Українська місія в ОБСЄ і ООН у Відні очікує, що спостережна місія Бюро з демократичних інститутів і прав людини (БДІПЛ) ОБСЄ за виборами в Росії буде строго дотримуватися резолюції Генасамблеї ООН щодо невизнання анексії Москвою Криму. Про це йдеться в повідомленні дипломатичної місії у Twitter.
«Ми очікуємо, що поточна Спостережна місія БДІПЛ за виборами в Росії буде діяти в суворій відповідності з принципами і зобов’язаннями ОБСЄ та резолюції Генеральної асамблеї ООН 68/262 «Територіальна цілісність України» щодо невизнання будь-яких змін статусу АР Крим та Севастополя як невід’ємних частин України», – йдеться в повідомленні.
7 березня в Європейському парламенті заявили, що не будуть відправляти офіційних спостерігачів на заплановані вибори президента в Росії і Азербайджані.
Вибори президента Росії планують провести 18 березня 2018 року – в річницю анексії Криму.
Президент України Петро Порошенко закликав світову громадськість не визнавати результати майбутніх виборів президента Росії в анексованому Криму.
1 березня Верховна Рада закликала Раду безпеки і Генасамблею ООН, ОБСЄ, Європейський союз, НАТО, міжнародні організації, іноземні парламенти і уряди не визнавати легітимність російських виборів в анексованому Криму.
Міжнародні організації визнали окупацію і анексію Криму незаконними і засудили дії Росії. Країни Заходу запровадили низку економічних санкцій. Росія заперечує окупацію півострова і називає це «відновленням історичної справедливості». Верховна Рада України офіційно оголосила датою початку тимчасової окупації Криму і Севастополя Росією 20 лютого 2014 року.
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A court on Thursday convicted a musician-turned-newspaper columnist of “knowingly and willingly” aiding the network led by U.S.-based Mulim cleric Fethullah Gulen and sentenced him to three years and one month in prison, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported.
Singer Atilla Tas, who wrote a newspaper column and became a social media phenomenon for posting satirical tweets about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was on trial along with 28 other defendants – mostly journalists – accused of having links to Gulen, whom Turkey blames for a 2016 failed coup attempt. Gulen rejects the accusation.
The court in Istanbul also convicted journalist Murat Aksoy of aiding Gulen’s group and sentenced him to two years and one month in prison. Other defendants were convicted of membership in a “terror organization” and were given prison sentences ranging between six and seven-and-a-half years, Anadolu Agency reported.
One defendant was acquitted while no verdict was issued against three defendants who are on the run and were on trial in absentia. They include Said Sefa who allegedly used the pseudonym Fuat Avni on Twitter to post taunting anti-Erdogan tweets and provided alleged insider information on the government.
The defendants, many of whom worked for media companies associated with Gulen, were expected to appeal the court’s ruling.
Tas, who has already served jail time, was not expected to return to prison.
The singer said on Twitter: “The judicial process has not ended. I believe that I will be acquitted in the end, you should believe it too. I did nothing other than oppose [the government].”
Turkey declared a state of emergency following the July 15, 2016, attempted coup and proceeded to crack down on Gulen’s movements and other government critics.
More than 100 journalists were imprisoned and some 150 media outlets closed down. Tens of thousands of people are in jail and mass trials are being held. More than 110,000 others have been sacked from government jobs.
Erdogan’s government says the crackdown is necessary to restore stability in Turkey.
Last month, prominent journalists Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak were sentenced to life in prison without parole, accused of involvement in the coup attempt.
The Reporters Without Borders group has ranked Turkey 151st out of 180 countries on its press freedom index.
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Кількох жінок, які в Тегерані намагалися провести акцію з нагоди Міжнародного жіночого дня, затримали, повідомляють місцеві ЗМІ.
Правозахисниці раніше оголосили, що проведуть мирний протест біля Міністерства праці в столиці Ірану 8 березня, щоб вимагати більших прав.
«У цей єдиний у цілому році день ми, жінки цієї країни, повинні мати змогу зробити ці міста власними, залишатися на вулицях і повернутися додому в кінці дня, і щоб при цьому наші кістки не ламали», – заявили активістки у зверненні, оприлюдненому раніше цього тижня.
За даними соцмереж, жінкам і чоловікам, які намагалися зібратись на демонстрацію, чинили опір сили безпеки, які зрештою їх розігнали.
Повідомляють про затримання понад десяти людей.
У нещодавно підготовленому звіті ООН розкритикувала уряд Ірану за продовження наступу на свободу слова, зібрань і обмеження доступу до інформації, порушення прав затриманих, зокрема катування і зґвалтування.
Напередодні стало відомо, що іранську жінку, яка на вулиці в Тегерані на знак протесту зняла свій хіджаб, засудили до двох років ув’язнення.
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President Donald Trump is joking about Gary Cohn as he bids farewell to his departing economic adviser.
Trump says at a Cabinet meeting that will be Cohn’s last that the former Goldman Sachs executive “may be a globalist but I still like him.”
