams: In some ways, it is hard to encapsulate the number, especially when you’re looking internationally. And I think the number that you’re citing is an international …

VOA: U.S. and international …

Adams: That’s right. So it can be difficult in some ways, in part because there are different kinds of powers at play here – differences, for example, between our seizure power which has targeted hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of assets, including yachts, including real estate, and freezing power, which is short of a seizure, but in some ways is as effective, certainly can be as effective.

VOA: And how much of the assets have been seized by the U.S. versus U.S. partners? Do you have a breakdown?

Adams: With respect to seizure and forfeiture, the U.S. has, I think, taken a leading role in that respect. Globally, in terms of freezing and holding assets in place under the powers that look a lot like our Treasury’s blocking powers, that’s certainly been a focus for us…but it is the case that most assets that are targeted in the world are outside of the United States. And that figure, I think, is relatively large within the EU and globally. And what I would emphasize on that, again, is the power of that freezing is potentially just as powerful in terms of blocking the Russian military from arming itself, the Russian state from conducting its otherwise illegal business.

VOA: Now some of the seized assets have been transferred to the U.S., such as the superyacht that was sailed from Fiji to San Diego a few months ago. What is the status of that yacht and other assets that have been moved to the U.S.?

Adams: So the process for fully forfeiting an asset, a yacht for example, includes both the seizure, the transport of it to the U.S. and ultimately the filing of a civil forfeiture complaint if there is going to be litigation over the disposition of the asset.

I expect that assuming that we go all the way down the line with no agreements, we would have to file a civil forfeiture complaint. And we do that relatively expeditiously, a matter of months in some cases, and during that process, the investigation continues.

VOA: Have any of these lawsuits been fully adjudicated?

Adams: Nothing that has been seized has been fully adjudicated as yet. We have recently filed some civil forfeiture complaints targeting some bank accounts most recently tied to [Russian billionaire and close Putin ally] Konstantin Malofeev, and so that you’ll begin to see movement on the civil side there. And actually, just yesterday [December 7], we filed a civil complaint through the Eastern District of New York targeting two real properties, townhomes in Los Angeles tied to Andrii Derkach [a Ukrainian businessman and former member of Ukraine’s parliament who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2020].

VOA: Do you expect any legal challenges from the owners of these assets? Could that complicate the process of selling off the assets?

Adams: We certainly expect challenges. I expect challenges from not just the owners of the assets, but from people who are paid to pretend that they are the owners of the assets. … I fully expect that they will be well-financed. And it’s a challenge that we’re ready to meet.

VOA: Has anyone filed a challenge to date?

Adams: Publicly, no one has filed a challenge on any of the publicly filed complaints. We have had outreach from people prefiling and we’re dealing with that in due course.

VOA: I have a question about the maintenance of the assets. I take it the DOJ currently maintains assets that have been transferred to the U.S. What is the cost of their maintenance cost?

Adams: When we take possession, when we seize an asset, that’s correct, we do undertake to maintain the asset. The reason for that is twofold. First, it’s because it maintains the resale value of the asset. … The second is it’s really a question of due process. When we take the seizure, we are at least temporarily divorcing that asset from someone who claims to be the rightful owner. And it’s our obligation to undertake the asset and to make sure that it doesn’t effectively disappear before we have a chance and before potential claimants have a chance to put in their claims and to test the government and in court, if need be. That due process commitment is one that I think is vitally important to the entire program that we are undertaking here and distinguishes us from authoritarian regimes where straight confiscation without due process of law is a matter of course.

VOA: The Justice Department has in the past asked Congress for statutory authority to transfer the proceeds of these confiscated assets to [pay] for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

There’s bipartisan support for that measure in Congress, but Congress hasn’t acted. Do you expect to receive that authority and eventually transfer the funds to Ukraine?

Adams: The request for that authority to streamline and to clarify our ability to make these assets ultimately available for Ukrainian reconstruction is a priority for the department. It really undergirds the entire program here. The point of these asset seizures is to make the assets available. And it is the case today that there are certain restrictions on how we can dispose of forfeited assets. That requires some legislative fix to fully implement what we hope to be able to do. I’ve seen a lot of activity on the Hill, in Congress and with our Office of Legislative Affairs. I’m optimistic that we’ll continue to press this forward. It’s clearly a priority and deeply felt priority for people across the spectrum here in the U.S.

VOA: And as soon as you receive the authority, you can start transferring funds to Ukraine. How soon could that happen?

Adams: With that authority in place, hypothetically, we would be able to transfer fully forfeited assets to Ukraine. The notion here is not to have a shortcut around due process. The idea here is to ensure that we have a mechanism in place under the law to get dollars from point A to point B, after a full due process is undertaken.

VOA: But you don’t have any assets that have been fully forfeited.

Adams: That’s right. In the first few months of the task force, seizures have occurred, filings have occurred, but this is a process that can take longer.

VOA: Help our audience understand how you go about doing your work, identifying assets to seize. The Treasury Department has published lists of sanctioned entities and individuals, and I believe there’s over a hundred of them. Do you work off of those lists? Are those entities and individuals being investigated by your task force?

Adams: We’ve taken a two-pronged approach. The first is to think about our priority targets based on entities and individuals who are on OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] Sanctions List and on the Commerce Department Entity List. … Beyond that, we are looking at facilitators, people who are not necessarily on that list, but who are potential gateways for sanctions evasion, potential gateways for money laundering and targets of opportunity.

VOA: How do you identify those facilitators?

Adams: A number of ways. I mean, we take an approach that we take to really any organized crime task force here. We are looking at confidential sources. We talk to witnesses. We talk to whistleblowers. We talked to the private sector all the time to get indications of red flags and problems. And we use all the tools available in any good, organized crime investigation. We’re talking about search warrants. We’re collecting data through subpoenas. We’re collecting data through intelligence methods, for example, truly any tool to bear is being brought to bear to build these cases.

VOA: Given the very large number of entities and individuals that have been sanctioned, you must have a lot of investigations often interconnected and perhaps overlapping going on at the same time. Can you give me a sense of how many investigations you have ongoing?

Adams: Oh, dozens, dozens of investigations at any given moment. The task force, it is important to note, builds off DOJ’s [Department of Justice] long-standing commitment to fighting kleptocracy. So there are and have been cases where people who fall within our ambit have been on the radar for some time. And those cases are in some in some cases quite mature. … So prosecutors around the country, hundreds of prosecutors who have thought about this problem for years, are now being focused, channeled and having resources devoted to their efforts, and meeting with international cooperation to a truly unprecedented degree. But what that means is the dozens of cases that have existed are now complemented by dozens, truly dozens of cases that have arisen since the initiation of the task force and are now seeing essentially a springboard in resources and international mirroring.

VOA: Financial crime investigations, organized crime investigations are notoriously time-consuming. Do you have the resources to speed up the process to actually produce results while the war is going on?

Adams: We do today, and in large part that’s because we have international cooperation and international buy-in in an unprecedented degree. The world one year ago looked very different than it does today, in terms of our laws as compared to the laws of our European partners, our partners in the United Kingdom, our partners across the globe. Today, the existence of sanctions regimes in those foreign partners that look like ours gives us the ability to bring a request for a search, bring a request for an arrest, bring a request for a seizure to a foreign partner and have it recognized instantly as valid and something that can be enacted under their own laws. That greatly speeds up our process both for investigation and for taking action, and it’s the reason that in the short time period that the task force has existed, we’ve seen some real successes across the globe.

