Ex-Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Journalist, And Political Scientist Added To 'Foreign Agent' List

Publicados : 2 anos atrás por Current Time no Politics Science

Russia's Justice Ministry has added former Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Kunadze, editor in chief of the independent Dovod news website Ilya Kosygin, and political scientist Mikhail Savva to its list of so-called foreign agents, a ministry statement says. Kunadze was a deputy foreign minister in the early 1990s and also served as ambassador to South Korea before becoming a political commentator. He "has been disseminating false information aimed at creating a negative image about the Russian Federation, false information about the decisions made by the public authorities of the Russian Federation and about their policies, and about the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," the statement said. It added that Kunadze "systematically participated as an interviewee on platforms provided by foreign agencies." Independent journalist Kosygin was arrested in April 2021 for covering a protest outside a detention facility where opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was being held at the time. Political scientist and rights activist Mikhail Savva is an expert at the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties. Since 2012, Russia has used its foreign agent laws to label and punish critics of government policies. It also has been increasingly used to shut down civil society and media groups in Russia since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine. The law allowed the Justice Ministry to label nonprofit organizations as foreign agents if they receive funding from abroad and are engaged in political activities. The criteria by which such activities are determined are not clearly defined in the law, allowing authorities to persecute organizations working in the field of education, culture, health, environment protection, and human rights protection. Subsequently, it became possible to declare media and individuals foreign agents, including those who do not receive foreign funding but are “under foreign influence.” Russian legislation does not specify what exactly should be considered foreign influence.

An investigation has linked an explosion at a Bulgarian arms depot in 2011 to the activity of a notorious unit of Russia’s military intelligence that has been accused of involvement in other blasts and poisonings in NATO countries. The investigation by The Insider and Bellingcat, published on October 20, describes the blast near the village of Lovnidol, 150 kilometers east of Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, as “the first of its kind in a NATO and EU country that can be convincingly attributed” to Unit 29155 of the Russian military intelligence service (GRU).

The explosion occurred on November 12, 2011 in a weapons warehouse owned by the company EMCO.

The incident was part of a string of unexplained explosions affecting Bulgaria’s arms industry beginning more than a decade ago and seemingly intensifying after Russia invaded and occupied Crimea in 2014 in the first phase of its expanding war to subdue Ukraine, an RFE/RL investigation revealed.

Agents of Unit 29155 were linked to some of these unexplained blasts in Bulgaria and to blasts in other EU and NATO members, including the Czech Republic.

Unit 29155 is also accused of carrying out the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer and double agent, and his daughter with the nerve agent Novichok in Britain in 2018.

The Insider and Bellingcat linked Unit 29155 to the 2011 blast near Lovnidol, which destroyed more than 3,000 152-millimeter shells, by mapping the movement of alleged agents of the unit using travel data. The code has been copied to your clipboard. The URL has been copied to your clipboard No media source currently available The shells that were destroyed in the blast were first stored in a facility in Vrbetice, a Czech village near the border with Slovakia, and were then shipped to the warehouse in Lovnidol between October 4 and November 4, 2011.

The two outlets identified several agents of Unit 29155 who visited the area of Vrbetice in October 2011. Two of them -- Nikolai Ezhov and Sergei Romanov -- headed to Bulgaria just days before the explosion in Lovnidol.

The outlets also identified Russian General Andrei Averyanov as the mastermind behind this and other explosions believed to have been carried out by the GRU unit by examining correspondences from hacked e-mail accounts and travel data.

The investigation links the explosion with the export of ammunition for Georgia -- a country that was attacked by Russia three years earlier. The Bulgarian prosecution alleged in 2021 that the 152-millimeter shells shipped from the Czech Republic to Bulgaria had been earmarked for subsequent transfer to Georgia, although Emilian Gebrev, the owner of the company that owned the warehouse, said he had not committed the shipment specifically for export to the Caucasus country.

Gebrev was poisoned a few years later -- a crime for which three members of the GRU unit were charged.

The Bulgarian prosecution's investigation into the Lovnidol explosion discovered an explosive device, but in 2013 the prosecution suspended the probe due to an absence of evidence connecting foul play to any perpetrators.