The president says Cohn may one day return to the White House after leaving to make what Trump’s calling another couple hundred million dollars.
Cohn announced this week that he’d be leaving the administration in the coming weeks. That announcement came amid a wave of staff departures and after Cohn failed to convince Trump that he should reconsider imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump told Cohn: “I have a feeling you’ll be back.”
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Trade ministers from 11 Pacific Rim countries are set to sign a sweeping agreement to streamline trade and slash tariffs just as U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to formalize new tariffs on aluminum and steel to protect U.S. producers.
The deal to be signed Thursday in the Chilean capital is an outgrowth of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump pulled the U.S. out of last year.
Many feared the agreement would not prosper without its most influential country. But the remaining 11 members pressed ahead, saying it shows resolve against protectionism.
The pact includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
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У Росії засновник Фонду боротьби з корупцією Олексій Навальний підтримав вимогу відставки депутата від ЛДПР Леоніда Слуцького, якого відразу кілька журналісток звинуватили в домаганнях. Опозиціонер 8 березня опублікував антикорупційне розслідування, в якому стверджується, що Слуцький, будучи депутатом, орендував велику ділянку землі на Рубльовці під Москвою, але не вказав цього в своїй декларації.
За даними ФБК, депутат ЛДПР також володіє трьома елітними автомобілями марок Bentley й Mercedes, які не можна купити на його зарплату. При цьому за одним із цих автомобілів значиться понад 800 порушень правил дорожнього руху, зафіксованих з літа 2017 року.
Акції за відставку Слуцького 8 березня відбулися в центрі Москви. Журналісти й представники правозахисної організації Amnesty International вийшли до будівлі Держдуми Росії з вимогою розслідувати домагання і притягнути депутата до відповідальності. До місця проведення пікетів прийшли активісти прокремлівського руху SERB, які вигукували образи на адресу учасників акції. Поліція нікого не затримувала, повідомляє кореспондент Радіо Свобода.
8 березня одиночний пікет проти Леоніда Слуцького провела кандидат у президенти Росії Ксенія Собчак. Телеведуча вимагає вилучення Слуцького з ЛДПР. Вона прийшла до Держдуми з плакатом «Депутати, ми вас не хочемо».
Собчак також виступила з критикою лідера ЛДПР Володимира Жириновського, який, на її думку, «покриває» депутата і заперечує факти домагань.
Сам Леонід Слуцький відкидає всі звинувачення і називає їх «маячнею». 8 березня депутат попросив вибачення у жінок, «кому коли-небудь заподіяв будь-які переживання». «Повірте, не зі злого наміру», – написав Слуцький у Facebook. При цьому депутат не уточнив, про які «переживання» йдеться.
Про домагання з його боку заявили продюсер телеканалу «Дождь» Дарія Жук та заступник головного редактора телеканалу RTVI Катерина Котрікадзе. Журналістка російської служби «Бі-Бі-Сі» Фаріда Рустамова також заявила про домагання з боку Слуцького. «Бі-Бі-Сі» опублікувала розшифровку їхнього діалогу.
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President Donald Trump and his appointees have stocked federal agencies with ex-lobbyists and corporate lawyers who now help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks, despite promising as a candidate to drain the swamp in Washington.
A week after his January 2017 inauguration, Trump signed an executive order that bars former lobbyists, lawyers and others from participating in any matter they lobbied or otherwise worked on for private clients within two years before going to work for the government.
But records reviewed by The Associated Press show Trump’s top lawyer, White House counsel Don McGahn, has issued at least 24 ethics waivers to key administration officials at the White House and executive branch agencies.
Though the waivers were typically signed by McGahn months ago, the Office of Government Ethics disclosed several more on Wednesday.
One allows FBI Director Chris Wray “to participate in matters involving a confidential former client.” The three-sentence waiver gives no indication about what Wray’s conflict of interest might be or how it may violate Trump’s ethics order.
Before returning to the Justice Department last year, Wray represented clients that included big banks and other corporations as a partner at a white-glove law firm that paid him $9.2 million a year, according to his financial disclosure statement.
Asked about the waivers, Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, said, “In the interests of full transparency and good governance, the posted waivers set forth the policy reasons for granting an exception to the pledge.”
Trump’s executive order on ethics supplanted a more stringent set of rules put in place by president Barack Obama in 2009 to avoid conflicts of interests. Nearly 70 waivers were issued to executive branch officials during Obama’s eight years, though those were generally more narrowly focused and offered a fuller legal explanation for why the waiver was granted.
Craig Holman, who lobbies in Washington for stricter government ethics and lobbying rules on behalf of the advocacy group Public Citizen, said just five of the waivers under Obama went to former lobbyists, most whom had worked for nonprofit groups.
He was initially optimistic when Trump issued his executive order.
“I was very surprised and at the same time very hopeful that he was going to take his pledge to ‘drain the swamp’ seriously,” Holman said Wednesday. “It is now quite evident that the pledge was little more than campaign rhetoric. Not only are key provisions simply ignored and not enforced, when in cases where obvious conflicts of interest are brought into the limelight, the administration readily issues waivers from the ethics rules.”