VOA: Do any U.S. allies or other countries, particularly stand out in terms of their robust sanctions enforcement and the level of cooperation and coordination that they have engaged in?

Adams: I’d say two things on that: There are certainly long-standing partners who continue to be linchpins in this effort. In the United Kingdom and in the EU and EU member states, we see cooperation, truly every day in any number of cases across the department. But with a particular focus today on this problem set and that’s only strengthened over the last 10 months that we’ve been doing this. It’s also the case that we find partnership sometimes more, more quiet partnership in pockets of the world that I think have historically been viewed as more difficult to operate in as U.S. law enforcement, more opaque from investigation. But where we are seeing indications of cooperation and sometimes sharing of information that makes our makes our seizures and makes our, our investigations more streamlined and, in some cases, possible.

One thing that the task force has undertaken to do is to bring cases where we see cases and to speak as publicly as possible and as quickly as possible about our investigations where we see a problem. So we’ve unsealed affidavits in situations that are more aggressive than the typical DOJ policy for unsealing affidavits. And the point there is to give a clear picture and a clear roadmap for our investigations so the people in the private sector, at banks and insurance companies at maritime services companies, aviation services companies, can see our work, see how we have built this case, see the names of entities and shell companies’ structures, straw men and cutouts, and take their own action to cut those people and those entities out of the legitimate financial sector, even if we can’t find cooperation in a particular jurisdiction.

VOA: In terms of the targets of your investigation, it’s not just the Russian elite, Russian oligarchs with ties to the Kremlin that you’re investigating. Ukraine has its own share of corrupt oligarchs, as does Belarus, a Russian ally. Just yesterday [December 7] the Justice Department announced the indictment of Ukrainian oligarch Andrii Derkach. Can you talk about those cases? To what extent is your task force focused on non-Russian oligarchs that have assisted the Kremlin?

Adams: The focus I would say is on the political regime in the Kremlin. It’s not a nationality specific program here. And it’s the case that there are Americans, there are U.K. citizens who have been targeted and arrested in this, in this effort. The problem is global in that respect.

And the other point that I would make on this is that oligarchs are among, I think, the most prominent targets and certainly the ones that we talk about publicly the most. But it is not coextensive with the full set of targets here. People who are on the OFAC sanctions list go well beyond rich oligarchs. In some cases, we’re talking about particular companies that are critical to the Russian military and Russian intelligence services. In some cases, we’re talking about politically well-connected people within the Kremlin sphere of influence who may not be the billionaires that we think of when we talk about oligarchs.

VOA: Derkach can’t possibly be the only Ukrainian or Russian oligarch with illicit assets in violation of U.S. sanctions in the U.S. I know you can’t talk about ongoing investigations, but are you looking at those types of people in the U.S.? How many of those cases are you investigating?

Adams: Yes, we’re looking at both people and assets who are in the U.S., both in terms of oligarchs who may have assets in the United States that represent the proceeds of a sanctions violation. And you’ve seen now the Derkach case just yesterday, the Deripaska indictment has publicly listed certain assets, real estate and, in some cases, very extravagant real estate in the criminal indictment, as forfeitable property. So we are looking at that in the United States. But the other point that I think is worth keeping in mind for understanding the international scope of what we’re trying to do, the United States has had a robust sanctions regime targeting Russian oligarchs, targeting the Russian war machine since late 2014 at the, at the very latest, and that was in response to the original Crimea invasion.

Since that time this has been a focus of different pockets of the DOJ. … And as a result, the United States has for the better part of a decade, not been a friendly jurisdiction for Russian sanctioned oligarchs to park their money or to park their real estate. We see it and we see efforts to evade those U.S. sanctions because the United States is an attractive place to keep extremely nice real estate and to keep your bank accounts in a steady economy. But it has been the case for almost a decade that this has been a target set. And as a result … many of these assets are more likely to be held abroad and that our actions, even under U.S. law, will require us to work internationally.

VOA: You’ve been active in this space for a number of years, investigating financial crimes and bad actors connected to the Kremlin. Critics say the problem should have been confronted head-on a long time ago and that it took Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the U.S. and its allies to really focus on this problem. How do you respond to that?

Adams: Well, I know certainly within DOJ that there have been people dedicated to the problem for, for years. At the money laundering unit within the Southern District, this has been a priority. At DOJ, there’s been a kleptocracy unit with a particular expertise in Ukraine for a decade now, with some significant success. The difference between now, from my perspective, and a year ago, is the international ability to operate. Watching other countries enact their own sanctions, enact their own criminalization of sanctions evasion is a game-changer for the United States.

Also, we may be able to investigate and have many of these cases essentially ready to go without an opportunity to take action abroad or to take critical investigative steps abroad, unless our laws are mirrored to some extent abroad.

And in the last several months, we’ve seen that mirroring happening to an unprecedented degree. And a logjam really being broken in that respect. With that realignment in an unprecedented way, you’re seeing an unprecedented number of arrests and seizures.

VOA: What’s been the role of the Ukrainian government in all of this?

Adams: So my interaction with the Ukrainian government has been entirely impressive from my perspective.

Since taking this role, I’ve been in contact with counterparts in Ukraine at the Ministry of Justice and their prosecutor general’s office. And it is hard to overstate the effort and the commitment that those men and women have had over these months, working from bomb shelters, working remotely from points of exile and then returning to Kyiv to continue this effort. They are working in horribly dire straits. But what they are doing from at least as it intersects with my work, is continuing to drive investigations of an overlapping set of targets, looking at oligarchs, looking at sanctioned individuals. And facilitating our investigations by collecting information, providing information where it’s useful and getting the United States in a position to take whatever action we can to assist Ukraine. And at the same time, what we are looking to do, is to make available information and make available opportunities for Ukraine to meet its own success under its own laws, if and when they see opportunities to act there.

VOA: The task force has been a key part of the Biden administration’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What impact do you think you’ve had on Russia’s warfighting capabilities?

Adams: I think we certainly see a decrease in economic activity writ large. We see people from Western countries divesting from [Russia] quickly, part of that is out of a moral and ethical responsibility. Part of that, I think, is because they see the sanctions as essentially insurmountable from a financial perspective. The other aspect that I think has been particularly impactful has been not on the economic sanctions but on export controls: the Commerce Department powers to shut down the importation of semiconductors, the importation of dual-use technology that can go into the creation of high-tech weaponry and to shut down even the transportation of lower-tech munitions and ammunition. That I think has a real impact on the Russian military, and essentially, every time that we stop a semiconductor from transiting the border, every time we stop a bullet from crossing over the Russian border is a life saved.

VOA: Finally, moving forward, what role do you see for the task force in the post-war period?

Adams: Our focus is truly and squarely on this particular emergency at this particular time. I think that we have lessons learned in terms of how to construct an emergency response to a truly multilateral sanctions enforcement effort that may be useful in other contexts. But our focus has been squarely on Russia and will continue to be so.
…

The heads of the International Energy Agency and European Union’s executive branch said Monday that the 27-nation bloc is expected to weather an energy crisis this winter but needs to speed renewables to the market and take other steps to avoid a potential shortage next year in natural gas needed for heating, electricity and factories.

