Author: Mirits

Kyiv, Ukraine — Moscow sent 96 drones and a guided air missile into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, 66 drones were destroyed during the overnight barrage, along with the missile. A further 27 drones were “lost” over various areas, it said, likely having been electronically jammed, while one drone flew into Belarusian airspace. No casualties were reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had launched around 900 guided aerial bombs, 500 drones and 30 missiles against Ukraine over the past week. Zelenskyy appealed Sunday on X to Ukraine’s allies to provide “long-range capabilities for our security”, saying that these “attacks would have been impossible if we had sufficient support from the world.” Kyiv is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil, including for preemptive Ukrainian strikes on camps where North Korean troops are being trained. The Ukrainian President also urged partners to enact “truly effective sanctions to prevent Russia from importing critical components for drone and missile production”. This appeal followed an address on Saturday, in which he said over 2,000 drones and missiles “still using Western components” were launched against Ukraine in October, and underlined the need for more stringent export controls to prevent sanctions evasion. In Russia, the Defense Ministry said that 19 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in three regions of Russia: 16 in the Rostov region, two in the Belgorod region and one in the Volgograd region. A man died Sunday in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Belgorod region, according to regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. …

BELGRADE — Angry protesters on Sunday left red handprints at the entrances of government buildings in the Serbian capital to demand the arrest of officials, two days after a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station, killing 14 people and injuring three.  Police formed a cordon outside the seat of the Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure in central Belgrade as several thousand people called for ranking government ministers, including Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, to immediately step down.  “Arrest, arrest!” chanted the crowd. They shouted at police officers outside the building that they are “guarding murderers” and that “your hands are bloody,” while holding banners reading “corruption kills” and “we are all under the canopy!”  “Everywhere you can, leave bloody hands so they know their hands are bloody. In every city in Serbia, everywhere you can,” opposition political activist Nikola Ristic said.  The concrete canopy that ran along the front of the railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed suddenly on Friday, landing on people who were sitting on benches or passing through the building’s entrance. Surveillance camera footage showed the canopy crashing down in seconds.  The dead included a 6-year-old girl. The three injured, who are between 18 and 24 years old, all had to have limbs amputated. They were still in serious condition on Sunday, doctors said.  Funerals for the victims, attended by thousands, have been held in northern Serbia.  The train station has been renovated twice in recent years, and critics of Serbia’s populist government attributed the disaster to rampant corruption, lack of transparency and sloppy renovations. The renovation was part of a wider deal with Chinese construction companies.  “Citizens no longer have anything to lose, they are increasingly becoming aware of this,” said liberal politician Biljana Stojkovic. “This is grief combined with anger, despair that is turning into rage.”  Serbia’s populist government has promised a thorough investigation, with prosecutors saying they already have questioned more than two dozen people. But critics believe that justice is unlikely to be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police.  Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation why this wasn’t done.  The Novi Sad railway station was originally built in 1964, while the renovated station was inaugurated by President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist … “Protesters demand arrests over train station roof collapse that killed 14 people in Serbia “ →

VALENCIA, Spain — A crowd of angry survivors of Spain’s floods tossed mud and shouted insults at Spain’s King Felipe VI and government officials when they made their first visit to one of the hardest hit towns on Sunday.  Government officials accompanied the monarch who tried to talk to locals while others shouted at him in Paiporta, an outskirt of Valencia city that has been devastated.  Police had to step in with officers on horseback to keep back the crowd of several dozens.  “Get out! Get out!” and “Killers!” rang out among other insults.  After being forced to seek protection from the mud, the king remained calm and made several efforts to speak to individual residents. One person appeared to have wept on his shoulder. He shook the hand of a man.  It was an unprecedented incident for a Royal House that takes great care to craft an image of a monarch who is liked by the nation.  Queen Letizia and regional Valencia President Carlo Mazón were also in the contingent.  Over 200 people have died from Tuesday’s floods and thousands have had their homes destroyed by the wall of water and mud. At least 60 of the dead were in Paiporta, an epicenter of suffering.  …