The Bulgarian prosecution reopened the investigation in 2021 only after revelations of a similar explosion in Vrbetice came to light, and combined it with a probe of two explosions on the premises of Bulgaria's largest armaments manufacturer, VMZ Sopot, in 2015, as well as a blast at the Arsenal weapons factory in the southern Bulgarian town of Maglizh in 2020. With reporting by The Insider

The European Commission is investigating a deal allowing Bulgaria to access gas supplies via Turkey over a possible breach of the bloc's antitrust rules. The agreement, signed in January 2023 between Bulgaria’s state gas company Bulgargaz and Turkey’s state supplier BOTAS, was hailed by the then-caretaker government in Bulgaria as a “historic” deal.

But analysts expressed fears that the deal was unprofitable and would damage the country’s financial interests. They also warned that it could be used as a “back door” for Russian gas imports in Bulgaria after Moscow stopped supplying gas to the EU and NATO member soon after the start of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

On October 20, the European Commission confirmed reports that it had sent a request for information to Bulgargaz regarding the agreement.

“Our role is to ensure compliance with European regulatory standards in the internal energy market. In case of indications of noncompliance, including of a possible breach of the EU antitrust rules, the commission will not hesitate to take appropriate action,” a spokesperson for the commission told RFE/RL.

“The commission is following very closely this issue and we are in touch with the relevant stakeholders and authorities.”

Bulgaria's Energy Ministry confirmed to state broadcaster BNT that the European Commission had requested information regarding the deal between Bulgargaz and BOTAS.

Bulgargaz also confirmed that it had received a request for information regarding natural gas deliveries, without specifying for which contracts.

“Bulgargaz is preparing and will provide the information within the deadline agreed with the European Commission,” it said in a statement.

News of the investigation was first reported by Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS), a private company for market data and analysis, which said on October 19 that the commission had launched a probe into the deal.

The report said that the commission had asked Bulgargaz to provide information on the agreement with BOTAS and contracts under which “Bulgargaz may be acting as an exclusive agent or distributor for the supply of gas in Bulgaria or elsewhere in the EU.”

The report came amid concerns that the Bulgarian state company may be the only EU-based company with access to natural gas via Turkish infrastructure and its agreement with BOTAS might potentially block other companies from using the same import route.

Although it became cause for political tension in Bulgaria, there are few details about the deal as the agreement itself is confidential.

The deal was agreed in January 2023 by the caretaker government appointed by the President Rumen Radev, who hailed it as a “historic” deal that would allow Bulgaria to have access to Turkish liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and the country's pipeline network for the next 13 years.

But analysts warned that the deal could open a “back door” for Russian gas imports after Moscow stopped supplying gas to Bulgaria in April 2022.

A new government in Bulgaria that was formed following April general elections also criticized the agreement.

Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said that the deal was “nontransparent and unprofitable,” and Energy Minister Rumen Radev, who shares the same name as the president although the two are not related, said that it could cost billions without resulting in any benefit.

“The Turkish company BOTAS gets access to the Bulgarian and European markets without the opposite being true,” he said in August.

Bulgaria has relied mainly on natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan and LNG terminals in Greece and Turkey since Russia stopped supplying gas after Sofia refused to pay in rubles -- a condition imposed on “unfriendly countries” as a way to sidestep Western financial sanctions against Russia's central bank. With writing and reporting by Elitsa Simeonova

U.S. Envoy To Hungary Reiterates Growing Concern Over Orban's 'Troubling' Meeting With Putin Hungary's deepening relationship with Russia and Prime Minister Viktor Orban's recent meeting with President Vladimir Putin is causing growing concern in the United States and among allies, Ambassador David Pressman confirmed to RFE/RL on October 20. Orban, who held talks with Putin on October 17 on the sidelines of China's Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, is the first leader of a European Union country to meet with Putin since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant accusing the Russian leader of war crimes over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Orban and Putin discussed bilateral cooperation in natural gas and crude oil transportation as well as nuclear energy, the Hungarian government said.

During the meeting, Orban, who was also the only leader of an EU and NATO country to attend the Beijing forum, reportedly referred to the war in Ukraine as "a military operation," mimicking the Kremlin's official description of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as "a special military operation."

