Category: European Union

LONDON — A landmark hearing into nation-states’ legal obligations over climate change wrapped up at the United Nations’ top court in The Hague on Friday. The outcome could have implications for the fight against climate change — and for the big polluters blamed for emitting most greenhouse gases. The 15 judges at the International Court of Justice have heard evidence from 99 countries and dozens of organizations over the course of the two-week hearing. They are trying to determine the legal obligations of states to tackle climate change and to repair the harm caused. The judges’ advisory opinion is expected to be published next year. Emotional testimony The testimony has at times been technical – but also impassioned and emotional. Small island states have argued their existence is at stake and so international human rights laws must apply to climate change. “For young people, the demand for reparations is crucial for justice. We have inherited a planet in decline and face the grim prospect of passing on an even more degraded world to future generations,” said Vishal Prasad, campaign director for Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, which lobbied for the case to be heard. “Equally clear is the demand for immediate cessation. If greenhouse gas emissions are not stopped, we are not just risking our future, we are welcoming its demise,” he said. Polluters Countering that argument were several big polluting nations, including China, India, Britain and the United States. They argued that only climate treaties, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, confer any legal obligations on nation-states regarding climate change. “An advisory proceeding is not the means to litigate whether individual states or groups of states have violated obligations pertaining to climate change in the past or bear responsibility for reparations, as some participants have suggested,” legal adviser to the U.S. State Department, Margaret L. Taylor, told the court on December 4. “It’s a suggestion … that some, but not all, states are entitled, as a matter of international law, to reparations simply upon a showing that the climate system has been harmed. We do not see a basis for such a conclusion,” Taylor added. Island states The U.N. General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory ruling after years of lobbying from small island and vulnerable coastal states, which argue that rising sea levels due to global warming pose an existential threat. The judges’ … “Landmark climate change legal hearing wraps up in The Hague” →

A landmark hearing into nation-states’ legal obligations over climate change wrapped up at the United Nations’ top court in The Hague on Friday. The outcome could have implications for the fight against global warming — and for the big polluters blamed for emitting most greenhouse gases. Henry Ridgwell has more. …

Patricia Hubbard Fox, the sister of the 72-year-old U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard sentenced to jail in Russia for almost seven years on charges of “being a mercenary” for his alleged participation in fighting in Ukraine, says in an exclusive VOA Russian interview that she is still unsuccessfully trying to find out the location of his prison in Russia. She refuted the charges against her brother, saying that he would not be able to fight alongside the Ukrainian army and that he was an English language teacher in a small Ukrainian town. Click her for the full story in Russian. …

With a naval base in Tartus and an airbase near Latakia, Russia was the main source of military support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. With Assad deposed and granted asylum in Moscow, Russia’s regional influence may be greatly diminished. …

CHISINAU — Moldova’s parliament on Friday voted in favor of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over fears that Russia could leave the European Union candidate country without sufficient natural gas supplies this winter.  A majority in Moldova’s 101-seat legislature voted to pass the state of emergency, which will start on Dec. 16 and last 60 days. A special commission will urgently adopt measures to manage “imminent risks” if Moscow fails to supply gas to the Kuciurgan power plant, the country’s largest, which is situated in the separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region.  Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said his country faces an “exceptional situation” in which Moscow could deliberately weaponize energy flows to destabilize the country, and potentially leave people “in the middle of winter without heat and electricity.”  Russian energy giant Gazprom supplies the gas-operated Kuciurgan plant, which generates electricity that powers a significant portion of Moldova proper. The plant was privatized in 2004 by Transnistrian officials and later sold to a Russian state-owned company. Moldova doesn’t recognize the privatization.  In late 2022, Moldova suffered major power outages following Russian strikes on neighboring Ukraine, which is interconnected to the Kuciurgan plant.  “This must be the last winter in the country’s history in which we can still be threatened with energy,” Recean said. “It is clear that these crises are deliberately provoked, and their goal is to create panic and chaos.”  He added that a cessation of natural gas could trigger economic and humanitarian crises, but vowed that nobody in Moldova would be left “in the cold and dark.”  Transnistria, which broke away after a short war in 1992 and is not recognized by most countries, also declared its own state of emergency this week in case the region does not receive gas supplies.  When Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.5 million people, was entirely dependent on Moscow for natural gas but has since pushed to diversify and expand its energy sources.  Sebastian Burduja, Romania’s energy minister, said late Thursday that Romania has the resources to support Moldova “if the situation demands it,” saying it would be “a duty … in the face of the aggressions coming from the east.”  In October, Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu won a second term in office, and a referendum voted in favor of securing the country’s path toward the EU, in two votes overshadowed … “Moldova declares a state of emergency over energy as fears of Russian gas shortage loom “ →