Berlin — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold meetings with his top two ministers to try to find common ground after they put forward contradictory plans to fix the nation’s ailing economy, a government source told Reuters on Sunday.   A document leaked by Christian Lindner’s finance ministry raised eyebrows in Berlin last week, with its push for tax cuts and fiscal discipline widely interpreted as a challenge to the multibillion-euro investment plan put forward by Economy Minister Robert Habeck just days earlier.   The stand-off is the latest escalation in a row over economic and industrial policy between the FDP, the Greens and Scholz’s Social Democrats that has fueled speculation of the coalition’s potential collapse, less than a year before elections are due.   But a government source told Reuters that Scholz and the ministers would hold several meetings in the coming days, saying that “now that everyone has submitted their paper, we have to see how they fit with each other.”   A worsening business outlook in Europe’s largest economy has widened divisions in Scholz’s ideologically disparate coalition over policy measures to drive growth, protect industrial jobs, and reinforce Germany’s position as a global industrial hub.   While Habeck wants the creation of a fund to stimulate investment and to get around Germany’s strict fiscal spending rules, Lindner advocates tax cuts to spur the economy and an immediate halt on all new regulation.   SPD leader Lars Klingbeil signaled openness to discussing Lindner’s proposals in a local newspaper interview, but said that some of them were untenable for his party, which released its own economic plan earlier in October.   “Giving more to the rich, letting employees work longer and sending them into retirement later – it will come as no surprise to anyone that we think this is the wrong approach,” Klingbeil told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.  …

Nairobi — Turkey on Sunday said it was committed to deepening relations with Africa, which it and called on to back diplomatic support for Palestinians, as it held its latest African summit in Djibouti.   Turkey has invested heavily across Africa in recent years, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan carrying out 50 visits to 31 countries during his two decades in power.    Fourteen African countries attended the latest ministerial meeting in the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti this weekend.    They included Angola, Chad, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Libya, Mauritania, Nigeria, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.   Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who presided over the summit, said trade with the continent surpassed $35 billion last year and Turkey’s direct investments now totaled $7 billion.    “Turkey is employing a comprehensive and holistic approach in terms of enhancing our trade and economic partnership with the continent,” Fidan said in a speech.   Turkey has become the fourth largest arms supplier to sub-Saharan Africa and helped train armed forces in many countries.    In recent months, it has attempted to mediate a feud between Ethiopia and Somalia, and struck a mining deal with Niger.    Fidan reiterated support for the African Union to become a permanent member of the G20, and for reform of the United Nations Security Council.    “We should continue our efforts to make the UN more relevant and capable of confronting the complex challenges of the century. Security Council reform is critical in this sense,” he said.   Fidan also called for greater African involvement in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.    “We believe that Africa can play an instrumental role in supporting the Palestinian cause and in stopping Israel,” he said.    “We appreciate the African countries that stand with Palestine,” he added, highlighting South Africa’s recent move to file evidence of “genocide” committed by Israel to the International Criminal Court.    The next Turkiye-Africa Summit is due to be held in 2026.  …

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — To be a parent in the Ukrainian front-line city of Zaporizhzhia means weighing your child’s life against the Russian weapons within striking distance. Most rain death in an instant: the drones, the ballistic missiles, the glide bombs, the artillery shells. But Russian soldiers control another weapon they have never deployed, with the potential to be just as deadly: The nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The NPP, as it’s known, once produced more electricity than any other nuclear power plant in Europe. It fell to Russian forces in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, and Russia has held its six reactors ever since. The plant has come under repeated attacks that both sides blame on the other. These twin dangers — bombs and radiation — shadow families in Zaporizhzhia. Most of the youngest residents of the city have never seen the inside of a classroom. Schools that had suspended in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic more than four years ago continued online classes after the war started in February 2022. So with missiles and bombs still striking daily, Zaporizhzhia is going on a building binge for its future, creating an underground school system. Construction has begun on a dozen subterranean schools designed to be radiation- and bomb-proof and capable of educating 12,000 students. Then, officials say, they will start on the hospital system. The daily bombs are a more tangible fear than radiation, said Kateryna Ryzhko, a mother whose children are the third generation in her family to attend School No. 88. The main building, dating to the Soviet era of the children’s grandmother, is immaculate but the classrooms are empty. The underground version is nearly complete, and Ryzhko said she wouldn’t hesitate to send her kids to class there. Nearly four years of online learning have taken their toll on kids and parents alike. “Even classmates don’t recognize each other,” she said. “It’s the only safe way to have an education and not be on screens.” Nuclear shadow Within days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Zaporizhzhia’s 300,000 residents found themselves on the front lines. Unlike larger Ukrainian cities, like Kyiv or Kharkiv, there is no subway system that could do double-duty as a bomb shelter and few schools had basements where students could more safely attend classes. Many residents left — though some have returned. But the single-family homes and Soviet-style apartment blocks of Zaporizhzhia, … “Ukrainian front-line school system goes underground to protect against bombs, radiation” →