Conflicts of interests
An analysis by the AP shows that nearly half of the political appointees hired at the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump have strong industry ties. Of 59 EPA hires tracked by the AP over the last year, about a third worked as registered lobbyists or lawyers for chemical manufacturers, fossil fuel producers and other corporate clients that raise the very type of revolving-door conflicts of interests that Trump promised voters he would eliminate.
Most of those officials have signed ethics agreements saying they would not participate in actions involving their former clients while working at the EPA. At least three have gotten waivers allowing them to do just that.
Erik Baptist, a top EPA lawyer, worked until 2016, as senior lawyer and registered federal lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, the national trade group for the oil and gas industry. According to disclosure reports, he lobbied Congress to pass legislation repealing the Renewable Fuel Standard, a program created more than a decade ago to set minimum production quotas for biofuels to be blended into gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel.
Baptist signed an ethics agreement pledging to recuse himself from any issues involving his former employer, including several lawsuits filed against the agency where he now works. But in August, McGahn granted him approval to advise EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on issues surrounding the renewable fuel law.
McGahn wrote that he was exempting Baptist from the ethics pledge because “his deep understanding of the RFS program and the regulated industry, make him the ideal person to assist the administrator and his senior leadership team to make EPA and its renewable fuel programs more efficient and effective.”
Pruitt, a Republican who was closely aligned with the oil and gas industry as an elected official in his home state of Oklahoma, proposed modest cuts last summer to production quotas for biofuels that include ethanol, despite promises from Trump to leave the Renewable Fuel Standard alone.
That triggered bipartisan outrage among members of Congress from major corn-growing states, who threatened last fall to block Senate votes on the administration’s environmental nominees unless Pruitt backed down.
“Scott Pruitt has called on yet another fossil-fuel industry lobbyist … to help him tear down important protections for the American people,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee. “And the White House plays along, granting the lobbyist an ethics waiver.”
Jeffrey M. Sands previously worked as a top lobbyist for Syngenta, a major pesticide manufacturer. Following a request from the EPA, McGahn determined it was “in the public interest” to allow Sands to work as Pruitt’s senior adviser for agriculture.
Dennis “Lee” Forsgren, the deputy assistant administrator helping oversee the EPA’s enforcement of clean water regulations, was allowed to work on the EPA’s hurricane response efforts involving the Miccosukee, a Native American tribe in Florida for whom he was a registered lobbyist up until 2016.
“All EPA employees get ethics briefings when they start and continually work with our ethics office regarding any potential conflicts they may encounter while employed here,” EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said when asked whether the ethics waivers violate the spirt of Trump’s executive order.
The Treasury Department asked McGahn for three waivers. Anthony Sayegh, appointed as the assistant secretary for public affairs, previously worked as a Fox News contributor. His waiver allows him to “participate in matters involving his former client.”
Brian Callahan, the department’s top lawyer at Treasury, was granted a waiver concerning issues involving his former position as general counsel at Cooper and Kirk PLLC. The law firm represents Fairholme Funds, which recently filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and the Fair Housing Finance Agency.
McGahn’s waiver allows Callahan to participate in discussions about policy decisions pertaining to housing finance reform, even though “some of these discussions could at some point touch upon issues that might impact the litigation.”
The State Department got five waivers. The former law firm of Edward T. McMullen, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, represented Boeing. The Swiss government recently announced its intent to purchase military equipment and accept bids from American companies.
Another waiver allows communications director Heather Nauert to work with employees of Fox News even though she used to work as a broadcast journalist for the network. Nauert is identified in the waiver, which was heavily redacted before release, by her legal name, Heather Norby.
At the Pentagon, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall G. Schriver got a waiver allowing him to “participate in any particular matter involving specific parties,” including his former client: the Japanese government.
Health and Human Services asked for waivers for senior counselor to the secretary Keagan Lenihan, a registered lobbyist who recently worked for a pharmaceutical and health services company and for chief of staff Lance Leggitt, who recently lobbied on behalf of his law firm’s health law practice group.
Agriculture Department policy adviser Kailee Tkacz is allowed to “participate personally and substantially in matters regarding the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” a guide that offers nutritional information and recommendations.
McGahn’s waiver didn’t offer much detail into the potential conflict Tkacz’s appointment would pose. But other records show she most recently served as food policy director for the Corn Refiners Association, a trade organization representing producers of corn starch, corn oil and high fructose corn syrup.
Before that, she lobbied on behalf of SNAC International, a trade association for snack food manufacturers.
your ad hereГоловне управління Національної поліції в Києві на вимогу столичного Печерського райсуду розпочало кримінальне провадження за статтею «порушення недоторканості приватного життя» лідера проросійської організації «Український вибір» Віктора Медведчука з боку журналістів програми «Схеми» (спільний проект Радіо Свобода та каналу «UA:Перший»). Про це повідомили у прес-службі поліції Києва.