Even after Russia cut most natural gas to Europe amid the war in Ukraine, EU countries largely were able to fill gas storages for the winter heating season by tapping new supplies, saving energy and benefiting from mild weather and low demand from China amid COVID-19 lockdowns.

But those reasons could evaporate next year, making it critical that the EU focus on ramping up energy efficiency efforts, easing the way for renewables and continuing to conserve energy, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a joint news conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“This winter, it looks like we are off the hook,” Birol said, despite “some economic and social bruises.” However, he added that “the crisis is not over and next year may well be … much more difficult than this year.”

The IEA says the EU faces a possible natural gas shortfall of up to 30 billion cubic meters, citing the potential of losing the rest of the Russian pipeline supply and a tight market for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, that comes by ship if Chinese demand rebounds.

Plus, “nobody can guarantee that next year’s temperature is as mild [as it] is this year,” Birol said.

Though the EU has been able to “withstand the blackmail” from Russia and taken actions to lower prices and build up supply, von der Leyen said “more is needed.” Ahead of an EU energy ministers meeting Tuesday and European Council gathering Thursday, she urged the bloc to make joint purchases a reality, saying “every day of delay comes with a price tag.”

Von der Leyen also hoped for a “political agreement” in the coming days on a stalled gas price cap that is meant to ease the pain of high energy costs. Countries from Poland to Spain are demanding cheaper gas to ease household bills, while Germany and the Netherlands fear a loss of supply if European nations can’t buy above a certain threshold.

“The issue is to find the right balance that we cut off the price spikes and manipulation and speculation,” she said. “And on the other hand, that we do not cut off supply coming to the European markets.”

Von der Leyen also called for an acceleration of renewables and increased investment in the energy transition from both the national and EU level. She said the commission will propose boosting the EU’s framework for investing in clean technology.

“We have come quite a long way, but we know that we are not done with our work until families and businesses in the European Union have access to energy that is affordable, that is secure, and that is clean,” she said.

While Europe has seen prices fall from summertime peaks and winter storage was filled far ahead of schedule, it’s still in an energy crisis after the war in Ukraine led to a massive cutback in natural gas from Russia, where the EU had been receiving about 40% of its supply. Now, it’s competing for more expensive LNG that comes by ship from places like the U.S. and Qatar.

The IEA released a new report offering suggestions to avoid a gas shortfall next year to the tune of 100 billion euros ($106 billion) in additional investment from EU nations. The Paris-based agency, with 31 member nations worldwide, pushed for expanding programs and making more funding available to renovate homes and replace appliances to be more energy efficient.

Firoh said renewable projects need to get to market faster by shortening the time needed for licensing and permitting. He also urged more incentives for energy-efficient heat pumps that will move buildings from gas to electricity and pushed for more campaigns encouraging people to conserve energy.

Bringing down the average temperatures in buildings 1 degree from the average of 22 degrees Celsius (71.6 F) would save 10 billion cubic meters of gas, he said.

Some countries that are able to export extra supplies to Europe, such as Algeria and Egypt, also could increase exports if they are incentivized to capture the gas that is flaring, Birol said.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold his traditional televised end-of-year news conference for the first time in a decade.

The event, which often runs for several hours, has been a feature of Putin’s calendar and given him a chance to answer questions from both local and foreign journalists.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that the news conference would not happen “before the new year.”

Peskov, however, noted that Putin regularly speaks to the media, including on foreign visits, and said the Russian president would still find an opportunity to talk with journalists.

He did not say why the traditional news conference would not be held.

December marks 10 months of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Putin’s administration is facing questions about Moscow’s military strategy.

Russia’s forces were not able to capture Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, early in the war, and in November were forced to retreat from the southern city of Kherson.

Putin’s government has also faced criticism over its mass mobilization of Russians to fight in Ukraine and questions over whether they received proper training.

Last year’s news conference lasted four hours, during which Putin was asked about the tens of thousands of Russian troops massing near Ukraine’s border. Putin said he wanted to avoid conflict and repeated his call for security guarantees from the United States and other Western countries. 

Some information in this report came from Reuters. 
…

An international price cap on Russian oil has inadvertently caused a logjam of supertankers outside Istanbul as Ankara imposes new regulations despite Western pressure. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
…

French President Emmanuel Macron says free condoms will be available in pharmacies for any adult up to the age of 25 starting next year.

The new measure comes as the rate of sexually transmitted diseases and inflation are both on the rise in France.

Originally, Macron announced that the condoms would be available to people between the ages of 18 to 25, but he was challenged on social media about not making the condoms available to minors and he decided to expand the program to anyone up to the age of 25. 

Girls and women already receive free birth control in France. 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
…

Britain is experiencing an Arctic blast of unseasonal weather.

Three children playing on an icy lake near Birmingham Sunday have died after falling through the ice. The BBC says the boys were aged eight, 11 and 12. A fourth boy, aged six, remains in the hospital in critical condition.

The Associated Press reported that emergency workers looked through the night for two other children who were thought to be with the group.

Reuters reported that two coal plants have been placed on standby “in case of a power crunch over winter.”

The snow and ice disrupted air, bus and rail transportation networks Monday, a day ahead of a planned national rail strike that was already expected to wreak havoc on transportation.

Schools were closed in many areas.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

 
…

European Union foreign ministers are considering fresh sanctions against Russia and more money to help Ukraine’s military at a meeting Monday, while the United States is pledging ongoing support for Ukraine amid Russian airstrikes on critical infrastructure.

The proposed EU package being discussed in Brussels would provide about $2.1 billion to fund arms deliveries for Ukraine.

The EU has already imposed eight rounds of sanctions targeting Russian figures and industries in response to the Russian invasion that began in February. A ninth round would include government officials as well as Russia’s defense and banking industries.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone Sunday, one of a series of calls Zelenskyy held with world leaders ahead of the EU talks and other key meetings this week.

A White House statement said Biden “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to continue providing Ukraine with security, economic, and humanitarian assistance, holding Russia accountable for its war crimes and atrocities, and imposing costs on Russia for its aggression.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said after his own conversation with Zelenskyy that Ukraine can count on his country’s support “for as long as it takes to fully regain its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Macron highlighted a conference France is hosting Tuesday to organize aid to help Ukraine “through the winter” as well as another looking forward to rebuilding efforts in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said he also spoke Sunday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the prospect of expanding the Black Sea Grain Initiative under which Ukraine has been able to export its grain from three ports.

Power grid

Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday that crews had managed to partially restore power service in the southern city of Odesa, where Russian strikes Saturday hit two power plants and knocked out power to about 1.5 million people.

The Ukrainian leader said restoration work was ongoing in other areas of the region, but that Odesa was the hardest-hit.

Since October, Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s power grid. Zelenskyy says the attacks are war crimes targeting civilian life, while Moscow says they are militarily legitimate.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Tensions were high in northern Kosovo Sunday, with Serbs blocking roads as shots and explosions rang out and the Serbian president warned that Serbian troops are ready to defend their “homeland” if peace doesn’t prevail. 