CHISINAU, Moldova — Moldovans are casting votes in a decisive presidential runoff Sunday that pits pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu against a Russia-friendly opponent, as ongoing claims of voter fraud and intimidation threaten democracy in the European Union candidate country. In the first round held October 20, Sandu obtained 42% of the ballot but failed to win an outright majority. She will face Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general, who outperformed polls in the first round with almost 26% of the vote. Polling stations opened Sunday at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT). A poll released by research company iData indicates a tight race that leans toward a narrow Sandu victory, an outcome that might rely on Moldova’s large diaspora. The presidential role carries significant powers in areas such as foreign policy and national security and has a four-year term. Moldova’s diaspora played a key role in a nationwide referendum also held on October 20, when a narrow majority of 50.35% voted to secure Moldova’s path toward EU membership. But the results of the ballots including Sunday’s vote have been overshadowed by allegations of a major vote-buying scheme and voter intimidation. Instead of winning the overwhelming support that Sandu had hoped, the results in both races exposed Moldova’s judiciary as unable to adequately protect the democratic process. On Friday, Moldova’s Prime Minister Dorin Recean said that people throughout the country were receiving “anonymous death threats via phone calls” in what he called “an extreme attack” to scare voters in the former Soviet republic, which has a population of about 2.5 million people. “These acts of intimidation have only one purpose: to create panic and fear,” Recean said in a statement posted on social media. “I assure you that state institutions will ensure order and protect citizens.” Outside a polling station on Sunday in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, 20-year-old medical student Silviana Zestrea said the runoff would be a “definitive step” toward Moldova’s future. “People need to understand that we have to choose a true candidate that will fulfill our expectations,” she said. “Because I think even if we are a diaspora now, none of us actually wanted to leave.” In the wake of the two October votes, Moldovan law enforcement said that a vote-buying scheme was orchestrated by Ilan Shor, an exiled oligarch who lives in Russia and was convicted in absentia last year of … “Moldovan runoff election starts amid fraud and intimidation claims” →

MOSCOW — Kyiv called on Moscow on Sunday to provide a list of Ukrainian prisoners of war ready for a swap after Russia accused Ukraine of sabotaging the exchange process.  In requesting the list of Ukrainians from his Russian counterpart, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets wrote on his Telegram messaging channel: “We are always ready to exchange prisoners of war!”   Kyiv and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in 2022. The last swap took place in mid-October with each side bringing home 95 prisoners.   On Saturday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukraine was essentially sabotaging the process and has refused to take back its own citizens.   Zakharova said Russia’s defense ministry had offered to hand over 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war, but that Ukraine had taken only 279.   Lubinets, in turn, said that Ukraine was always ready to accept its citizens and accused Russia of slowing the exchange process.   Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova said on Saturday that Ukraine has politicized the issue.   “We consider it necessary to return to a constructive dialog and speed up the exchange of prisoners,” Moskalkova wrote on Telegram.   …

washington — Mariana Katzarova, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Russia, reported Tuesday on the human rights situation in Russia at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, describing torture as Moscow’s main tool of repression. In an interview with VOA, Katzarova detailed how the Russian government has turned brutality into the new norm and how Russians are persecuted for their anti-war views. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. VOA: You came to Washington with a new report about torture in Russia. The torture system is not something new. Did it get worse during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine? U.N. Special Rapporteur on Russia Mariana Katzarova: The main message of this report was about the state-sanctioned system of torture being a tool used in a widespread and systematic manner by the authorities for oppression and control of Russian society. Yes, it did get worse. First of all, because it’s a tool in the war against Ukraine. For example, we don’t even know how many. Still, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been detained in the occupied territories of Ukraine by the Russian forces and then deported to Russia proper in Russian prisons. They’re kept incommunicado. They have been tortured, including with electric shocks, with sexual violence, rape against them. Many of them haven’t even been charged with any criminal offenses; they’re just kept there kidnapped. I’ve seen pictures of some of them who have been tried in Rostov-on-Don in military courts. I mean, they look like [they’re] coming from concentration camps. Also, after the terrorist attack in March in Moscow, it was kind of, you know, a new page was turned where the authorities almost legitimized torture, normalized it, almost encouraged it to be happening because they allowed it on the national television to show torture of the suspects, Tajik migrants. As it happened, the suspects in the Crocus [City Hall] attack, terrorist attack, [were subjected to beatings and torture] including the electric shock to the genitals of one of the suspects or [the] cutting of the ear. There was another transmission on television. These people were [nearly] dead and were brought in front of a judge, and the judge completely pretended that nothing was happening. VOA: Are you expecting any reaction from Russian officials regarding that report? Katzarova: I, of course, as a special rapporteur of the U.N. system, I hope that the Russian Federation will … “VOA Interview: UN special rapporteur details Russia’s state-sanctioned torture” →

