A Russian court on Monday set October 25 as the date for American basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession.
Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted August 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
The Moscow region court said it will hear her appeal.
Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage but testified that she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
Her February arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At the time, Griner, recognized as one of the greatest players in WNBA history, was returning to Russia, where she played during the U.S. league’s offseason.
The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years, and Griner’s lawyers argued after the conviction that the punishment was excessive. They said in similar cases defendants have received an average sentence of about five years, with about a third of them granted parole.
Before her conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained” — a charge that Russia has sharply rejected.
Reflecting the growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a “substantial proposal” to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.
Blinken didn’t elaborate, but The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Washington has offered to exchange Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. and once earned the nickname the “merchant of death.”
The White House said it has not yet received a productive response from Russia to the offer.
Russian diplomats have refused to comment on the U.S. proposal and urged Washington to discuss the matter in confidential talks, avoiding public statements.
U.S. President Joe Biden met last month with Cherelle Griner, the wife of Brittney Griner, as well as the player’s agent, Lindsay Colas. Biden also sat down separately with Elizabeth Whelan, Paul Whelan’s sister.
The White House said after the meetings that the president stressed to the families his “continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul home safely.”
The Biden administration carried out a prisoner swap in April, with Moscow releasing Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for the U.S. releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
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Норвезька внутрішня гвардія почала розгортати війська на підприємствах, відповідальних за переробку та експорт нафти і газу
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Українська національна компанія «Енергоатом» наразі про це не повідомляла
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Ukrainian forces made further gains Monday in the Kherson region in the country’s south, adding to their gains in the east in recent days as they push a counteroffensive against Russia.
Russia-installed officials in Kherson said Ukraine’s military had recaptured some settlements in Kherson.
The region is one of four that Russia illegally annexed last week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday that his forces in Kherson had liberated the settlements of Arkhanhelske and Myroliubivka.
The developments in Kherson followed Sunday’s announcement by Ukrainian forces that they had retaken full control of Lyman, the eastern logistics hub that is also within territory Russia claimed last week was its own.
“Lyman is fully cleared,” Zelenskyy declared in a short video clip on his Telegram channel.
Russia did not comment Sunday on the fate of Lyman but said Saturday that its troops were retreating from the area because it feared Ukrainian forces were about to encircle them. Russia captured Lyman in May and had used it as a logistics and transportation hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region.
Russia’s loss of Lyman was its biggest battlefield defeat since Ukrainian forces last month swept through the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, pushing Russian forces back toward their border.
In addition to claiming the annexations rejected by Ukraine and its western allies, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered late last month the mobilization of 300,000 reservists to bolster Russia’s forces.
The order sparked protests in some areas of Russia and long lines at borders as people fled.
The governor of Russia’s Khabarovsk region said Monday that the military commissar in the region was removed from his post after half of the personnel who were mobilized did not meet draft criteria and were sent home.
The governor said in a Telegram video that the commissar’s removal would not affect the overall mobilization plan.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Перед цим працівники ДБР дослідили понад 200 компаній у різних галузях економіки
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Prominent Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak faces a criminal investigation over a story that police suspect was “fake,” state news agency TASS reported on Monday, citing an unidentified source in law enforcement.
Sobchak, whose late father was the mayor of St. Petersburg in the 1990s and worked closely with Vladimir Putin, hosts a YouTube channel with over 3 million subscribers. She also founded a popular Telegram account which regularly shares stories critical of Russia’s mobilization efforts.
TASS reported that Sobchak’s story related to “state funding of festivals” and that she could be charged under an article of Russian law that provides for three-year jail sentences.
Neither Sobchak, 40, nor representatives of her news site immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment on the TASS report.
Sobchak has so far avoided prosecution, but authorities have scrutinized her in the past for sharing so-called “LGBT propaganda” and declaring that Crimea was still Ukrainian after its annexation by Russia in 2014.
Since invading Ukraine in February, Russia has cracked down on independent media and prosecuted numerous journalists for spreading “fake” news about what it calls its “special military operation.”