The roads in Serbia’s former province of Kosovo, which proclaimed independence in 2008, were blocked with heavy vehicles and trucks a day after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he would ask the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo to permit the deployment of 1,000 Serb troops in the Serb-populated north of Kosovo, saying they are being harassed there. 

The roadblocks, which Serbs say were erected to protest the recent arrest of a former Kosovo Serb police officer, came despite the postponement of the December 18 municipal election opposed by Kosovo Serbs. 

“Kosovo reduced tensions by postponing local elections,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Sunday. 

“Recent rhetoric from Serbia did the opposite. Suggesting sending Serbian forces to Kosovo is completely unacceptable. So are the latest attacks on EULEX,” she said. 

Vucic said Sunday after a meeting of Serbia’s top security body that he will do everything to preserve peace, but that the army is ready to protect the minority Serbs in Kosovo. 

“We have taken certain measures to protect our homeland,” Vucic told Serbia’s state RTS television. “I have issued orders and the National Security Council has accepted them. I am very proud of our soldiers and policemen. Before they receive orders … we will try for a million times to preserve peace,” he said. 

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused Belgrade of trying to destabilize Kosovo. He said Serbia also is trying to bring an end to the EU-mediated dialogue on normalizing bilateral ties and take it to the United Nations Security Council, where Belgrade hopes to get support from Russia and China. 

Kurti called on Kosovo’s Serbs “to distance themselves from the criminal groups and Vucic’s regime that is funding them and looking for a war.” 

The European Union rule of law mission, known as EULEX, reported that a stun grenade was thrown at an EULEX reconnaissance patrol overnight. There were no injuries or damage. 

EULEX, which has some 134 Polish, Italian and Lithuanian police officers deployed in the north, called on “those responsible to refrain from more provocative actions” and said it urged the Kosovo institutions “to bring the perpetrators to justice.” 

European Union’s high representative, Josep Borrell, said the EU “will not tolerate attacks on EULEX or use of violent, criminal acts in the north.” 

“Barricades must be removed immediately by groups of Kosovo Serbs,” he said on Twitter. “Calm must be restored … all actors must avoid escalation.” 

Unidentified masked men were seen on the Serb barricades that blocked main roads leading to the border with Serbia, as Kosovo authorities closed two border crossings to all traffic and pedestrians. 

An increased presence of Kosovar Albanian police in areas with a mixed population, as well as more international police and soldiers, were seen in the north Sunday. 

Serbia and Kosovo have intensified their war of words in recent days. 

Vucic said Saturday that he would formally request permission from the NATO-led KFOR mission in Kosovo to deploy Serbian troops in northern Kosovo, while conceding that the request probably wouldn’t be granted. 

Serbian officials claim a U.N. resolution that formally ended the country’s bloody crackdown against majority Kosovo Albanian separatists in 1999 allows for some 1,000 Serb troops to return to Kosovo. NATO bombed Serbia to end the war and push its troops out of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008. 

The NATO-led peacekeepers who have been deployed in Kosovo since the 1998-99 war would have to give a green light for Serb troops to go there. That’s highly unlikely because it would de-facto mean handing over security of Kosovo’s Serb-populated northern regions to Serbian forces — a move that could dramatically increase tensions in the Balkans. 

“We do not want a conflict. We want peace and progress, but we shall respond to aggression with all our powers,’ Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti posted on social media. 

Kurti told the European Union and the United States that they should “punish” Serbia for orchestrating the violence to “destabilize Kosovo.” 

Tension in the north has been high this week ahead of the polls initially planned for December 18. They have now been postponed to April 23 to defuse the situation. 

The election was due after ethnic Serb representatives resigned their posts in November to protest a decision by Kosovo’s government to ban Serbia-issued vehicle license plates. 

Tensions have simmered in Kosovo ever since it proclaimed independence from Serbia, despite attempts by EU and U.S. officials to defuse them. Serbia, supported by its allies Russia and China, has refused to recognize Kosovo’s statehood. 

Both Serbia and Kosovo want to join the EU, but Brussels has warned they must resolve their dispute and normalize relations to be eligible for membership in the bloc. 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the NATO-led mission in Kosovo “remains vigilant.”                 
…

Italy, which has vowed a tough line on immigration, took in more than 500 migrants Sunday as two charity rescue ships were allowed to dock at ports in the south of the country after several days at sea in bad weather.

The Geo Barents ship, operated by the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity and which had 248 migrants aboard, arrived in Salerno in the southwestern region of Campania, MSF said.

On the other side of the country, the Humanity 1, another rescue vessel run by the charity SOS Humanity, docked in the port city of Bari after the Italian authorities agreed to grant it permission.

The journey had been very tough, and the ship had faced 3-meter high waves and strong winds, SOS Humanity said in a tweet, confirming its arrival with 261 migrants on board.

Tensions flared with neighbor France last month after the French took in a boat that had been turned away by Italy.

Italian interior ministry sources said the decision to allow the two ships to dock was based on the poor weather conditions and the risks faced by those on board, rather than representing a change of policy.

It accuses the charity ships of making it easier for economic migrants to reach Italy and playing into the hands of people traffickers.

The ministry was working on new regulations to protect Italy’s borders and halt the people smugglers, the sources said.

A 14-year-old boy, who was traveling alone, had been airlifted from the Geo Barents to Sicily after suffering acute abdominal pain, MSF said Friday.

On Wednesday, a baby was born on the same vessel and later flown with his mother and three siblings to Italy.
…

The body of a 23-year-old Zambian student who died while fighting for the Russian army in the war in Ukraine has been returned home.

The body of Lemekani Nyirenda, who was studying nuclear engineering in Russia before joining the military, arrived at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka on Sunday.

Although he had been a student, Lemekani was convicted of drug trafficking in April 2020 and sentenced to 9 years in prison.

He was later pardoned through a special amnesty on condition that he participate in the war and he was killed while fighting in Ukraine.

Zambia’s government has requested that Russian authorities give details of Lemekani’s demise, the foreign affairs minister, Stanley Kakubo, said.

“We were told that on August 23 he was conditionally pardoned and was allowed to participate in a special military operation in which he was killed in September,” said Kakubo in a statement. “We then demanded that officials provide details, not just of his recruitment.”

He said that DNA tests to confirm his identity have been conducted and Russian compensation will be given to his family.

Zambia will work to ensure that nothing like this happens again to a Zambian studying in Russia and that there are no other Zambians in Russian prisons, said Kakubo.

Zambians have expressed sadness that a young student was pressed into the Russian military to fight their war in Ukraine.

“The pain of losing a loved one in unclear circumstances is unbearable. How can Russia start recruiting our citizens studying on scholarship to fight their war? It’s definitely not right and our government should ensure they protect the lives of our citizens in Russia,” said Catherine Mwenya, a Lusaka resident.

Another Zambian urged the government to condemn Russia for the death.

“This death requires government to strongly censure Russia and tell them to stop sacrificing our young people studying there to fight this unwanted war with Ukraine. I just hope they do that and draw a clear line for what can be tolerated or not,” Kendricks Phiri said.

Family spokesperson Ian Banda said the body will be taken to the mortuary at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka where the doctors will conduct forensic pathology on the body starting Monday. 

Banda said the burial program will only be announced after the pathology results have been established.