Tbilisi — Georgia’s political crisis deepened Friday after new pro-Europe protests were announced ahead of the controversial nomination of a far-right government loyalist as president. The Black Sea nation has been in turmoil since the governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in contested October parliamentary elections, with its decision last month to delay EU accession talks igniting a fresh wave of mass rallies. More unrest is expected on Saturday when Georgian Dream will appoint far-right former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili as president in a controversial election process. The pro-Western incumbent, President Salome Zurabishvili, has refused to step down and is demanding new parliamentary elections, paving the way for a constitutional showdown. Opposition groups accuse Georgian Dream of rigging the parliamentary vote, democratic backsliding in office and moving Tbilisi closer to Russia — all at the expensive of the Caucasus nation’s bid for EU membership. A forceful police crackdown on the protestors has also triggered outrage at home and condemnation abroad. Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Georgian officials overnight, barring visas for around 20 people accused of “undermining democracy in Georgia,” including sitting ministers and parliamentarians, the U.S. State Department said. Police have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the rallies, arresting more than 400 demonstrators, and the country’s rights ombudsman has accused security forces of “torturing” those detained. ‘Unprecedented constitutional crisis’ Pro-EU demonstrators have staged daily rallies across Georgia for the last two weeks, with more to take place across Tbilisi on Friday. On Saturday, an electoral college controlled by Georgian Dream is expected to elect Kavelashvili as the country’s new figurehead president, in an indirect vote boycotted by the opposition. Kavelashvili, 53, is known for his vehement anti-West diatribes and opposition to LGBTQ rights. Georgian Dream scrapped direct presidential elections in 2017. With Zurabishvili refusing to leave office, opposition lawmakers boycotting Parliament and protests showing no signs of abating, critics are questioning Kavelashvili’s legitimacy before he even takes up the role. One author of Georgia’s constitution, Vakhtang Khmaladze, has argued that all decisions by the new Parliament are void because the body started work before awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit brought by Zurabishvili. “Georgia is facing an unprecedented constitutional crisis,” Khmaladze told AFP. It remains unclear how the government will react to Zurabishvili’s refusal to step down after her successor is inaugurated on December 29. A former French diplomat, Zurabishvili is a hugely popular figure among protesters who … “Georgia crisis deepens as government set to name far-right president “ →

KYIV — Ukraine’s Defense Ministry unveiled a new state agency for its armed forces last year. It was the government’s answer to the rampant corruption within the ministry’s procurement companies and meant to be a driver of reform on the elusive path toward NATO membership. The enterprise, in charge of purchasing nonlethal military goods such as food, clothes and fuel, has already contracted 95% of the products requested for supply, and saved 25% in the process, says Arsen Zhumadilov, the CEO of the State Logistics Operator, known by the local abbreviation DOT. Soon, he says, DOT also will begin procuring drones. These kinds of results are an example of the type of reform that Ukraine hopes will help clear the path toward NATO, a key deterrent against Russia, officials have argued. Membership in the alliance remains largely a political question, with key states reluctant to grant it, fearing escalation from Moscow. Western officials are also keenly awaiting the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump before making declarations. But NATO officials have also demanded widespread anti-graft reforms before Kyiv can join. Change has been a difficult pill for many within Ukraine’s post-Soviet institutions to swallow. DOT’s promising results so far stand in contrast to the deeply rooted challenges that continue to plague the tenure of Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, including slow progress with restructuring the institution and ongoing allegations of corruption within lethal military procurement. Recently, Umerov has come under scrutiny in the Ukrainian press for appointing ministry officials with whom he also has close business ties, including Zhumadilov. Western officials are closely monitoring DOT, three Western diplomats told The Associated Press. So far, they have been pleased with the results one year since it was formed. They spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely about their assessments. DOT embodies the uneasy coexistence of a digital-savvy youthful ethos and paper-heavy post-Soviet bureaucracy. Its office exudes a fresh startup culture vibe, while catering to one of the most stubbornly rigid ministries in the country. The contrast underscores the spirit of how Russia’s war in Ukraine is being fought, in which innovative drone wars coincide with World War II-style trenches. “We understand that we have been on the radars of NATO, of G7 [Group of Seven] countries, of all NATO member countries in terms of whether we manage or not to put in place a procurement system that is resilient, that … “Ukraine’s reformed military procurement agency drives country’s NATO ambitions “ →