ATHENS, GREECE — Greek anti-terror investigators have arrested a man in connection with a deadly explosion in Athens, police said Saturday, warning of “a new generation of terrorists” at work. Thursday’s blast in an apartment in the capital, which killed a man and seriously injured a woman, is suspected to have been caused by the accidental detonation of a homemade bomb. Police sources told AFP they had identified the dead man from his dismembered remains as a 36-year-old from the port city of Piraeus who had been previously arrested in Germany. His fingerprints were in the international database of Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, the sources said. Investigators have also opened a case for alleged participation in a terrorist organization and committing terrorist acts against the injured woman, 33, who was hospitalized under police supervision, and a 30-year-old woman who remains at large. In their statement, police said Saturday that the arrested man was detained after turning himself in Friday. He is believed to have a connection with one of the two women wanted in the case but has denied having anything to do with the explosion, police said. Police said that a search of the apartment produced two handguns, wigs and face masks among other materials. Greek police sources told AFP that investigations were ongoing and that the deceased and those charged were probably members of “a new generation of terrorists.” The country has a decades-old history of far-left extremism involving small urban groups. The shadow November 17 group, named after an anti-junta student uprising, was behind the 1975 killing of the CIA’s Athens station Chief Richard Welch and claimed responsibility for assassinating 23 people in scores of attacks on U.S., British, Turkish and Greek targets between the 1970s and 1990s. In the past decade, scores of arson and bomb attacks in Greece have hit financial, diplomatic and political targets, with police blaming radical anarchists. …

MOSCOW — A court in Russia’s far east said on Friday it had convicted Robert Shonov, a former U.S. consular employee, of illegally and covertly cooperating with the U.S. government to harm Russia’s national security and had jailed him for nearly five years. Russia’s FSB security service detained Shonov, a Russian national, in Vladivostok in May 2023 and accused him of taking money to covertly supply U.S. diplomats with information that was potentially harmful to Russia. The United States on Saturday condemned the conviction, calling it “an egregious injustice.” “The allegations against Mr. Shonov are entirely fictitious and without merit,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. A court in the Primorsky region in Russia’s far east confirmed in a statement on Friday that it had found Shonov guilty and had sentenced him to four years and 10 months in a penal colony. Video of the verdict being read, released by the court, showed Shonov listening inside a courtroom cage as the judge sentenced him. The FSB published a video in August 2023 showing a purported confession by Shonov in which he said two senior U.S. diplomats based in Moscow whom Russia later expelled had asked him to collect information about Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, its annexation of “new territories,” its military mobilization and the 2024 Russian presidential election. In the video, Shonov said he was told to gather “negative” information on these topics, to look for signs of popular protest, and to reflect these in his reports. It was not clear whether he was speaking under duress. Shonov was employed by the U.S. Consulate General in Vladivostok for more than 25 years until Russia in 2021 ordered the dismissal of the U.S. mission’s local staff. …

MIAMI, FLORIDA — A storm system will likely bring heavy rain to the Azores islands over the weekend, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Saturday. Subtropical Storm Patty is expected to produce rainfall amounts of 2.5 to 5 centimeters (1 to 2 inches) across the archipelago through Sunday. The Hurricane Center said swells generated by Patty are likely to cause dangerous surf and rip current conditions. Patty is clocking maximum sustained winds of nearly 80 kilometers per mile (50 miles per hour) with higher gusts. The Azores are an island chain are located about 1,290 kilometers (800 miles) from Portugal. Tropical Storm Lane Separately, a tropical storm formed over the Pacific Ocean early Saturday but remained far off the coast of Mexico. Tropical Storm Lane was located about 2,455 kilometers (1,525 miles) west-southwest off the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported in an advisory early Saturday. There were no immediate coastal watches or warnings in effect. The storm is expected to begin weakening sometime Sunday. …

VALENCIA, SPAIN — Spain will deploy 10,000 more troops and police officers to the eastern Valencia region devastated by floods that have killed 211 people, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday. Sanchez said in a televised address that he accepted the regional leader’s request for 5,000 more troops and informed him of a further deployment of 5,000 police officers and civil guards.  Meanwhile, rescuers resumed a grim search for bodies as the nation scrambled to organize aid to stricken citizens. Hopes of finding survivors more than three days after torrents of mud-filled water submerged towns and wrecked infrastructure were slim in the European country’s deadliest such disaster in decades. Almost all deaths have been recorded in the eastern Valencia region, where thousands of soldiers, police officers and civil guards were frantically clearing debris and mud in the search for bodies. Officials have said that dozens of people remain unaccounted for, but establishing a precise figure is difficult with telephone and transport networks severely damaged. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Friday told Cadena Ser radio station that 207 people had died and that it was “reasonable” to believe more fatalities would emerge. It is also hoped that the estimated number of missing people will fall once telephone and internet services are running again. Restoring order and distributing aid to destroyed towns and villages — some of which have been cut off from food, water and power for days — is a priority. Authorities have come under fire over the adequacy of warning systems before the floods, and some residents have also complained that the response to the disaster is too slow. Susana Camarero, deputy head of the Valencia region, told journalists on Saturday that essential supplies had been delivered “from day one” to all accessible settlements. But it was “logical” that affected residents were asking for more, she said. Authorities in Valencia have restricted access to roads for two days to allow emergency services to carry out search, rescue and logistics operations more effectively.   ‘Overwhelmed’ by solidarity Thousands of people pushing shopping trolleys and carrying cleaning equipment took to the streets on Friday to help with the effort to clean up. Camarero said some municipalities were “overwhelmed by the amount of solidarity and food” they had received. The surge of solidarity continued Saturday as around 1,000 people set off from the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia toward nearby towns laid … “Spain to send 10,000 more troops, police to flood-hit region” →