 
…

A man opened fire Sunday during a condominium board meeting in a coffee shop in northern Rome, killing three people and injuring others, authorities and witnesses said.

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri called an emergency security meeting for Monday after what he called “the grave episode of violence that has struck our city.” In a tweet, he confirmed three people were killed in the shooting in the working class neighborhood of Fidene.

“The shooting occured in an enclosed outdoor seating area of the bar, called “Il Posto Giusto,” or “The Right Place.”

La Repubblica daily quoted witness Luciana Ciorba, vice president of the condo board, as saying the man entered the bar shouting “I’ll kill you all,” and then opened fire. Participants managed to disarm him until Carabinieri police arrived.

Speaking in a video interview, Ciorba said the man was known to board members and had been previously reported to authorities for making threats against local residents.
…

Officials in Washington are continuing to react after the United States and Russia last week finalized a prisoner swap exchanging WNBA standout Brittney Griner for convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout. Griner spent nearly 300 days behind bars for cannabis possession while Bout served more than 14 years for funneling weapons to some of the world’s bloodiest conflicts. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
…

Germany plans to tighten its gun laws in the wake of a suspected plot by a far-right group to violently overthrow the government and install a minor royal as national leader, its interior minister said in an interview published on Sunday.

German police last week arrested 25 people suspected of involvement in the plot, which has shocked many in one of Europe’s most stable democracies. Many of the suspects were members of the far-right “Reichsbuerger” (Citizens of the Reich) movement that denies the existence of the modern German state, according to prosecutors.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper, warned that the Reichsbuerger represented a rising threat to Germany given it had expanded by 2,000 to 23,000 people in the past year.

“These are not harmless crazy people but suspected terrorists who are now sitting in pre-trial detention,” Faeser was quoted as saying.

Prosecutors have said the suspects included individuals with weapons and knowledge of how to use them. They had attempted to recruit current and former army members and had stockpiled weapons.

“We need all authorities to exert maximum pressure” to remove their weapons, Faeser was quoted as saying, which was why the government would “shortly further tighten gun laws.”.

Prior to the raids, authorities had already confiscated weapons from more than 1,000 Reichsbuerger members. However, at least another 500 are still believed to hold gun licenses in a country where private possession of firearms is rare.
…

Britain’s government Sunday rallied to the defense of the beleaguered royal family after a new racism row and explosive Netflix documentary.

Following recent trips overseas, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he would catch up first on Netflix hit “Stranger Things” in preference to the tell-all program of Prince Harry and wife Meghan.

But he stressed there was no stronger supporter of a multicultural Britain than King Charles III, Harry’s father.

“And I think the royal family’s attitude to this country reflects the modern country that we see,” Cleverly told Sky News.

“That’s my personal experience. But I also think that that is something that the whole world sees when they look at us.”

However, a UK charity at the center of the latest royal racism controversy says it has suspended work supporting black survivors of domestic abuse, after a torrent of toxic hate.

Sistah Space founder Ngozi Fulani, who is British, was asked repeatedly at a Buckingham Palace reception on November 29 where she was “really” from.

Since revealing the exchange with Susan Hussey, 83, a godmother to Harry’s brother Prince William, Fulani has been targeted by what she called “horrific” racist insults online.

In a statement late Friday, she said that as a result, Sistah Space had been “forced to temporarily cease” many of its operations to protect clients and staff.

Lady Hussey resigned from her role as a palace courtier after the row, and Prince William’s spokesman condemned the interrogation of Fulani as “unacceptable.”

But it revived attacks on the royal family in the days before Harry and Meghan aired new accusations of racial bias in their Netflix docuseries last week.
…

France’s Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera wore a sweater with rainbow-colored sleeves to France’s quarter-final game in Qatar on Saturday in an apparent message of support for gay rights.

Oudea-Castera, a former professional tennis player, watched the game from the VIP enclosure as France beat England 2-1 to book a place in the semifinals.

The rights of the LGBTQ+ community and the use of the rainbow symbol have been a recurrent point of discussion at the World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.

Before the tournament, Paris and several other French cities said they would not show matches from Qatar on big public screens amid calls for a boycott of the competition.

President Emmanuel Macron, who argued that “we must not politicize sport,” is set to travel to Qatar on Wednesday to watch France play Morocco in the semifinal.

He had promised to support the reigning world champions in person if they made it to the semifinal.

“I will come back with the president on Wednesday,” Oudea-Castera told Franceinfo radio. “We’re working the details out.

“He (Macron) made this commitment, and he will honor it with pleasure.”
…

Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Sunday the impact of European sanctions on Russian crude oil and price cap measures “did not bring clear results yet” and its implementation was still unclear.

The Group of 7 price cap on Russian seaborne oil came into effect Monday as the West tries to limit Moscow’s ability to finance its war in the Ukraine.

Russia has said it would not abide by the measure even if it must cut its production.

“What is happening now in terms of sanctions and price caps imposed and all of it really did not bring clear results, including measures implemented on Dec. 5, we see a state of uncertainty in implementation,” Prince Abdulaziz told a forum held following the country’s 2023 budget announcements in Riyadh.

Prince Abdulaziz said Russia’s reaction and what actions it would take in response to these tools was another aspect that needed to be taken into consideration when looking at the state of play in global markets.

“These tools were created for political purposes and it is not clear yet whether they can achieve these political purposes,” he said, referring to the price cap.

Other factors affecting the market going into 2023 include China’s COVID-19 policies. The impact on China’s economy from easing Covid restrictions still “needs time,” he said.

Central banks’ actions to tame inflation were also still a factor.

“Central banks are still preoccupied with managing inflation, no matter the cost of these measures and their possible negative impact on global economic growth.”

The OPEC+ alliance decision to cut production by 2 million barrels per day on Oct. 5 was proven to be the correct one when recent developments are taken into consideration, he said.

The alliance, which groups together members of The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, last met on Dec. 4 and decided to keep output unchanged amid a weakening economy and uncertainty over how the Russian price cap would affect the market.

Prince Abdulaziz said the alliance would continue to focus on market stability in the year ahead.

He also said he insisted that every OPEC+ alliance member take part in decision-making.

“Group action requires agreement and therefore I continue to insist that every OPEC+ member, whether a big or small producer…be a part of decision-making,” Prince Abdulaziz told the forum.

“Consensus has positive implications on the market.”
…

A vice president of the European Union’s parliament was suspended from her duties on Saturday after being caught up in an investigation into influence peddling at the EU assembly allegedly involving officials from Qatar.

Eva Kaili, a 44-year-old Greek former TV news anchor, was suspended by her party in Greece and the EU assembly’s Socialists and Democrats group Friday after Belgian police staged 16 raids across Brussels as part of a probe into corruption and money laundering at the parliament.

Four people were detained for questioning, and investigators recovered around $633,500 in cash and seized computer equipment and mobile telephones. Prosecutors did not identify the four, but at least one was an EU lawmaker and one was a former member.

Authorities have not identified the country suspected of offering cash or gifts to officials at the parliament in exchange for political favors, but several members have linked the investigation to Qatar.

Parliament President Roberta Metsola “has decided to suspend with immediate effect all powers, duties and tasks that were delegated to Eva Kaili in her capacity as vice president of the European Parliament,” Metsola’s spokesperson said late Saturday.