«Копія ухвали Печерського суду Києва за скаргою Медведчука В.В., в інтересах якого діє адвокат Кириленко І.І., надійшла до Солом’янського УП для внесення до Єдиного реєстру досудових розслідувань відомостей про вчинення кримінального правопорушення, передбаченого ч. 2 ст. 182 Кримінального кодексу України (Стаття 182 «Порушення недоторканності приватного життя», 2 частина: «ті самі дії, вчинені повторно, або якщо вони заподіяли істотну шкоду охоронюваним законом правам, свободам та інтересам особи, – караються арештом на строк від трьох до шести місяців або обмеженням волі на строк від трьох до п’яти років, або позбавленням волі на той самий строк», – ред.) Дані матеріали були зареєстровані в журналі єдиного обліку заяв та повідомлень про вчинені кримінальні правопорушення та інші події, та в подальшому розпочате кримінальне провадження», – йдеться у відповіді редакції від прес-служби поліції Києва.
«Це ніщо інше, як невдала спроба банального тиску на редакцію. Зараз ми у правовий спосіб домагаємось кримінальної відповідальності для охоронців самого Медведчука, які здійснили фізичний напад на нашу знімальну групу поблизу аеропорту Київ, перешкодивши їхній законній журналістській діяльності. Одному з них Нацполіція Києва вже вручила підозру. Очевидно, будь-що «завести справу» на наших журналістів – це такий крок Медведчука у відповідь», – зазначає автор і ведуча програми «Схеми» Наталка Седлецька, наголошуючи, що лідер проросійської організації «Український вибір» Віктор Медведчук – особа публічна, і навіть офіційно уповноважена державою брати участь у переговорному процесі щодо звільнення заручників.
«Наші журналісти не просто мали повне право проводити зйомку. Вони виконували свій прямий журналістський обов’язок – фіксувати факти, що можуть свідчити про зловживання Медведчука своїм становищем у власних цілях. Жодними кримінальними провадженнями за недолугими звинуваченнями нас залякати не вдасться. Ми та наші юристи впевнені у законності наших дій – і, якщо знадобиться, будемо готові довести це в рамках офіційного розслідування», – зазначила Наталка Седлецька.
Раніше стало відомо, що юристи Віктора Медведчука звернулися до Печерського суду Києва з вимогою зобов’язати правоохоронців відкрити провадження щодо начебто втручання журналістів програми у приватне життя бізнесмена.
Увечері 7 листопада 2017 року біля VIP-терміналу аеропорту «Київ», коли туди прилетів приватний борт Віктора Медведчука, там перебувала знімальна група «Схем» у складі Михайла Ткача, Кирила Лазаревича та Ярослава Бондаренка з метою зафіксувати його прямі перельоти до Росії. Віктор Медведчук, як уповноважений державою на ведення переговорів щодо звільнення заручників, має на це виняткове право.
Однак, як виявили журналісти в попередньому розслідуванні, він користується цим правом також і з приватних питань. Так, у листопаді минулого року він прилетів із Москви в компанії народного депутата від «Опозиційного блоку» Тараса Козака і бізнесмена Нісана Моісеєва.
Із відео, опублікованого журналістами, видно, як охоронці підприємця в масках і балаклавах застосовувати силу проти знімальної групи – штовхали, били ліктями, ставили підніжки і кілька разів вибили камеру з рук оператора. Також охоронці засліплювали камеру спеціальним ліхтарем. Усе це відбувалося в публічному місці по вулиці Медова, біля VIP-терміналу.
Віктор Медведчук, підприємець, лідер проросійської організації «Український вибір» і кум президента Росії Володимира Путіна, є також представником України в гуманітарній робочій підгрупі Тристоронньої контактної групи в Мінську, яка займається, зокрема, визволенням заручників.
Ще 2016 року голова Служби безпеки України Василь Грицак підтвердив, що Віктор Медведчук у зв’язку з цим періодично літає власним літаком безпосередньо з України до Москви, хоча загалом через агресію Росії проти України діє заборона на пряме авіаційне сполучення між двома країнами, яку наклав Київ, а у відповідь і Москва.
Пізніше, 28 лютого 2018 року на прес-конференції Петро Порошенко у відповідь на запитання журналістів підтвердив офіційний статус Віктора Медведчука у процесі звільнення українських заручників.
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Questions about the fate of Syrian refugees in Turkey are emerging as its forces in Syria’s Afrin province fight a Kurdish militia linked to a long-running insurgency within Turkish borders.
Ankara has said the goal of its military offensive is to secure the Turkish border against terrorist threats posed by the Syrian Kurdish militia the YPG, which the United States supports in the fight against Islamic State militants.
But a second goal is emerging: the return of Syrian refugees.
In recent weeks, Turkey’s political leadership has been saying that with victory in the operation, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees could be sent to Afrin.
“We are not in a position to continue hosting 3.5 million refugees forever,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech to village and provincial leaders. “We’ll solve the Afrin incident, we’ll solve Idlib, and we would like our refugee brothers and sisters to return to their own country,” added Erdogan. Idlib borders Afrin and is one of the last remaining enclaves where Syrian rebel forces backed by Turkey are based.