KYIV, UKRAINE — Russia on Friday launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine, involving dozens of cruise missiles and drones, the latest such strike aimed at crippling the country’s electricity system. The Russian military targeted the Ukrainian power grid, energy minister Herman Halushchenko wrote on his Facebook page. “The enemy continues its terror,” he said. Halushchenko said energy workers do everything necessary to “minimize negative consequences for the energy system,” promising to release more details on damages once the security situation allows it. Ukraine’s air force reported multiple strike drones launched at Ukraine overnight followed by swarms of cruise missiles in the country’s air space. It said Russia also used air-launched ballistic Kinzhal missiles against Ukraine’s western regions. Friday’s attack is the latest in a series of such raids that has heightened fears that the Kremlin aims to destroy the country’s power generation capacity as the winter sets in. Since launching its invasion in February 2022, Russia has relentlessly pummeled Ukraine’s electricity system, resulting in repeated shutdowns of critical heating and drinking water supplies during the bitter winter months in an apparent attempt to break Ukrainian spirits and resolve. Moscow has declared that the attacks are aimed at hobbling Ukraine’s defense industry, thwarting the production of missiles, drones, armored vehicles and artillery, among other weapons. A similar massive attack on November 28 involved about 200 missiles and drones and left more than a million households without power until emergency teams restored supplies. Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia is stockpiling cruise and ballistic missiles for more attacks. On November 21, Russia for the first time used an intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile to strike an industrial plant in the city of Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the attack with the Oreshnik missile as retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with longer-range Western weapons. He declared that more attacks with the new weapon could follow. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine struck an air base in Taganrog in the southern Rostov region with six U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles, injuring several soldiers and damaging buildings and a few vehicles. It vowed to strike back. The Pentagon warned Wednesday that Russia could use its new missile against Ukraine again soon. Around half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed during the almost three years of war with Russia, and rolling electricity blackouts are widespread. Kyiv’s Western allies … “Russia launches massive aerial attack on Ukrainian infrastructure” →

LOS ANGELES — The United States and its NATO allies are paying increased attention to military cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic, where the two countries have conducted joint naval exercises, coast guard patrols and strategic bomber air training. That cooperation includes more closely coordinated military drills, said Iris Ferguson,  U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and Global Resilience. She spoke during an online December 5 discussion hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The increasing levels of collaboration between Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the unprecedented style of collaboration, especially in the military domain, give us again pause,” said Ferguson. In October, the coast guards of China and Russia conducted their first joint Arctic maritime patrol. In July, four Russian and Chinese strategic bombers flew over the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea, marking the first time their military aircraft launched from the same airbase in northern Russia and the first time Chinese bombers flew within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. China and Russia also held joint naval exercises in the Bering Strait in 2022 and 2023. China has no Arctic territory of its own but is interested in growing opportunities for mineral exploration and a shipping route to Europe as climate change causes the Arctic ice cap to recede. “It is an interesting development showing that a level of cooperation that a few years ago we didn’t think will get to that level,” said Stephanie Pezard, associate research department director at the RAND Corporation, headquartered in Santa Monica, California. As recently as a few years ago, she told VOA Mandarin earlier this week, “Russia was really trying to beat China in industrial development in the Arctic.” The U.S. Department of Defense published a “2024 Arctic Strategy” in July that identifies Chinese and Russian collaboration as a major geopolitical challenge driving the need for a new strategic approach to the Arctic. Chang Ching, a senior researcher from the Society for Strategic Studies based in Taipei, said China’s presence in the Arctic creates pressure on the U.S. and other countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). “In the past, Russia was the only traditional adversary in the Arctic, but now there is an additional challenge,” Chang told VOA Mandarin this week. No immediate threat Other NATO members are responding to the increased military activities of Russia and China … “China-Russia Arctic cooperation a US national security concern” →