The decision was taken “in the light of the ongoing judicial investigations by Belgian authorities,” he said, without providing further details.

The EU assembly is set to hold its last plenary session of the year in Strasbourg, France, beginning Monday.

The co-president of the Greens group, Philippe Lamberts, called for a parliamentary inquiry and for the issue to be put to debate this week, echoing calls from some other political groups.

The Greens “strongly condemn corruption and bribery, cash and precious gifts cannot draw the political lines in this house,” Lamberts said in a statement. He added that his group “will vote against visa facilitation for Qatar in this week’s plenary vote.”

The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, proposed in April that citizens from Qatar be granted short visa-free stays in the 27-nation bloc provided they have a biometric passport. The legislation has been working its way through the assembly.

Kaili’s party in Greece, the Socialist Pasok-Movement for Change, publicly distanced itself from remarks she made in the EU parliament last month praising Qatar, which is currently hosting soccer’s gala event, the World Cup.

She said the World Cup is “proof, actually, of how sports diplomacy can achieve a historical transformation of a country with reforms that inspired the Arab world.” Kaili also repeated what she said is an International Labour Organization view that “Qatar is a front-runner in labor rights.”

After Friday’s raids, Belgian prosecutors said federal judicial police suspect that an undisclosed country in the Gulf region has been trying “to influence the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament.”

It said this was allegedly done “by paying large sums of money or offering large gifts to third parties with a significant political and/or strategic position within the European Parliament.”

In Italy on Saturday, Article One, a small center-left party, suspended former EU lawmaker Pier-Antonio Panzeri following reports he was caught up in the scandal.

In a statement posted on the party’s Facebook page, Article One said it was “disturbed” by the reports but expressed full confidence in Belgian investigators. It added that it “hopes that Panzeri can show he is not involved in something that is completely incompatible with his history and political commitment.”

Panzeri, who was in the Lombardy branch of Article One, was also once a member of the same political group in the EU parliament as Kaili, the Socialists and Democrats. The head of the group, Iratxe Garcia Perez, tweeted Saturday that “Eva Kaili should be replaced as EP vice-president in order to protect the institution’s respectability and citizens’ trust.”

The International Trade Union Confederation declined to comment Friday when asked by The Associated Press about reports that its general secretary, Luca Visentini, was also caught up in the affair. A message on the organization’s website on Saturday said that “ITUC has no further comment on this issue at present, pending further information.”
…

Batool Haidari used to be a prominent professor of sexology at a Kabul university before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. She taught mixed classes of male and female students and helped patients struggling with gender identity issues.

Her husband owned a carpet factory, and together they did their best to provide a good education for their 18-year-old son and two daughters, ages 13 and 8.

That comfortable life came to an abrupt halt on Aug. 15, 2021, when the former insurgents who adhere to a strict interpretation of Islam swept back into power following a costly two-decade U.S.-led campaign to remake the country.

Haidari, 37, was among the many women who fled the Taliban, fearing a return to the practices of their previous rule in the late 1990s, including largely barring girls and women from education and work. She reached Rome at the end of 2021, after a daring escape through Pakistan aided by Italian volunteers who arranged for her and her family to be hosted in the Italian capital’s suburbs.

She is among thousands of Afghan women seeking to maintain an active social role in the countries that have taken them in. Haidari and her husband are studying Italian while being financially supported by various associations. She keeps in touch with feminist organizations back home and tries to maintain contact with some of her patients via the internet.

“Being alive is already a form of resistance,” she said, adding that she wants her children to contribute to the future of Afghanistan, where she is sure her family will return one day.

“When my son passed the exam to access the faculty of medicine at a university in Rome, for me it was good news,” she said, during a commute to her Italian classes in central Rome. “Because if I came to a European country, it was mainly for the future of my children.”

After they overran Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban initially promised to respect the rights of women and minorities. Instead, they gradually imposed a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade, kept women away from most fields of employment, and forced them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public.

Haidari tried to stay in Kabul with her family after the Taliban took over. She became an outspoken activist of the Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network to fight for women’s education, work and political involvement.

But the risks soon became too high. Haidari was not only an educated female activist, but also a member of the Hazara ethnic group.

The Hazara minority has been a frequent target of violence since the Taliban takeover. Most are Shiite Muslims, despised and targeted by Sunni militants like the Islamic State group, and discriminated against by many in the Sunni majority country.

Haidari received death threats for her research on sensitive issues in Afghan society, and in December 2021 decided to leave. She crossed to Pakistan with her family, and an Italian journalist, Maria Grazia Mazzola, helped her get on a plane from Pakistan to Italy.

“We heard that Taliban were shooting and searching houses very close to their hiding place,” Mazzola said. “We were frantically in touch with the Italian embassy in Pakistan, with confidential contacts in Afghanistan, and we decided together that they had to change their hiding place every three days.”

The Italian government evacuated more than 5,000 Afghans on military planes right after the Taliban takeover. Later, a network of Italian feminists, Catholic and Evangelical churches and volunteers like Mazzola kept organizing humanitarian corridors and set up hospitality in Italy throughout the following year.

Mazzola, who works for Italian public RAI TV and is an expert on Islamic fundamentalism, created a network of associations to host 70 Afghans, mostly Hazara women activists and their families.

Now that the refugees are in Italy and gradually getting asylum, Mazzola said, the priority is to secure for them official recognition of their university degrees or other qualifications that will help them find dignified employment.

“A woman like Batool (Haidari) cannot work as a cleaner in a school. It would be a waste for our society, too. She is a psychologist and deserves to continue working as such,” Mazzola said.

Haidari agreed. While she said she misses the streets and alleys of Kabul, and the easy life she used to have, “most of all I miss the fact that in Afghanistan, I was a much more useful person.”

 
…

Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa in the early hours of Saturday, leaving the city and the surrounding area without power, local officials said.

“Due to the scale of the damage, all users in Odesa except critical infrastructure have been disconnected from electricity,” Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov wrote on Facebook.

Odesa regional Governor Maksym Marchenko said two drones were shot down over the Black Sea before they could fly into their targets.

The drones that did make it through left “no electricity in almost all the districts and communities of our region,” Marchenko wrote on Telegram.

Between Friday and Saturday, the Ukrainian military General Staff reported about 20 airstrikes and more than 60 rocket attacks across Ukraine.

General Staff spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun said more than 20 populated places came under fire in the Bakhmut district, scene of the most active fighting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation “remains very difficult” in several front-line cities in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.

“Bakhmut, Soledar, Maryinka, Kreminna. For a long time, there is no living place left on the land of these areas that have not been damaged by shells and fire,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Friday, naming cities hardest hit.

If Russian forces capture Bakhmut, they could cut Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk, according to The Associated Press. Russia has battered Bakhmut with rockets for more than half of the year, and shifted troops there for a ground assault after Ukraine drove them from Luhansk in July.

Moscow has “actually destroyed Bakhmut, another Donbas city that the Russian army turned into burnt ruins,” Zelenskyy added in his Friday night address.

Attacks on infrastructure

Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s power grid. Kyiv acknowledged Friday that every thermal and hydroelectric power plant in the country had been damaged.