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Шведський учений першим секвенував (частково розшифрував) геном неандертальця і став першовідкривачем одного з предків сучасних людей Денисівської людини, йдеться в повідомленні комітету
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Reformists who ran on fighting corruption and clientelism in public office appeared set to win an important race in Bosnia’s elections Sunday that could give them greater sway over the direction of the country which has never fully recovered from its 1992-95 sectarian war and remains divided along ethnic lines.
The first preliminary results released by Bosnia’s central election commission early Monday showed cooperation-prone contenders Denis Becirovic and Zeljko Komsic on course to win respective Bosniak and Croat seats in the tripartite presidency. However, the reformists were likely to be joined by Zeljka Cvijanovic from the strongest Bosnian Serb party – the secessionist and staunchly pro-Russian SNSD.
Moscow has often been accused by the West of seeking to destabilize the country and the rest of the Balkans through its Serb allies in the region, and the Sunday ballot was held amid growing fears the Kremlin might attempt to reignite the conflict in Bosnia to deflect attention from its campaign in Ukraine.
The election included contests for the three members of Bosnia’s shared, multiethnic presidency, the president of one of its two highly autonomous parts, and parliament deputies at different, in part overlapping, levels of governance.
Bosnia’s institutional set-up, often described as one of the most complicated in the world, was introduced by a U.S.-brokered peace agreement that ended the war in the 1990s between its three main ethnic groups – Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. Under the terms of the agreement, Bosnia was divided into two highly independent entities – one run by Serbs and the other shared by Bosniaks and Croats – which have broad autonomy but are linked by joint, multi-ethnic institutions. All countrywide actions require consensus from all three ethnic groups.
If the preliminary results hold, Cvijanovic will take over the post from her political party’s boss, Milorad Dodik, who chose to run for the president of Bosnia’s Serb-run part rather than seek a second term in the shared, countrywide presidency.
Two contenders claim victory
Both Dodik, and his main contender, Jelena Trivic, proclaimed victory in the race for the Bosnian Serb president. Their claims will be tested later Monday, when the election commission is expected to announce preliminary results of the presidential ballot for Bosnia’s Serb-run part and the races for parliament deputies at the state, entity and regional levels.
Prior to the polls, analysts predicted that the long-entrenched nationalists of all ethnic stripes, who have enriched cronies and ignored the needs of the people, will remain dominant in the legislatures at all levels, largely because the sectarian post-war system of governance leaves pragmatic, reform-minded Bosnians with little incentive to vote. Election turnout on Sunday was 50% or over 2 percentage points down from the 2018 general election.
Overseer amends electoral law
On Sunday, shortly after the vote count begun, Bosnia’s international overseer, Christian Schmidt, announced in a YouTube video that he was amending the country’s electoral law “to ensure functionality and timely implementation of election results.” Schmidt assured citizens in the video that the changes “will in no way affect” the votes cast on Sunday.
The 1995 peace agreement gave broad powers to the international high representative, the post currently held by Schmidt, including the ability to impose laws and to dismiss officials and civil servants who undermine the country’s fragile post-war ethnic balance.
The changes imposed by Schmidt will affect the size of the parliament of the Bosniak-Croat part of the country, and prevent blockades of the formation of its government.
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У лютому 2020 року його затримала ФСБ Росії
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Попередній прем’єр-міністр Кирил Петков вже визнав поразку і заявив, що його партія не намагатиметься входити до владної коаліції і займе місце опозиції
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Радник з національної безпеки США Джейк Салліван зустрівся в Стамбулі з речником і головним радником президента Туреччини Ібрагімом Каліном.
Як повідомляє Білий дім, вони обговорили свою подальшу підтримку України у боротьбі проти агресії Росії, включаючи засудження спроб Москви незаконно анексувати українську територію.
Салліван висловив свою вдячність за зусилля Туреччини щодо покращення глобальної продовольчої безпеки шляхом сприяння експорту українського зерна та її дипломатичну роботу щодо звільнення українських військовополонених, а також двох американських громадян, утримуваних Росією.
За повідомленням, Салліван і Калін, серед іншого, обговорили прогрес щодо вступу Фінляндії та Швеції до НАТО.