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced another package of weapons aid for Ukraine on Thursday, valued at $500 million, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. White House spokesperson John Kirby said earlier the U.S. would continue to provide additional packages for Ukraine “right up to the end of this administration.” Washington said 10 days ago it would send Ukraine $725 million worth of missiles, ammunition, anti-personnel mines and other weapons. Biden’s outgoing administration is seeking to bolster Ukraine in tackling Russia’s invasion, before Biden’s term ends in January when Republican President-elect Donald Trump would take office. Thursday’s package worth about $500 million included ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs), among other assistance, according to Blinken. After Thursday, about $5.6 billion worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) to rush weapons from U.S. stocks to the front lines remains available to Biden without requiring congressional approval. Moscow’s troops have been capturing village after village in Ukraine’s east, part of a drive to seize the industrial Donbas region, while Russian air strikes target a hobbled Ukrainian energy grid as winter sets in. …

WASHINGTON — Brutal tactics employed by Russia in its war on Ukraine have shocked much of the world but come as no surprise to older residents of Chechnya, who this week marked the 30th anniversary of an equally brutal war — one that many believe bore the seeds of the current conflict in Ukraine. It was on December 11, 1994, that then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin launched an armed response to a bid by Chechnya, an autonomous republic in southern Russia’s North Caucasus region, to break away from the Russian Federation. To thwart the self-styled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria’s independence bid, the Russian military threw poorly trained and equipped conscripts against highly motivated Chechen guerrillas. Between December 1994 and August 1996, when the two sides signed the Khasavyurt Accords ending the First Chechen War, an estimated 8,000 Russian troops were killed or listed as missing in action, and more than 50,000 wounded. The conflict also killed an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 Chechen civilians and fighters, and claimed the lives of as many as 35,000 ethnic Russian residents of Chechnya. British journalist Thomas de Waal, who had worked in Chechnya before the war, returned to the Chechen capital of Grozny in January 1995 and found a horrific scene. “Already the city had fallen to the Russian forces, but [only] after the most intense bombardment I think anyone had seen … certainly Russia had seen since the end of the Second World War,” De Waal, now a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, recently told Voice of America’s Russian Service. “Most of the city lay in ruins,” he said. “Entire blocks had been destroyed, leaving gaping holes in their place. People were coming out of the basements where they had been hiding for weeks.” Among those hiding from Russian bombing in Grozny’s basements was Abubakar Yangulbayev, now a lawyer and human rights activist, who was then 2 years old. The First Chechen War left a deep imprint on him. “It was total devastation,” he told VOA. “There was nothing, everything was broken, everything was destroyed. And here is my first understanding: Is there any peace anywhere, where everything is not destroyed, where there are roads, where there is normal life without mud, without those constant annoying tanks, armored personnel carriers and all that?” One general’s bid Chechnya’s independence bid was launched by Dzhokhar Dudayev, a former Soviet general who had commanded strategic nuclear … “First Chechen War: The moment when ‘Russia’s democratic post-Soviet dream ended’” →

LONDON — Support for far-right parties in Europe continued to grow in 2024 amid voter concerns over immigration, inflation and the war in Ukraine. Far-right parties gained nearly a quarter of votes from across the bloc in June’s European Union parliamentary elections, although centrist parties continue to hold the balance of power at the EU institutions in Brussels. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally Party won the highest share of French votes in the EU parliament election, with 31%. French President Emmanuel Macron — whose Renaissance Party won 15% of the vote — made the shock decision to dissolve parliament and call a general election. National Rally saw a path to government for the first time. “We are ready to be in power if the French people give us their support in the forthcoming legislative elections,” Le Pen told supporters. “We are ready to turn the country around, ready to defend the interests of the French people, ready to put an end to mass immigration.” Left and centrist parties, however, formed an alliance to block National Rally from power. Macron appointed a new government under Prime Minister Michel Barnier, but France was plunged into turmoil again in early December after National Rally withdrew its support for government, forcing a no-confidence vote and prompting Barnier’s resignation. Macron is struggling to appoint a new prime minister amid calls for his resignation. Meanwhile, Le Pen faces troubles of her own, as an ongoing corruption trial could derail her political ambitions. A verdict is due in March. German elections In Germany, Europe’s biggest economic power, the far-right Alternative for Germany Party finished second in the EU parliament elections, putting the Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz in third place. Scholz appealed to voters to reject the right-wing party. “We have to worry about the vote for right-wing populist parties here and in other European countries. We must never get used to this, and it must always be our mission to push them back,” Scholz said in the wake of the results. His call went unheeded. In September, Alternative for Germany won a state election for the first time in Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony. Immigration Concerns over immigration were central to the far right’s success, said Guntram Wolff, senior fellow at the Bruegel economic think tank in Brussels. “How do you respond to that dissatisfaction that relates to migration? I mean, … “Far-right support rose in Europe in 2024” →