Ankara has suggested between 350,000 to 500,000 refugees could be sent to Afrin.
Until recently, political leaders made few references to returning refugees. Instead, the government chose to use its refugee policy to enhance its humanitarian credentials, while at the same time castigating European countries for failing to match the country’s humanitarian commitments.
The prospect of even citizenship to millions of Syrians was once touted. “Turkey is also your homeland…We are going to help our Syrian friends in offering them the chance, if they want it, to acquire Turkish nationality,” Erdogan said in July 2016. But in a rare case of Erdogan misreading public sentiment, studies and opinion polls indicate strong opposition to his Syrian refugee policy.
“You look at survey upon survey…Turks resent Syrians. Up to 80 percent of survey participants express a negative opinion against Syrians,” points out analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. Yesilada said that sentiment “is understandable, for the same reason Germans don’t like Muslim refugees, Turks don’t like Arab refugees. There is a mistaken impression they take jobs, they undermine social order.”
Refugee policy
In a politically polarized country, a rare consensus is found over opposition to refugees. A recent comprehensive study by Istanbul’s Bilgi University recorded two-thirds of respondents, including 45 percent of Erdogan voters, said the government’s policies toward Syrians are wrong.
The government has spent more than $30 billion in hosting refugees, including providing health and education, such as at the university level, something not available for Turks. Additionally, 75 percent of respondents said Turkish and Syrian communities could not live in peace.
In the past year, numerous clashes between Turks and Syrians have been reported across Turkey. Last July, more than 100 Syrian and Afghan families were evacuated from an Istanbul suburb, following two days of violence after Syrian youths allegedly killed a Turkish teenager.
With general and presidential elections due within 18 months, and surveys revealing the presence of Syrian refugees and terrorism as key issues of voter concern, analysts suggest the ongoing military offensive against the Kurdish militia in Afrin offers Erdogan an opportunity.
“So whatever territory Turkey occupies, it is going to be used to send back the Syrian refugees, largely Sunni Arabs. There is going to be ethnic dilution; it’s a lose, lose for Kurds,” said analyst Yesilada. “It’s a very neat solution; as with all neat solutions, it’s clever, but not ethical or moral.”
Relocation
Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party has accused the government of seeking to change the demographic makeup ofthe predominantly Kurdish Syrian Afrin enclave. It is a policy the HDP says has been used in the past against Kurds living in the region.
Erdogan has dismissed such accusations, maintaining that he merely wants to right an injustice. “The whole issue is this: 55 percent of Afrin is Arab, 35 percent are the Kurds who were later relocated, and about 7 percent are Turkmen. [We aim] to give Afrin back to its rightful owners,” the Turkish president said at a rally in the Bursa province.
With the majority of Syrian refugees dispersed across Turkey and many already carving out a life for themselves, questions are being raised as to whether talk of the mass return of Syrians is just electioneering by Erdogan.
“It’s clear this kind of talk, is rhetoric, is intended for internal consumption for elections. It’s a pipe dream; nothing of this kind [will] happen, for a number of reasons. Will these [Syrian] people – would they like to go and live there? [Afrin]. The Kurds will object to it, the Syrians will object to it, Russians will object it, the Iranians will object to it, the Arabs will object it, the entire world will object to it,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar. “What Erdogan may do, he may relocate [pro-Turkish] Arab [militia] proxies, a kind of border force inside Syria; this is a very old tactic.”
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Several Eastern European states have ramped up their opposition to a new gas pipeline linking Russia with Germany. The Nord Stream 2 project will bring Russian gas directly to Western Europe, but critics say it will increase dependence on Russia and enrich its state-owned energy firms at a time when Moscow stands accused of endangering European security. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, interviewed by Russian state television, lavished praise on President Donald Trump but added that he was sorely disappointed with the U.S. political system, saying that it has been “eating itself up.”
Speaking in a series of interviews that were included in a documentary released Wednesday, Putin described Trump as a great communicator.
“I have no disappointment at all,” Putin said when asked about the U.S. president. “Moreover, on a personal level he made a very good impression on me.”
The two leaders met on the sidelines of international summits last year. Putin praised Trump as a “balanced” man, who easily gets into the gist of various issues and listens to his interlocutor.
“It’s possible to negotiate with him, to search for compromises,” Putin added.
He also noted that he spent some time talking to Melania Trump when he sat next to her during an official dinner at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, in July. The Russian leader said he told her and the wife of the Italian premier “about Siberia and Kamchatka, about fishing … about bears on Kamchatka and tigers in the Far East.”
‘You can’t help exaggerating’
“I made some exaggerations,” the action-loving Russian leader said with a grin. “When you talk about fishing, you can’t help exaggerating.”
Asked jokingly by the interviewer if he was trying to recruit the women, the KGB veteran responded by saying: “No, I stopped dealing with that a long time ago.”
He added with a smile: “But I liked doing that. It was my job for many years.”
Venting his frustration with the U.S. political system, Putin said “it has demonstrated its inefficiency and has been eating itself up.”