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia unleashed an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv that lasted into late morning and wounded at least one person, city officials said on Saturday. Debris from downed drones struck six city districts, wounding a police officer, damaging residential buildings and starting fires, according to city military administrator Serhiy Popko. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko had earlier reported that two people had been injured. “Another night. Another air-raid alert. Another drone attack. The armed forces of the Russian Federation attacked Kyiv again according to their old and familiar tactics,” Popko wrote on social media. He said all the drones aimed at Kyiv had been shot down, but warned that others currently located in airspace outside the city could turn toward the capital. Reuters correspondents reported hearing explosions in and around the city during an air-raid alert that lasted more than five hours. Russia has carried out regular airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities behind the front lines of the war which began when Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. Kyiv’s military said on Friday that Moscow’s forces had launched more than 2,000 drones at civilian and military targets across Ukraine in October alone. Russia has denied aiming at civilians and said power facilities are legitimate targets when they are part of Ukrainian military infrastructure. …

A 22-year-old Russian man considered a political prisoner by activists has died in a penal colony in Belarus, human rights group Viasna said Friday. The rights group said it confirmed the death of Dmitry Shletgauer, who was recently transferred to a penal colony in Mogilev in eastern Belarus. Viasna said Shletgauer had been at the penal colony for a short time before his death. “Provisionally, this happened on October 11,” the rights group said. “He spent less than a month in the penal colony. The exact cause of death is unknown.” Shletgauer received a 12-year sentence after being convicted of espionage and facilitating extremist activities. He was arrested in the crackdown in Belarus that occurred after the disputed 2020 presidential election of Alexander Lukashenko that gave the strongman a sixth term. In September, Shletgauer joined Viasna’s list of recognized political prisoners in Belarus. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, is reported to have approximately 1,300 political prisoners, according to Viasna. Radio Free Europe reports Shletgauer was born in Slavgorod, Russia, and acquired residency in Belarus in 2018. Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse. …

When the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on three companies belonging to Denis Postovoy on Wednesday, it was yet another move to break up what U.S. authorities say was an international scheme to violate sanctions. A month earlier, on September 16, law enforcement officials arrested the 44-year-old Russian national in Sarasota, Florida. He was charged with conspiring to violate sanctions on Russia, commit smuggling, commit money laundering and defraud the United States. According to the indictment, Postovoy used an international network of companies to export dual-use microelectronic components from the United States to Russia –– potentially spare parts for military drones used in the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. Postovoy is not the first Russian charged with violating U.S. export controls. But he is one of the few who allegedly did it from inside the United States. Using court documents and open-source information, VOA pieced together Postovoy’s history, revealing a story involving international trade, criminal charges in two countries, a U.S. startup and Florida real estate. Postovoy pleaded not guilty to all the charges. If convicted, he could face decades in prison. Postovoy is in pretrial detention and could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not respond to a VOA request for comment. When VOA reached Postovoy’s wife by phone, she hung up. She did not respond to questions sent to her on the WhatsApp messenger app. According to the latest court filings, Postovoy’s case was transferred to the U.S. District Court in Washington. American charges After Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the U.S. significantly expanded restrictions on the export of microelectronics to Russia. The Department of Justice has accused Postovoy and several unnamed co-conspirators of using a network of companies under their control in Hong Kong, Switzerland and Russia to violate those sanctions. It claims Postovoy misrepresented the buyers and destinations of the goods, routing them through Hong Kong, Switzerland, Turkey and Estonia. “As alleged, he lied about the final destination for the technology he was shipping and used intermediary destinations to mask this illegal activity,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves stated in a press release. “Fortunately, our skilled law enforcement partners at HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and our dedicated attorneys unraveled the plot.” The prosecution states that Postovoy’s clients included the Russian company Streloi Ekommerts and other unnamed firms. According to the indictment, the contract with Streloi was completed before … “Before US sanctions violations arrest, Russian businessman faced charge in Hong Kong” →