The Russian anti-war committee, a group founded by Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other Russian politicians who were forced into exile after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, is expanding its work to help hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians who have also fled their country. The group is trying to help Russians in unfamiliar countries, from Lithuania and Britain to Georgia and Montenegro. Click here for the full story in Russian.      …

On the 30th anniversary of the first Chechen war that became a turning point in Russia’s modern history, VOA Russian interviewed Abubakar Yangulbayev, the 32-year-old outspoken exiled Chechen activist and personal enemy of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Yangulbayev says Russia’s storming of Grozny in December 1994 was a war against democracy in Chechnya that then developed into Putin’s war against democracy in Russia as a whole. Click here for the full story in Russian.      …

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he cut short a visit to Poland Thursday to return home to name a new prime minister eight days after French lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a no-confidence vote. Barnier, who had been prime minister for just three months, angered members of parliament on both the right and the left last week when he pushed through the 2025 budget without parliamentary approval, something Barnier said he did to maintain “stability” amid France’s deep political divisions. Macron asked Barnier to stay on in a caretaker capacity until the president names a successor. Following a meeting with Macron at his Elysee Palace office Tuesday, party leaders said the president had promised to name a replacement to lead the government within 48 hours. The meeting did not include the far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen or the far-left France Unbowed party of Jean-Luc Melenchon. The Associated Press reports Macron said he would only speak with more moderate political forces. Following last week’s no-confidence vote, Macron, in a nationally televised speech, vowed to stay in office until the end of his term in 2027. He also promised to appoint a prime minister who would form a government “in the general interest, representing all the political parties who can participate in it, or at least who agree not to bring it down.” A spokeswoman for Barnier’s caretaker government, Maud Bregeon, told reporters Wednesday Macron would either seek to bring parties from the center-left into his center/center-right coalition or make a deal with them not hold any no confidence votes against them. Analysts suggest top candidates to be prime minister include centrist Democratic Movement party leader François Bayrou, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and center-left ex-Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. …

Four former members of Basque separatist organization ETA were each sentenced Thursday in Spain to nearly 75 years in prison, more than 20 years after they attempted to murder two journalists and their infant son by placing a flowerpot filled with explosives outside the family’s home. Aurora Intxausti, a journalist for El Pais newspaper; her husband, Juan Palomo, a reporter for Antena 3 television; and their then-18-month-old son, Inigo, were targeted in 2000 as ETA broadened its terror campaign across Basque society. In previous years, the organization had targeted only police and soldiers but began killing and threatening journalists, judges, local politicians, women and children in a campaign it called the “socialization of suffering.” In 2018, ETA announced its full and formal dissolution, but the Spanish judiciary is still pursuing members of the organization for past crimes. The Spanish branch of watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said attacks on journalists should be punished even if it takes judicial authorities two decades to catch up with the perpetrators. “It is important that justice is done,” Alfonso Bauluz, president of RSF, told VOA. “ETA represented a permanent threat to the freedom of expression, and its disappearance represents a strengthening of the freedom of the media and the security of Spanish journalists,” he said. The bomb attack failed because as the family was leaving their home on November 10, 2000, Palomo heard something that sounded like a firecracker going off.  He noticed a plant pot on the front doorstep that had not been there and told his family to get as far away from the door as possible. The bomb contained 2.5 kilograms of dynamite and shrapnel. It failed to go off because Palomo opened the door briskly, causing the connection between the detonator and the explosives to fail. Four ETA members admitted to attempted murder on Thursday in Madrid at the Audiencia Nacional, Spain’s top criminal court, and were sentenced to nearly 75 years each in prison. Asier Garcia, Patxi Xabier Makazaga, Jon Zubiaurre and Imanol Miner received sentences of 19 years and 10 months for each of the three counts of attempted murder and a further 14 years and 10 months each for terrorist offenses. In their closing remarks, the judges said the bomb had been planted “with the sole intention of causing the deaths of the couple and their child.” Despite the sentences, under Spanish law, most criminals can serve a maximum … “ETA terrorists jailed in Spain for attempted murder of journalists” →