Zelenskyy said the attacks are war crimes targeting civilian life, while Moscow claims they are militarily legitimate.

The chief of the National Police of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, said Saturday, that 47,000 Russian war crimes have been recorded in Ukraine since the start of the February 24 invasion. The number includes the torture, rape, and murder of civilians.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to conquer parts of Ukraine and shows no restraint in his brutality, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at an event in Potsdam near Berlin, Saturday. But, he added, it is still important to keep a channel of communications open in case an opportunity arises to end the war.

“We are of completely different opinions. Nonetheless I will keep speaking with him because I want to experience the moment where it is possible to get out of this situation. And that’s not possible without speaking with one another,” he said, according to Reuters.

“We have seen the brutality the Russian president is capable of. In Chechnya where he basically eradicated the whole country. Or in Syria. There is no restraint there, it’s as simple as that,” Scholz said.

Scholz also defended his government’s aim to raise defense spending to NATO’s goal of 2% of gross domestic output. He said NATO countries needed to be strong enough that nobody would dare to attack them.

Russia-Iran military partnership

Iran has become one of Russia’s top military backers since the invasion of Ukraine, according to the British Defense Ministry intelligence update posted on Twitter Saturday.

Iran’s support of Russia is likely to grow, the ministry said, because “Russia is attempting to obtain more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles. In return Russia is highly likely offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their relationship.”

“Russia has highly likely expended a large proportion of its stock of its own SS-26 Islander short range ballistic missiles, which carry a 500kg warhead up to 500km,” the ministry said. “If Russia succeeds in bringing a large number of Iranian ballistic missiles into service, it will likely use them to continue and expand its campaign of strikes against Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure.”

In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that he was was deeply concerned about the “deepening and burgeoning defense partnership” between Iran and Russia, and that the United States would be using its tools to disrupt that relationship.

U.S. aid to Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden authorized a new round of $275 million in military aid for Ukraine, offering new capabilities to defeat drones and boost air defenses, according to a memo released Friday by the White House.

The package also includes rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers made by Lockheed Martin, 80,000 155 mm artillery rounds, Humvee military vehicles and about 150 generators, according to the memo.

This is the 27th use of presidential drawdown authority for Ukraine, which allows the United States to transfer defense articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

In total, the United States has committed $20 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration. Since 2014, the United States has committed approximately $22.1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, and more than $19.3 billion since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February.

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

Viktor Bout, the arms dealer freed in a prisoner swap for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, said he wished her good luck on the tarmac in Abu Dhabi where they were exchanged.

Bout, who spent 14 years in U.S. jail for arms trafficking, money laundering and conspiring to kill Americans, was swapped Thursday for the basketball star, jailed this year for bringing cannabis vape oil when arriving to play for a Russian team.

Russia’s FSB security service released images of the two being led past each other on the tarmac at the airport in Abu Dhabi during the swap, although the video cuts away as they pass and there was no footage showing them interacting.

“I wished her luck, she even sort of reached out her hand to me,” Bout said Saturday in an interview with Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT.

“Again, it’s our tradition. You should wish everyone good fortune and happiness,” he said, adding that he believed Griner “was positively inclined” toward him.

Speaking to Maria Butina, who herself spent 14 months in U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent and is now a lawmaker and RT presenter, Bout praised President Vladimir Putin, whose portrait he said he had hung on his cell wall.

Asked about Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, Bout said he wished that Moscow had been able to launch it sooner.

“If I had the chance and the required skills, I’d join up as a volunteer,” he said.

Griner has not yet spoken publicly. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, said Thursday their family was now “whole,” and the couple would work to help secure the release of other Americans held abroad, including former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, jailed in Russia on spying charges he denies.
…

Russia and China are “modernizing and expanding” their nuclear weapons arsenals, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned Friday, amid increasing tensions with Moscow over Ukraine and with Beijing over Taiwan.

Speaking at the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command, the military command in charge of America’s nuclear weapons arsenal, Austin said the United States is “on the verge of a new phase” where two major nuclear powers are “strategic competitors.”

The U.S. defense secretary criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for what he referred to as “deeply irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling” since invading Ukraine in February.

“Nuclear powers have a profound responsibility to avoid provocative behavior, and to lower the risk of proliferation and to prevent escalation and nuclear war,” he said.

Putin said Thursday “the threat of nuclear war is growing.”

He also suggested that if Russia rules out the first use of nuclear weapons it will leave itself vulnerable to a nuclear attack.

“Regarding the fact that under no circumstances will Russia strike first, if it does not strike first under any circumstances, then it will not strike second either, because the possibilities [to do so in case of] a nuclear strike on our territory are very limited,” he said.

Responding to Putin’s remark, a Strategic Command representative said, “The stakes are way too high not to take that seriously.” 

“They would not take first strike off the table,” added the representative, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity.

Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world, followed by the U.S., which has an estimated 3,800 warheads in active status.

New START treaty talks between the U.S. and Russia aimed at reducing nuclear arsenals have been stalled since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Last month, a Pentagon report warned that China now has more than 400 nuclear warheads, approximately doubling its nuclear arsenal in just two years.

The pace of China’s nuclear expansion may enable Beijing to field a stockpile of about 1,500 warheads by 2035, according to the Pentagon’s annual “China Military Power” report to Congress.

On Monday, the top Republicans on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees sent a letter to outgoing U.S. Strategic Command chief Adm. Charles “Chas” Richard urging the military to declassify a determination it recently sent to Congress pursuant to a clause in the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. 

The clause requires the military to notify Congress if China either deploys more intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), deploys more ICBM launchers, or has more nuclear warheads equipped on its ICBMs than the United States, according to Defense News.

Another Strategic Command representative told reporters a response to the request by Sen. Inhofe was “in development” and could be sent as soon as today.

“My understanding is it will be an unclassified response,” the representative added.

Austin’s comments Friday came during a change of command ceremony where Richard passed leadership of U.S. Strategic Command to Air Force Gen. Anthony “Tony” Cotton.

Richard’s 41-year career of military service included becoming the youngest commanding officer of a nuclear-powered submarine.

Cotton has commanded at the squadron group and wing levels and was most recently the head of Air Force Global Strike Command and Air Force Strategic-Air at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. 
…

After more than four years of detention in the Sahel, the 63-year-old German humanitarian Jörg Lange has been released, the NGO for which he worked, Help, announced on Saturday.

“We are very relieved and grateful that our colleague Jörg Lange, after more than four and a half years, can return to his family,” Help’s managing director, Bianca Kaltschmitt, wrote in a statement.

According to the weekly Der Spiegel, relying on “security sources,” Lange “is doing well, given the circumstances.” He would have been repatriated to Germany on board an army plane, adds Der Spiegel.

Asked by AFP, the German government declined to comment.

It is thanks to the Moroccan intelligence services and their contacts with jihadist groups in the Sahel, according to Der Spiegel, that this release could take place.

The NGO “heartily thanks all those who have contributed to this release or who have supported it, in particular the crisis unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the criminal police, as well as the authorities and friends in Mali, Niger and in neighboring countries.”

Lange was kidnapped on April 11, 2018, in western Niger by armed men on motorcycles near Ayorou, in a border region of Mali plagued by recurrent jihadist attacks. His Nigerian driver was released shortly afterwards.