istanbul — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday sued the main opposition leader and Istanbul’s powerful mayor over allegedly slanderous remarks made at a protest rally a day earlier, the Anadolu news agency reported. Filed on Friday, the two separate lawsuits targeted Ozgur Ozel, head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, also a top party official. One accused Ozel of “publicly insulting the president” and “clearly committing a crime against the reputation and honor of the office of the presidency.” The second suit alleged Imamoglu had made “unfounded accusations including slander, that violated Erdogan’s rights” and had “acted with the aim of humiliating the president in front of the public.” Each lawsuit sought 1 million Turkish lira ($30,000) in damages from the accused. The legal action centers on remarks the pair allegedly made Thursday at a demonstration in the Istanbul district of Esenyurt a day after police arrested its opposition mayor for alleged links to the banned Kurdish PKK militant group. It was not immediately clear which remarks prompted the legal action, but Ozel, who took over as CHP leader just a year ago, quickly hit back. Erdogan “pretends to have been insulted without any insult being made, and tries to make himself the victim … as if it was not he who insulted and victimized Esenyurt” by arresting its mayor, he told reporters.  Imamoglu, who was elected as Istanbul mayor in 2019, is often portrayed as Erdogan’s biggest political rival and is widely expected to run in the 2028 presidential race. He is seen as one of Turkey’s most popular politicians. Two years ago, Imamoglu was sued for defamation after describing Istanbul election officials as “idiots” during the 2019 Istanbul mayoral election. A court found him guilty, sentenced him to nearly three years in jail and barred him from politics for the duration of the sentence, prompting an international outcry. Imamoglu has appealed while continuing to serve as mayor. At the time, Erdogan insisted the case had nothing to do with him. The 70-year-old Turkish leader launched his own political career in the 1990s by being elected as mayor of Istanbul. …

Moldova’s Constitutional Court on Thursday validated the results of last month’s referendum, formally recognizing the country’s decision to join the European Union. The “yes” result, however, was an incredibly close one, much closer than polls had predicted, and the road toward EU membership for Moldova is not expected to be smooth either. Supporters of the measure attribute the much closer than expected result to Russian meddling in the run-up to the vote held on October 20, together with the presidential election. Both campaigns were marred by massive Russian disinformation and an alleged vote-buying scheme said to have cost the Kremlin tens of millions of dollars.  Some have described an atmosphere of bitterness and division with unprecedented mud-slinging and “hate speech,” including ethnic slurs and fascist tropes, leaving the country, some would say, dangerously divided. The top two presidential candidates, incumbent pro-Europe President Maia Sandu and pro-Kremlin former prosecutor general Alexandr Stoianoglo, face a run-off vote on Sunday. “I hope that the pro-European forces, that Maia Sandu will win elections, but I am worried that this victory will be achieved with a small margin,” Ludmila Barba, host of Moldovan program The European Vector, told VOA.  “That was the case with the referendum. And this state of affairs means that this antagonism in society will remain.” Moldova is a parliamentary republic and those elections will take place next year. Right now, the government is controlled by Sandu’s PAS party, but some predict it could lose control next year. Analysts expect Moldova will remain a battleground for hearts, minds and political allegiances for some time to come and Moscow is no doubt poised to further exploit divisions. It has been throwing its weight around Moldova since the collapse of the USSR but has been honing its meddling technique since last year’s local elections. “It was like a bootcamp for them [the Kremlin] for interference and then they scaled it,” Orysia Lutsevych, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at London’s Chatham House, told VOA. “They’ve seen what worked and that was vote-buying, trying to put eggs in different baskets … but underneath it all, having influence, having them on the payroll of Russia.” The most audacious part of the scheme was the participation of fugitive Russia-based oligarch Ilan Shor, who was convicted in 2017 of banking fraud in Moldova. He is accused of buying off a network of up to 300,000 Moldovans, … “What’s at stake in Moldova’s weekend run-off election?” →