Rovaniemi, Finland — Shuffling across icy ground on a cold December afternoon, lots of tourist groups poured into Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle. They frolic in the snow, take a reindeer sleigh ride, sip a cocktail in an ice bar or even meet Saint Nick himself in the capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, which happily calls itself the “official hometown of Santa Claus.” The Santa Claus Village theme park, which attracts more than 600,000 people annually, is especially popular during the holiday season. “This is like my dream came true,” beamed Polish visitor Elzbieta Nazaruk. “I’m really excited to be here.” Tourism is booming in Rovaniemi — which has hotel and restaurant owners, as well as city officials, excited as it brings lots of money to the town. However, not everyone is happy about the onslaught of visitors, 10 times the town’s population, each year at Christmas time. “We are worried about the overgrowth of tourism. Tourism has grown so rapidly, it’s not anymore in control,” said 43-year-old Antti Pakkanen, a photographer and member of a housing network that in September organized a rally through the city’s streets. It’s a feeling that has been echoed in other popular European travel destinations, including Barcelona, Amsterdam, Malaga and Florence. Across the continent, locals have protested against “over-tourism” — which generally describes the tipping point at which visitors and their cash stop benefiting residents and instead cause harm by degrading historic sites, overwhelming infrastructure and making life markedly more difficult for those who live there. Now, it seems to have spread north, all the way to the edges of the Arctic Circle. Rovaniemi counted a record 1.2 million overnight visitors in 2023, almost 30 percent growth on 2022, after rebounding from pandemic travel disruptions. “Nordic is a trend,” Visit Rovaniemi CEO Sanna Karkkainen, said as she stood in an ice restaurant, where snow carvers were working nearby. “People want to travel to cool countries to see the snow, to see the Northern Lights, and, of course, to see Santa Claus,” she added. Thirteen new flight routes to Rovaniemi Airport opened this year, bringing passengers from Geneva, Berlin, Bordeaux and more. Most tourists come from European countries like France, Germany and the UK, but Rovaniemi’s appeal has also spread further. Hotel availability is scarce this winter, and Tiina Maatta, general manager of the 159-room Original … “As tourists discover Finland’s Santa Claus Village, some locals call for rules to control the masses” →

DAKAR, SENEGAL — Mali’s armed forces, supported by Russian mercenaries, committed abuses against civilians since the withdrawal of a U.N. peacekeeping mission late last year, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday. Malian armed forces and the Russia-backed Wagner Group deliberately killed at least 32 civilians, including seven in a drone strike, kidnapped four others, and burned at least 100 homes in towns and villages in central and northern Mali since May, the rights group said. Human Rights Watch also accused jihadi groups in the region of having summarily executed at least 47 civilians and displaced thousands of people since June. It said the groups burned thousands of houses and looted livestock, which is vital to the survival of the nomadic communities in the region. “The Malian army with the Wagner Group and Islamist armed groups have been targeting civilians and their property in violation of the laws of war,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in the report. Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by jihadi groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance. Wagner has been present in Mali since late 2021 following a military coup, replacing French troops and international peacekeepers to help fight the militants. At the same time, the mercenary group has been accused of helping to carry out raids and drone strikes that have killed civilians. In December last year, the United Nations ended its decade long peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, following the government’s request that alleged the force was inadequate to respond to the insurgency. “Since MINUSMA left Mali a year ago, it has been extremely difficult to get comprehensive information on abuses, and we are deeply concerned that the situation is even worse than reported,” Allegrozzi said. …