“It’s quite difficult to interact with such a system, because it’s unpredictable,” Putin said.
Russia-U.S. ties long have been strained by the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and other issues, and Moscow’s hopes for better ties with the U.S. under Trump haven’t materialized. Tensions have escalated further amid the ongoing congressional and FBI investigations into allegations of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Speaking about the Russia-West rift, Putin said it has been rooted in Western efforts to contain and weaken Russia.
“We are a great power, and no one likes competition,” he said.
He said he was particularly dismayed by what he described as the U.S. role in the ouster of Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president in February 2014 amid massive protests.
US ‘cheated’ Russia, he says
Putin charged that the U.S. had asked Russia to help persuade then-president Viktor Yanukovych not to use force against protesters and then “rudely and blatantly” cheated Russia, sponsoring what he called a “coup.”
Russia responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
“Few expected us to act so quickly and so resolutely, not to say daringly,” Putin said.
He described the Western sanctions over Crimea and the insurgency in eastern Ukraine as part of “illegitimate and unfair” efforts to contain Russia, adding that “we will win in the long run.”
“Those who serve us with poison will eventually swallow it and poison themselves,” he said.
Putin wasn’t speaking in the context of a former Russian spy who was left in critical condition, along with his daughter, after coming into contact with a mysterious substance in Britain. Some have suggested it was a poisoning in which Russia may have had a hand, even though British authorities haven’t revealed what the substance was and are still investigating. Moscow has denied any involvement.
Responding to a question about Russia’s growing global leverage, Putin responded: “If we play strongly with weak cards, it means the others are just poor players, they aren’t as strong as it seemed, they must be lacking something.”
Ready to retaliate
Putin, who presented a sweeping array of new Russian nuclear weapons last week, voiced hope that nuclear weapons will never be used — but warned that Russia will retaliate in kind if it comes under a nuclear attack.
“The decision to use nuclear weapons can only be made if our early-warning system not only detects a missile launch but clearly forecasts its flight path and the time when warheads reach the Russian territory,” he said. “If someone makes a decision to destroy Russia, then we have a legitimate right to respond.”
He added starkly: “Yes, it will mean a global catastrophe for mankind, for the entire world. But as a citizen of Russia and the head of Russian state I would ask: What is such a world for, if there were no Russia?”
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Four people were seriously injured Wednesday in two knife attacks in Vienna, Austrian police said.
The stabbings occurred in the Leopoldstadt district near Vienna’s famous Prater Park. The attacker fled the scene, and a manhunt was underway.
In the first attack, a man with a knife stabbed a couple and their daughter outside a restaurant, police said. “The three persons suffered heavy to life-threatening injuries and are currently in a hospital,” police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer said.
A few minutes later, a fourth person was attacked nearby. Police said they were trying to determine whether the two incidents were linked. That victim also had life-threatening injuries.
Police said they knew “absolutely nothing” about the suspect, except that they were searching for a male.
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Четверо людей були поранені у Відні внаслідок двох нападів із ножем, повідомили в поліції. Раніше інформували про щонайменше трьох постраждалих.
За даними правоохоронців, перший напад стався 7 березня близько дев’ятої вечора за Києвом у Другому районі Відня, до якого входить парк Пратер, а також залізнична станція Пратерштерн.
Як повідомляють західні агенції з посиланням на поліцію, невідомий атакував із ножем сім’ю: чоловіка, жінку і їхню 17-річну дочку. Вони у критичному стані в лікарні.
За повідомленнями, нападник втік, його шукає поліція.
Другий напад стався через півгодини на Пратерштерні. Тут, за даними поліції, була поранена одна людина, вона також у тяжкому стані. Чи були напади пов’язані – наразі невідомо.
Мотиви нападу також наразі невідомі.
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Some countries are now likely to be spared from planned tariffs on metals advocated by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We expect that the president will sign something by the end of the week, and there are potential carve-outs for Mexico and Canada, based on national security, and possibly other countries as well, based on that process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday.
The comment resulted in key stock indexes and the U.S. dollar paring losses in afternoon trading.
The Dow Jones industrial average, after falling more than 300 points during the session, closed off 83 points, a drop of one-third of a percent.
Market players said the sell-off was sparked by the previous day’s announcement that the president’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, was resigning. The former Goldman Sachs investment bank president had opposed the sweeping tariffs for foreign steel and aluminum.
Trump could sign the tariffs as soon as Thursday afternoon, but it could also occur on Friday, according to White House officials.
‘Easy to win’
Trump boasted last week that trade wars “are good and easy to win” after his surprise announcement he planned to impose a 25 percent U.S. tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent levy on aluminum imports. That prompted widespread criticism from his normal Republican colleagues in Congress and America’s allies.
The president, according to staffers, acted on recommendations made by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, formerly a billionaire investor, and Peter Navarro, an economist who is director of the White House National Trade Council.
Ross said the planned steel and aluminum tariffs were “thought through. We’re not looking for a trade war.”