When the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on three companies belonging to Denis Postovoy on Wednesday, it was yet another move to break up what U.S. authorities say was an international scheme to violate sanctions. A month earlier, on September 16, law enforcement officials arrested the 44-year-old Russian national in Sarasota, Florida. He was charged with conspiring to violate sanctions on Russia, commit smuggling, commit money laundering and defraud the United States. According to the indictment, Postovoy used an international network of companies to export dual-use microelectronic components from the United States to Russia –– potentially spare parts for military drones used in the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. Postovoy is not the first Russian charged with violating U.S. export controls. But he is one of the few who allegedly did it from inside the United States. Using court documents and open-source information, VOA pieced together Postovoy’s history, revealing a story involving international trade, criminal charges in two countries, a U.S. startup and Florida real estate. Postovoy pleaded not guilty to all the charges. If convicted, he could face decades in prison. Postovoy is in pretrial detention and could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not respond to a VOA request for comment. When VOA reached Postovoy’s wife by phone, she hung up. She did not respond to questions sent to her on the WhatsApp messenger app. According to the latest court filings, Postovoy’s case was transferred to the U.S. District Court in Washington. American charges After Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the U.S. significantly expanded restrictions on the export of microelectronics to Russia. The Department of Justice has accused Postovoy and several unnamed co-conspirators of using a network of companies under their control in Hong Kong, Switzerland and Russia to violate those sanctions. It claims Postovoy misrepresented the buyers and destinations of the goods, routing them through Hong Kong, Switzerland, Turkey and Estonia. “As alleged, he lied about the final destination for the technology he was shipping and used intermediary destinations to mask this illegal activity,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves stated in a press release. “Fortunately, our skilled law enforcement partners at HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and our dedicated attorneys unraveled the plot.” The prosecution states that Postovoy’s clients included the Russian company Streloi Ekommerts and other unnamed firms. According to the indictment, the contract with Streloi was completed before … “Before US sanctions violations arrest, Russian businessman faced charges in Hong Kong” →

BELGRADE, SERBIA — Eight people were killed and two hospitalized on Friday when the roof of a railway station in the Serbian town of Novi Sad collapsed, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said in a televised statement. Local television stations showed emergency services at the scene, including medical staff who were preparing stretchers nearby. Two large diggers for removing rubble were also stationed in front of the station. “It is an extremely difficult rescue operation that will last for several more hours. We have around 80 rescuers from several towns working and heavy machinery,” Dacic said, adding that two more people were still under the rubble but were alive. Local media said potentially dozens of people were injured. The mayor’s office in the city acknowledged the incident but did not say how many were hurt. N1 news channel said that train departures were halted from the station about 70 kilometers northwest of the capital, Belgrade. …

The United States is watching growing cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic closely and some of their recent military collaboration in the region sends “concerning signals”, the U.S. Arctic ambassador said.   Russia and China have stepped up military cooperation in the Arctic while deepening overall ties in recent years that include China supplying Moscow with dual-use goods despite Western sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine.  Russia and the United States are among eight countries with territory in the resource-rich Arctic. China calls itself a “near-Arctic” state and wants to create a “Polar Silk Road” in the Arctic, a new shipping route as the polar ice sheet recedes with rising temperatures.   Michael Sfraga, the United States’ first ambassador-at-large for Arctic affairs, said the “frequency and the complexity” of recent military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing in the region sent “concerning signals”.  “The fact that they are working together in the Arctic has our attention,” Sfraga, who was sworn in last month, told Reuters in a telephone interview from Alaska. “We are being both vigilant and diligent about this. We’re watching very closely this evolution of their activity.”  “It raises our radar, literally and figuratively,” he added. Sfraga cited a joint run by Russian and Chinese bomber planes off the coast of Alaska in July, and Chinese and Russian coast guard ships sailing together through the Bering Strait in October.   He said these activities had been conducted in international waters, in line with international law, but the fact that the bombers flew off the coast of Alaska had raised concerns for U.S. security.  “We do need to think about security, heighten our own alliances, our own mutual defences,” Sfraga said. “Alaska, the North American Arctic, is NATO’s western flank and so we need to think about the Arctic that way.”  The activity was also a concern for U.S. allies as the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea give access to the North Pacific and South Pacific, he said.  The Pentagon said in a report released in July that the growing alignment between Russia and China in the Arctic was “a concern”.   China and Russia are trying to develop Arctic shipping routes as Moscow seeks to deliver more oil and gas to China amid Western sanctions. Beijing is seeking an alternative shipping route to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Malacca.  The Arctic also holds fossil fuels and … “US envoy sees some ‘concerning signals’ in Russia-China military cooperation in Arctic” →