The head of Russia’s Chechnya region said Thursday a Ukrainian drone attack hit a police barracks, injuring at least four people. Ramzan Kadyrov said on Telegram the drone damaged the building’s roof and windows and also caused a small fire. The attack was the second to hit a police facility in the region this month, according to Kadyrov. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it shot down a drone over Chechnya, as well as four drones over Kursk, three over North Ossetia and eight over Russia-occupied Crimea. In Ukraine, the governor of the Kherson region said Russian drones attacked Thursday, with one injuring a man in the city of Kherson. Missile warfare Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia would respond to Ukraine’s use of U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles, which Russian defense officials said were used in a Wednesday strike on a Russian airfield in the city of Taganrog. “The response will follow in a manner deemed appropriate. But it will definitely follow,” Peskov said. A U.S. official said Wednesday that a U.S. intelligence assessment has concluded Russia could launch another of its experimental hypersonic ballistic missiles against Ukraine in the coming days, although Washington does not consider it to be decisive in the nearly three-year war. Russia first fired the Oreshnik missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on November 21, in what President Vladimir Putin characterized as a response to Ukraine’s first use of long-range U.S. and British missiles to strike more deeply into Russian territory with Western permission.  “We assess that the Oreshnik is not a game-changer on the battlefield, but rather just another attempt by Russia to terrorize Ukraine, which will fail,” the U.S. official told reporters. There was no immediate response from Russia. Putin had said that Russia might fire the Oreshnik missile again, possibly to target “decision-making centers” in Kyiv, if Ukraine keeps attacking Russia with long-range Western weapons. The Russian leader has claimed that the Oreshnik is impossible to intercept and that it has destructive power comparable to that of a nuclear weapon, even when fitted with a conventional warhead. Some Western experts have said the novel feature of the Oreshnik is that it carries multiple warheads that can simultaneously strike different targets — a capability usually associated with longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles. Nonetheless, the U.S. official downplayed the usefulness of the missiles, calling them “experimental” in nature and saying that “Russia likely possesses … “Ukrainian drones hit Russia’s Chechnya region” →

BELGRADE, SERBIA — Serbia’s president accused Tuesday foreign intelligence services of trying to unseat him in the wake of spreading protests in the Balkan state and that he wouldn’t flee the country like the ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad. President Aleksandar Vučić posted a video message on Instagram saying: “I will fight for Serbia and serve only my Serbian people and all other citizens of Serbia, I will never serve foreigners, those who seek to defeat, humiliate, and destroy Serbia,” he added. Opponents of the populist leader compared him to Assad who fled to Moscow following a stunning rebel advance, ending his family’s half-century of iron rule. Vučić’s opponents in Serbia have compared him to Assad and other world dictators, predicting that he may also try to flee the country if he loses his firm grip on power amid the protests triggered by a rail station roof collapse in the northern city of Novi Sad that killed 15 people on November 1. The protesters in Novi Sad, Belgrade and other Serbian cities have blaming the deadly collapse on rampant corruption in the country that led to sloppy renovation work on the station building in Novi Sad — part of a wider deal with Chinese state companies involved in a number of infrastructure projects in the Balkan country. The canopy collapse has became a flashpoint for broader dissatisfaction with Vučić’s growingly autocratic rule, reflecting public demands for democratic changes in the country. In the video, Vučić alleged that the spreading protests, which have recently been joined by university students, are financed from the West with the intention of toppling him and his government from power “with various hybrid tactics being employed to undermine the country.” “If they think I’m Assad, and that I’ll run away somewhere, I will not,” Vučić said. Vučić said that in the next few days and weeks, he will expose “in full detail how much money was paid over the last four years to destroy Serbia” and make it a vassal state, “which would not make its own decisions or choose its own future, but instead would have to listen to and serve someone else.” The Balkan nation is formally seeking European Union membership while maintaining very close ties with both Russia and China. Vučić, who claims political neutrality of Serbia, has repeatedly pledged never to join Western sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. In a … “Serbia’s president says he won’t flee his country like Syria’s Assad did despite growing protests” →

LONDON — This year saw a battle for influence in eastern Europe between the West and Russia as elections were held in several states that were once under Soviet rule. Moscow is widely accused of meddling in European democracy amid tensions that have run high since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.  Georgia  In April, tens of thousands of Georgians staged demonstrations in Tbilisi against the government’s so-called “foreign agent” law, which requires all organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register and submit to detailed investigations.   The legislation was dubbed the “Russian law” by its opponents, after similar laws long used by President Vladimir Putin’s government to silence political opposition and free media.   The protests evolved into a battle for Georgia’s future: to be aligned with the West or with Russia. It is a fight that continues to this day on the streets of Tbilisi.  Georgia’s opposition parties pinned their hopes on ousting the government in the October general election; however, the ruling Georgian Dream party won with more than 53% of the vote.   Election monitors accused Georgian Dream of overseeing widespread vote rigging, including “ballot box stuffing, physical assault on observers attempting to report on violations, observer and media removal from polling stations, tearing up of observers’ complaints, intimidation of voters inside and outside polling stations,” according to the head of the European Parliament monitoring delegation, Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White.  Georgian Dream insisted it won a fair election. The government suspended accession talks with the European Union. The United States in turn suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia.   Many Georgians fear their hopes of a future tied to the West are being lost. Protesters returned to the streets in November, demanding another vote.  “I just want us to look towards Europe and not back to the hole where we just got out,” said student Salome Bakhtadze.  Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze was unrepentant. “We are absolutely committed to fully neutralizing the radical opposition,” he said at a press conference on December 6.  Moldova  Moldova, another former Soviet republic, held a bitterly fought presidential election in October.  Despite widespread evidence of meddling by Moscow, which it denied, pro-European incumbent Maia Sandu won the November second-round vote after Moldovans voted by a thin margin to embed the desire for EU membership in the nation’s constitution.   “Today, dear Moldovans, you have given a lesson in democracy,” she said after her … “Democracy tested in Eastern Europe amid accusations of Russian meddling” →