The tariffs proposal also won support from economic nationalists in the United States and some Democratic lawmakers in manufacturing states whose fortunes could be boosted by the tariffs protecting their metal industries.
The chief of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, on Wednesday in a European radio interview, warned of a global trade war, predicting the U.S. tariffs could lead to “a drop in growth, a drop in trade, and it will be fearsome.”
Warning that there would be no victors in such a trade war, Lagarde urged “the sides to reach agreements, hold negotiations, consultations.”
‘Easy to lose’
European Council President Donald Tusk echoed Lagarde’s stance, saying, “The truth is quite the opposite: Trade wars are bad and easy to lose. For this reason, I strongly believe that now is the time for politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to act responsibly.”
The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union, detailed retaliatory tariffs it plans to impose on prominent U.S. products if Trump carries out his plan to impose the metal tariffs, taxing Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon, blue jeans, cranberries, orange juice and peanut butter.
Moody’s Investors Service said the planned tariffs “raise the risk of a deterioration in global trade relations.”
Trump said on Twitter that since former President George H.W. Bush was in the White House 30 years ago, “our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars.”
“Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again!” Trump also said on Twitter.
Trump claimed the United States last year had a trade deficit of “almost 800 Billion Dollars,” significantly overstating the actual figure of $566 billion, which still was the biggest U.S. trade deficit in nine years.
A new report Wednesday said the U.S. trade deficit in January — the amount its imports exceeded its exports — reached $56.6 billion, the highest monthly total since October 2008.
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Зима 2017-2018 років була найтеплішою для Арктики, заявляють в окремих дослідженнях американські і російські вчені.
Американський Національний центр даних щодо снігу і льоду 6 березня повідомив, що температура в Арктиці у грудні, січні і лютому в середньому була на 4,9 градуса за Цельсієм вищою, ніж зазвичай.
У результаті незвично теплої погоди рекордно зменшилася площа арктичного морського льоду для цього сезону, заявляють американські вчені.
У лютому арктичний морський лід вкривав площу 13,9 мільйона квадратних кілометрів, що приблизно на 160 тисяч квадратних кілометрів менше, ніж минулого року.
За даними американських вчених, наземна метеостанція, розташована найближче до Північного полюса, на вершині Гренландії, зафіксувала, що в лютому температура вище нуля зберігалася понад 60 годин. До цього року вчені спостерігали таке підвищення температури там лише двічі і нетривалий період.
Російська Федеральна служба гідрометеорології також заявила, що температури в Арктиці були на 4-8 градусів вищими, ніж звичайно.
Російські метеорологи заявляють, що через це нинішня зима в Росії була однією з найтепліших.
your ad hereOne day after hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants formally lost temporary protection from deportation, Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona attempted to revive U.S. Senate debate on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which had provided temporary work and study permits to beneficiaries.
“There are teachers, students and members of the military who are DACA recipients. They are friends and colleagues who represent the very best ideas of America,” Flake said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “That’s why I’ve introduced legislation to extend DACA protections for three years and provide for three years of increased border funding.”
Another Republican, James Lankford of Oklahoma, objected to Flake’s motion, shelving the issue once again.
“If Congress does a temporary patch once, it’ll do it 20 times again,” Lankford said.
Last year, President Donald Trump set a March 5 expiration date for DACA, an Obama administration program protecting immigrants brought illegally into the country as children. Trump challenged Congress to enact a permanent fix granting the immigrants legal status. Lawmakers of both political parties back the goal, but Congress has yet to act.
In the meantime, federal court battles over Trump’s DACA order have prevented deportations from going forward — a reprieve for so-called “Dreamers” that could end at any time.
“It’s a politically tricky issue for Republicans,” said political analyst Molly Reynolds of the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan “are really hesitant to expose those divides within the party. I also think they are hesitant to be seen as giving a win to Democrats,” she added.
On Twitter and in recent public speeches, Trump has blamed Democrats for Washington’s inaction.
“We’re trying to have a DACA victory for everybody, by the way, and the Democrats are nowhere to be found,” the president said Wednesday in an address to Hispanic business leaders.
Democrats insist they remain ready to make a deal with Republicans on immigration and border security, noting it was Trump who, in January, appeared to endorse a bipartisan proposal with a DACA fix, then rejected it days later.
“This humanitarian crisis in this country, and I call it that, was created by President Trump on September 5,” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois said. “He has failed to agree to six different bipartisan proposals to solve the problem he created. And now these lives hang in the balance.”
Observers note that, while Democrats are in the minority in Congress, they are not without clout, especially in the Senate, where a three-fifths majority is required for most legislation to advance.
“It’s a matter of, do Democrats want to keep pushing the issue?” Reynolds said.
Democrats could apply pressure for action on immigration by withholding votes later this month on a yearlong government funding bill. They already used that tactic earlier this year, causing a brief federal shutdown, and Democratic leaders have shown little appetite for a repeat.
“We’re going to keep fighting hard for DACA, but we need to hear something from Republicans, because they’re the ones who have thwarted it time and time again,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Court challenges to Trump’s DACA decision have, in effect, extended the deadline for Congress to act. Political analysts believe that makes it more likely that Dreamers will remain in legal limbo through the November midterm elections.