TOKYO — Japan and the European Union announced a sweeping new security and defense partnership in Tokyo on Friday. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell hailed it as a historic and “very timely” step. Borrell and his Japanese counterpart, Takeshi Iwaya, unveiled the pact to develop cooperation on joint military drills, the exchange of information related to the defense industry and space security, among other matters. “I am extremely pleased to be here with Minister Iwaya to announce the conclusion of this security and defense partnership between the European Union and Japan,” Borrell said. He called it the “the first agreement of this nature” the EU has made with an Asia-Pacific country, describing it as “historical and very timely.” “We live in a very dangerous world” and “given the situation in both of our regions, this political framework deepens our ability to tackle emerging threats together,” Borrell told reporters. He did not mention China, but Japan has previously called its neighbor its greatest security challenge as Beijing builds up military capacity in the region. After the Tokyo talks, Borrell heads to South Korea, where concerns about North Korea will top the agenda. The United States has said thousands of North Korean troops are in Russia readying to fight in Ukraine. Pyongyang also test-fired one of its newest and most powerful missiles on Thursday, demonstrating its threat to the US mainland days ahead of elections. Defense industries The text of the EU-Japan Security and Defense Partnership, seen by Agence France-Presse, said they would promote “concrete naval cooperation,” including through activities such as joint exercises and port calls, which could also include “mutually designated third countries.” It also said the EU and Japan would discuss “the development of respective defense initiatives including exchange of information on defense industry-related matters.” Japan, which for decades has relied on the United States for military hardware, is also developing a new fighter jet with EU member Italy and Britain that is set to be airborne by 2035. The agreement on industrial cooperation could “turbo-charge collaboration, such that joint defense projects between Japanese and European firms funded through EU mechanisms may be on the cards,” analyst Yee Kuang Heng of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy told AFP. Japan is ramping up defense spending to the NATO standard of 2% of GDP by 2027, partly to counter China, which is increasing military pressure on Taiwan. … “Japan, EU announce new defense pact” →

Europe is bracing for former President Donald Trump’s potential return to power — even as his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, remains a mostly unknown quantity. Many Europeans believe much is at stake in the nail-biting U.S. elections: from NATO and the transatlantic alliance to Russia’s war on Ukraine, trade relations and the future of their own democracies. Lisa Bryant reports from Paris.  …

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its defenses shot down 83 Ukrainian drones over six regions early on November 1. “36 drones were shot down over the Kursk region, 20 over the Bryansk region, 12 over Crimea, eight over the Voronezh region, four over the Oryol region, and three over the Belgorod region,” the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel. Separately, Aleksandr Bogomaz, the governor of Bryansk, said one person was wounded when a Ukrainian drone crashed into an apartment building in the city of Bryansk. In the Stavropol region, a drone fell on an oil depot in the city of Svetlograd, regional Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said on Telegram. In Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, a Russian missile struck a fire station, wounding two firefighters, regional Governor Oleh Kiper reported. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said its defenses shot down 31 Russian drones and one missile.    …

moscow — North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has arrived in Moscow and will hold strategic consultations with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the ministry, in a post on her official Telegram channel, published photographs of Lavrov meeting Choe at a Moscow train station. “Today, talks between the heads of Russia and the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) will be held in Moscow. Sergei Lavrov greeted his counterpart with a bouquet of flowers,” said Zakharova. “The meeting began at the Yaroslavsky railway station (in Moscow), where a memorial plaque was unveiled to mark the occasion of Kim Il Sung’s 1949 visit to the USSR,” she said, referring to the founder of the DPRK. The visit, Choe’s second in six weeks, comes after Pyongyang tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile this week and as Washington says there are 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, including as many as 8,000 deployed in Russia’s Kursk region where Ukrainian troops have dug in. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that the United States expected the North Korean troops in Kursk region to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days. Moscow has neither denied nor directly confirmed the presence of North Korean troops on its soil. President Vladimir Putin has said it is for Russia to decide how to implement a treaty he signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June that includes a mutual defense clause. …

moscow — A Russian former employee of the U.S. Consulate in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok has been sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison for “secret collaboration with a foreign state,” Russian agencies said Friday. Robert Shonov worked for more than 25 years for the U.S. Consulate until 2021, when Moscow imposed restrictions on local staff working for foreign missions. Afterward, he worked as a private contractor compiling news accounts from publicly accessible Russian media, according to the U.S. State Department. He was arrested this year on suspicion of passing secret information about Russia’s war in Ukraine to the United States in exchange for money. According to the judgment published on the website of Valdivostok’s Primorye court, $4,343 and an electronic device linked to the commission of the offense were seized. In September 2023, Russia also expelled two U.S. diplomats it accused of acting as liaison agents for Shonov. According to Washington, Shonov had only been hired by the U.S. Consulate to carry out routine monitoring of freely accessible Russian media. In recent years, several U.S. citizens have been arrested and sentenced to long jail terms in Russia. Others are being held pending trial. Washington, which supports Ukraine militarily and financially against Russia’s invasion, accuses Moscow of wanting to exchange them for Russians held in the United States. The United States and Russia exchanged prisoners including The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in a landmark swap in August, but several U.S. nationals and dual nationals remain in detention in Russia.  …