Western nations and Russia engaged in a battle for influence in Eastern Europe in 2024, as elections were held in several states that had once been under Soviet rule. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Moscow has been widely accused of meddling in European democracy following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. …

European Union ambassadors have agreed to a new raft of sanctions against Russia because of its war on Ukraine, mainly targeting Russia’s massive shadow fleet of ships, the EU’s Hungarian presidency said Wednesday. The Associated Press reports the new sanctions are directed at some 50 “routinely decrepit” ships that Russia uses to avoid restrictions on transporting oil and fuel. “I welcome the adoption of our 15th package of sanctions, targeting in particular Russia’s shadow fleet,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X. The sanctions, which are expected to be formally adopted by the EU on Monday, will add additional entities and individuals to the current list. Details about the new list of sanctions will be revealed when they are published in the EU’s legal journal. The current roster of sanctions imposed against Russia by the 27-member European bloc names more than 2,000 individuals and entities. The sanctions have included travel bans and the freezing of assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates, as well as several Russian lawmakers. The EU initiated the sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press. …

VOA Russian speaks with Ksenia Kirillova, an analyst with Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and The Jamestown Foundation, on how Syria is being portrayed by Russian propaganda. Russian pro-government botnets have already started pushing the narrative that “Syria is of no benefit for Russia” following the fall of Moscow’s ally Bashar al-Assad.  Click here for the full story in Russian.  …

Rufat Safarov, a prominent human rights defender from Azerbaijan, was one of the recipients of the U.S. secretary of state’s 2024 Human Rights Defender Award. He did not attend Tuesday’s ceremony in Washington, because he’d been arrested December 3, hours after visiting the U.S. Embassy in Baku to receive his visa to travel to the United States. During the ceremony, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, pointing to the empty chair reserved for Safarov, called for his immediate release. “Now, one chair, as you will have noted, is empty on this stage. … It belongs to Rufat Safarov, the Azerbaijani human rights defender that I spoke of just a few moments ago,” he said. “The government of Azerbaijan should release Rufat — and release him immediately — as well as all the other journalists, human rights defenders, political opponents and others that are unjustly detained.” At the end of the ceremony, Blinken presented awards to human rights defenders from Bolivia, Colombia, Eswatini, Ghana, Kuwait, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan, and he posed for a photo with them. Later, Blinken approached the empty seat reserved for Safarov and took a commemorative photo with his award. Blinken issued another statement Wednesday calling on the Azerbaijani government to release Safarov, as well as others unjustly detained for their work in the field of human rights. “The United States is deeply concerned not only by these detentions, but by the increasing crackdown on civil society and media in Azerbaijan,” the statement read. Safarov, a former prosecutor who heads the Defense Line human rights organization, issued a statement expressing his gratitude for the award. “Unfortunately, Baku arrested me in order to prevent me from personally receiving that award and to punish me for my human rights advocacy,” he said in the statement sent to VOA from prison. Safarov said he was proud of his work defending universal values as a human rights activist “despite all the slander and pressure” from the government. “In fact, I have accepted my arrest as a reward from the government for human rights advocacy. Human rights are not an internal affair of any country. İt is a universal concept. “Without human rights, not only the state, but even the society cannot exist. I call on everyone to stand in solidarity in the defense of human rights,” the statement read. Last week, Safarov was charged with fraud and hooliganism and put on four months … “Azerbaijani rights defender receives US human rights award in absentia” →

The fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad poses a threat to Russia’s ability to project power throughout the Middle East and beyond. Russia has long been a close ally of Syria and has leases on two military bases in the country, giving it a strategic foothold in the Middle East.   Click here for the full story in Russian. …