According to the German press, Lange was sold after his kidnapping to the jihadist group “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” (EIGS). 

These kidnappers had demanded a seven-figure ransom and sent several videos of the humanitarian, in which he called on the German government not to drag out the negotiations.

According to Der Spiegel, Berlin had considered having him released by an elite unit of the Bundeswehr, the KSK special forces, but had given up on it because of the risks of such an operation.

At least four Western hostages are still being held in the Sahel, according to a count covering only the cases made public by their entourage or their government: Frenchman Olivier Dubois, kidnapped on May 5, 2021, American Jeffery Woodke (October 14, 2016), Australian Arthur Kenneth Elliott (January 15, 2016) and Romanian Iulian Ghergut (April 4, 2015).

Another German, Father Hans-Joachim Lohre, who has not been heard from since late November, is widely believed to have been abducted, although no claims have been reported.

This Catholic priest was to celebrate Mass in a district of Bamako but had disappeared in the evening, a probable kidnapping of an exceptional nature in the Malian capital.

Jihadist violence in the Sahel began in 2012 in Mali, killing thousands and displacing millions. They have spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger and now threaten the states of the Gulf of Guinea.

This serious security crisis leads to violence of all kinds, of which kidnappings are one aspect, whether of foreigners or locals. The motivations, ideological or villainous, range from the demand for ransom to the act of reprisals through the will to bargain.

France completed in August the withdrawal of its troops who had been operating in Mali for almost 10 years. But Paris, which still deploys some 3,000 soldiers in the Sahel, has given itself six months to finalize its new strategy in Africa.
…

Amid rampant inflation and an economic crisis in Turkey, and with an election scheduled in 2023, political rhetoric is turning against Syrian refugees in the country. Many are considering returning to their homeland, which is still ravaged by civil war.

Turkey is hosting around 3.6 million Syrian refugees, by far the largest number of any country.

Among them is 38-year-old Muhammed Sheikh, who fled the city of Aleppo with his wife and two children in 2016. They settled in Istanbul and have since had two more children. The inflation crisis means life is getting tougher. He says his monthly wage of 12,000 Turkish lira, around $645, barely covers the bills.

“Our landlord treats us well but in January he will raise the rent to 9,000 Turkish Liras (US$490) and it will be very difficult for us,” Sheikh told VOA. “I will go to Syria if I have to go, but there is no work there and the living conditions are very difficult there. I will try to go to another country if I can.”

Inflation in Turkey hit 85% in October. Sheikh says the economic crisis has also turned some Turkish people against the refugees.

“My Turkish colleagues at work say, ‘Why did you come here? Because of you, rents went up, food prices went up, and making a living became difficult.’ Many Syrians are facing such things here,” Sheikh said.

The United Nations says more than 153,000 refugees returned to Syria from Turkey between January and October 31 of this year. The Turkish government claims the number is closer to half a million.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a tough re-election in June next year, amid Turkey’s economic crisis. Last May, Erdogan pledged to send back one million refugees and create “buffer zones” in northern Syria where they could be returned safely.

Osman Atalay of the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, a Turkish non-governmental organization, says the political rhetoric against refugees is escalating.

“In the last year especially, the political parties began to criticize Syrian refugees very severely and said that if they form a government, they will send Syrians back,” Atalay told VOA. “The big majority of Syrians are working, even with a little salary, they are working to stay here and to make a living. But there are some Syrians who are returning to Syria because of the pressure and physical and verbal attacks on them.”

He questioned the government’s pledge to send back one million refugees. “If there is no security and peace in Syria, how can people go? How can Syrians return?” Atalay said.

Tough choices

Fifty-year-old Husein Kablawi came to Istanbul from Syria in 2019 with his wife and five children. He found a temporary job installing wooden floors. When the job was complete, the manager refused to pay him and told the police that Kablawi was an unregistered refugee. He was forced to move to the central city of Konya.

“Living in Konya was very difficult, there was discrimination against us,” Kablawi said. “The neighborhood I lived in was not safe for me and my children and there was no work there. We had two very bad experiences, and no one helped us. We had to escape and left everything there. We just had the clothes we were wearing — and left for Istanbul.”

Earlier this year the Turkish government suspended refugee registrations in 16 provinces, including Istanbul.

“Because we are not registered, we cannot rent an apartment, and I cannot find a proper job,” Kablawi said. “Because I am not registered here, my documents are not accepted — they are only accepted in Konya. So, my children cannot go to school, and we are facing lots of problems.”

Kablawi and his family live in a one-bedroom, unheated apartment. The five children fear going out on the street. If the police find out they are not registered, they worry they could be sent back to Syria.

Like millions of Syrians, they face tough choices: to stay in Turkey where life is getting tougher and society increasingly hostile; to return home to a country still ravaged by war; or to try to reach Europe, a journey with multiple dangers and a future unknown.

Memet Aksakal contributed to this report from Istanbul.
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U.S. professional basketball star Brittney Griner has arrived in the southwestern U.S. state of Texas after a high-stakes prisoner swap that saw notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout returned to Moscow.

Griner was flown to San Antonio and reunited with her family.

She was then taken to Brooke Army Medical Center for a medical checkup. A spokesperson for Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston said that is standard protocol.

“The U.S. government is focused on ensuring that Brittney Griner and her family’s well-being are prioritized and that all assistance available be offered in an appropriate manner,” Robert Whetstone said.

Griner would be given “all the access she needs to health care workers just to make sure that she is OK,” John Kirby, National Security Council spokesperson, told NBC on Friday, adding that Griner was in “very good spirits when she got off the plane and appeared to be obviously in good health.”

The actual exchange took place in the United Arab Emirates, where Griner and Bout crossed paths on the runway, heading to their flights home.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who had long pressed the Russian government to free Griner, officially announced her release Thursday.

“She represents the best of America,” Biden said at the White House, noting that Griner would be back in the United States within 24 hours.

“I spoke with Brittney Griner,” Biden said. “After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along.”

Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, thanked Biden and an array of U.S. officials for their efforts in freeing her spouse after nine months of imprisonment. Cherelle Griner said that she and Brittney Griner would continue their support for the release of Paul Whelan, an American held in Russia who was not included in Thursday’s deal.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference, “This was not a choice of which American to bring home. The choice was one or none. I wish we could have brought Paul Whelan on the same plane as Brittney.”

Griner, 32, was detained at a Moscow airport in February when she arrived in Russia with vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. The Women’s National Basketball Association star had gone to Russia to play for a Russian team during her off-season in the U.S., but instead was convicted on the drug charge after a brief trial, sentenced to nine years of imprisonment, and recently sent to a Russian penal colony.

Even as the U.S. has led the Western coalition of countries supplying munitions to Ukraine in its 10-month fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the two countries held behind-the-scenes talks about the release of the two prisoners.

In the end, Whelan, a 52-year-old Michigan corporate security executive imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government has said are baseless, was left out of the deal.

“Sadly, and for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s,” Biden said. “And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”

Biden told Whelan’s family, “We will keep negotiating in good faith. I guarantee it.”

Bout, 55, had served 15 years of a 26-year prison sentence in the U.S. and was once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death.” The Kremlin had long sought his release.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
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