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Намір російського «Газпрому» виставити Україну і «Нафтогаз» як ненадійних партнерів провалився, заявляють у Державному департаменті США.
«Українські громадяни надихнули світ, об’єднавшись для зменшення споживання газу на 14% минулого тижня, щоб забезпечити надійне постачання газу європейським споживачам. «Газпрому» не вдалося виставити Україну і «Нафтогах» як ненадійних транзитних партнерів», – написала у Twitter речниця Держдепартаменту Гедер Науерт.
У компанії «Укртрансгаз» 1 березня заявили про низький тиск у магістральних газопроводах на вході в українську ГТС і додали, що падіння тиску на вході системи ускладнює його транзит і споживання. Заступник голови правління «Газпрому» Олександр Медведєв заявив, що російська сторона отримала гроші за березневі поставки газу компанії «Нафтогаз України», але потім повністю повернула ці кошти. За його словами, додаткова угода на поставку газу, необхідна для початку поставок, не була погоджена.
Це сталося після того, як 28 лютого компанія НАК «Нафтогаз України» повідомила про перемогу в Стокгольмському арбітражі над російським газовим монополістом, компанією «Газпромом» у суперечці щодо компенсації за недопоставлені «Газпромом» обсяги газу для транзиту. «Газпром» заявив про незгоду з рішенням Стокгольмського арбітражу.
Вранці 2 березня польська компанія PGNiG почала постачати газ «Нафтогазу України». Контракт з PGNiG діятиме до кінця березня 2018 року, загальний обсяг поставок – 60 мільйонів кубометрів.
3 березня президент України Петро Порошенко заявив, що ситуація з газопостачанням в Україні стабілізувалася. Він додав, що жителі України на 14% скоротили споживання газу у відповідь на заклик влади.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum has met criticism from his Republican allies in Congress, many of whom worry the measures could trigger a trade war that damages U.S. businesses. But the president does have supporters among some Senate Democrats from states where voters are concerned about the long-term loss of American manufacturing jobs.
“This welcome action is long overdue for shuttered steel plants across Ohio and steelworkers who live in fear that their jobs will be the next victims of Chinese cheating,” Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, said in a statement released after the plan was announced. “If we fail to stand up for steel jobs today, China will come after other jobs up and down the supply chain tomorrow.”
American labor unions have also broadly favored Trump’s proposed tariffs, saying they have been complaining for years that foreign countries frequently subsidize their own steel industries, putting American competitors at a disadvantage.
Economists have been mostly critical of the plan, saying that overall it will hurt American manufacturers, some of whom may be targeted by trading partners for retaliatory sanction. They argue that the benefits to steel and aluminum workers are outweighed by job losses among Americans in other industries.
Tariffs in focus in special election
A test of how much the issue is resonating with American voters comes next week, when voters in Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district, vote in a special election to fill a vacated seat.
Many voters are looking to the president to fulfill his campaign promise of protecting manufacturing jobs in America’s heartland.
The race for the seat left vacant by Rep. Tim Murphy’s sex scandal is coming down to the wire between Republican candidate Rick Saccone and Democrat Conor Lamb.
Saccone’s campaign endorsed Trump’s tariff plan in a statement, saying “If other countries aren’t playing by the rules and tariffs are needed to protect steel and aluminum jobs in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Rick would support those measures.”Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senator Bob Casey also voiced his support for the president’s plan in a Facebook statement Thursday.
“I commend the President for announcing his intent to take action to protect our steelworkers from countries, like China, that cheat on trade. I have repeatedly called on this and previous Administrations to aggressively enforce our trade laws. For years, foreign countries have been dumping steel into our markets and costing our workers their jobs and suppressing their wages,” he wrote.
But Trump’s plan to impose the new tariffs prompted White House Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn to resign Tuesday.
McConnell, Ryan concerned
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan also expressed their concerns to the president, urging him to target the tariffs against specific countries to avoid a potential trade war.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told cable news network CNBC Wednesday the administration is not seeking a trade war.
“We’re going to have very sensible relations with our allies,” said Ross. “We hope and we believe that at the end of the day, there will be a process of working with the other countries that are our friends.”
Trump dismissed concerns about a trade war during a joint press conference with the Swedish prime minister Tuesday.
“When we’re behind on every single country, trade wars aren’t so bad,” he told reporters. “In some cases we lose on trade plus we give them military where we’re subsidizing them tremendously. So, not only do we lose on trade, we lose on military.”
The administration is considering the new tariffs under a so-called “232 report.” It allows the president to impose trade quotes or tariffs if a probe finds imports threaten national security.
‘National security’
“It’s about our economy,” Vice President Mike Pence said of the need to enact tariffs, during a February meeting with lawmakers. “It’s about our national security.”
A March 7 Politico/Morning Consult poll of 2,000 registered voters, found that 65 percent of Republicans support the president’s plan.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday the administration was still on pace to fully roll-out the tariffs at the end of this week.
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