Турецька сторона подробиць цієї зустрічі не повідомляла.
Туреччина балансувала після початку повномасштабного вторгнення Росії в Україну. Анкара не підтримує санкції Заходу проти Росії та має тісні зв’язки як з Москвою, так і з Києвом. Від 24 лютого президент Туреччини кілька разів зустрічався з Володимиром Путіним. При цьому турецька сторона надає Україні безпілотники.
Туреччина як член НАТО спочатку мала заперечення проти вступу до Альянсу Швеції та Фінляндії. Проте у червні під час саміту альянсу в Мадриді Анкара погодилася підтримати ці країни.
Повномасштабне вторгнення Росії в Україну спонукало Фінляндію та Швецію подати заявку на вступ до НАТО. Для їх приєднання потрібна згода всіх 30 нинішніх держав-членів.
30 вересня президент України Володимир Зеленський повідомив, що Київ подає заявку на вступ до НАТО за пришвидшеною процедурою. У НАТО відповіли, що для цього потрібна згода всіх 30 членів Північноатлантичного альянсу.
Це сталося після того, як президент Росії Володимир Путін підписав укази про «приєднання» до РФ (фактично анексію) частково окупованих територій Запорізької, Херсонської, Донецької і Луганської областей. І Україна, і Захід засудили ці незаконні дії Москви. Через спробу анексії українських території деякі країни, зокрема Британія і Канада, вже запровадили санкції проти Росії.
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Україна і Захід засудили рішення Кремля про спробу анексії частково окупованих українських регіонів
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Ігор Жовква каже, що Україна може оминути етап Плану дій щодо членства.
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Greece wants to have a constructive dialogue with Turkey based on international law but its Aegean neighbor must halt its unprecedented escalation of provocations, the Greek foreign minister said Sunday.
The two countries — North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies but historic foes — have been at odds for decades over a range of issues, including where their continental shelves start and end, overflights in the Aegean Sea and a divided Cyprus.
“It is up to Turkey to choose if it will come to such a dialogue or not, but the basic ingredient must be a de-escalation,” Nikos Dendias told the Proto Thema newspaper in an interview.
Last month, the European Union voiced concern over statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accusing Greece, an EU member, of occupying demilitarized islands in the Aegean and saying Turkey was ready to “do what is necessary” when the time came.
“The one responsible for a de-escalation is the one causing the escalation, which is Turkey,” Dendias said.
He blamed Ankara for increased provocations with a rhetoric of false and legally baseless claims, “even personal insults.”
Turkey has sharply increased its overflights and violations of Greek airspace, Dendias told the paper, adding that its behavior seems to be serving a “revisionist narrative” that it promotes consistently.
He said Turkish claims that Greece cannot be an equal interlocutor diplomatically, politically and militarily violates the basic rule of foreign relations – the principle of equality among nations.
“It is an insulting approach that ranks various countries as more or less equal,” Dendias said.
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Pope Francis has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death” over the war in Ukraine.
Francis’s remarks, made on Sunday in his weekly public prayer on St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, were some of the strongest he has made since the February 24 invasion.
“My appeal is addressed first of all to the president of the Russian Federation, begging him to stop, also for the love of his people, this spiral of violence and death,” Francis said.
“On the other hand, saddened by the immense suffering of the Ukrainian population following the aggression suffered, I direct an equally confident appeal to the president of Ukraine to be open to serious peace proposals,” he said.
The Roman Catholic leader also decried the growing risk of nuclear war, calling it “absurd.”
“I deeply regret the serious situation that has arisen in recent days, with further actions contrary to the principles of international law,” he said. “In fact, it increases the risk of a nuclear escalation, to the point of fearing uncontrollable and catastrophic consequences worldwide.”
The pope’s comments came two days after Putin gave a fiery Kremlin speech in which he announced Russia was annexing four regions of Ukraine that are partially occupied by Russian forces.
In the September 30 speech, Putin also made veiled threats about using nuclear weapons in the conflict, echoing earlier remarks in which he warned the West “this is not a bluff.”
The Kremlin had no immediate reaction to the pope’s comments.
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