He also told Putin that Hungary never wanted to oppose Russia. “It is important to discuss Hungary’s deepening relationship with Russia, especially following Prime Minister Orban’s troubling decision to hold a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the language he used to describe Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine," Pressman told RFE/RL in an emailed statement.

"The United States is concerned about Hungary’s relationship with Russia. Putin’s illegal, unprovoked war against Ukraine violates international norms and represents a threat to the United States and its allies, including Hungary,” Pressman said.

The U.S. envoy's comments, first reported by Reuters, came a day after the ambassadors of NATO countries to Hungary gathered to discuss “security concerns” over the “deepening relationship" between Russia and Budapest. NATO Diplomats Discuss Growing Concern Over Hungary's 'Deepening Relationship With Russia' At Budapest Meeting The gathering, called by Pressman, was also attended by a representative of NATO candidate Sweden, whose joining the alliance has been met with resistance from Hungary and Turkey.

“It is worrying that Hungary has decided to contact Putin in this way,” Pressman told RFE/RL's Hungarian Service on October 19.

“We see Hungary as an ally, but at the same time we also see that Hungary is deepening its relationship with Russia despite its brutal war in Ukraine,” he added.

Pressman also said that Washington expects these “legitimate security concerns” to be taken seriously by the Hungarian government.

Orban's meeting with Putin has prompted not only concern, but also outrage among some NATO allies.

"It was very, very unpleasant to see that [handshake]," Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, one of Ukraine's staunchest allies, told Reuters on October 18.

"How can you shake a criminal's hand, who has waged the war of aggression, especially coming from a country that has a history like Hungary has," Kallas said, referring to Hungary's being invaded by Moscow's troops in 1956.

Orban has repeatedly spoken out against the Western sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine and has opposed plans to grant more aid to Ukraine.

Just days before Orban's meeting with Putin, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto visited Moscow for an energy forum and said that Budapest has no intention of reducing purchases of Russian oil supplied through the Druzhba pipeline even though the EU has sanctioned the Russian oil sector.

Under Orban, who has been in power since 2010, Hungary has seen an accelerated slide toward authoritarianism and widespread corruption that prompted Brussels in December last year to freeze 6.3 billion euros earmarked for Budapest.

A top Iranian official has reiterated that Tehran will deport all "illegal" migrants, most of whom are Afghan nationals who fled war, persecution, and poverty. “Everyone who lacks the legal means to remain in Iran will be sent back [to their country] under a specific framework,” Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on October 19, doubling down on comments he made last month that "Afghans and foreign nationals who do not have legal documents" would be returned to their countries.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are said to have migrated across the border since Taliban militants seized power in August 2021 following the hasty departure of international peacekeeping forces. The influx has come at a time when Tehran is already struggling with economic woes sparked by the imposition of drastic international sanctions over its nuclear program.

Taliban officials have said they are seeking the safe return of the refugees, but little movement on the issue has been made to address the situation as more and more people cross the border.

International human rights groups have documented years of violations against Afghan refugees and migrants in Iran, including physical abuse, detention in unsanitary and inhumane conditions, forced payment for transportation and accommodation in camps, slave labor, and the separation of families.

But since Vahidi first made his comments in September, the estimated more than 3 million Afghan refugees and migrants in Iran have endured a surge in abuse. Videos circulating on social media show Iranian mobs attacking the homes of Afghans or tormenting helpless Afghans on the streets.

Vahidi condemned the attacks saying it was "wrong that some people in our country are tormenting Afghans," but the dire economic conditions in Iran, which has been hit hard by years of Western economic sanctions, continues to fuel anger toward the migrants, with the number of Afghans forcefully deported back to their country rising.

Many of them fled their homeland because of fears of Taliban persecution and the rapidly declining economic prospects since the hard-line Islamists returned to power two years ago.

Iran's plans to deport undocumented Afghans also come amid its worsening ties with Afghanistan's de facto Taliban rulers. Taliban militants have engaged in deadly clashes with Iranian border guards in recent months amid a dispute over cross-border water resources.

“If I return to Afghanistan, my life will be in grave danger," Fawad, a former soldier of the now defunct Afghan National Army, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

Two years ago, Fawad, who only gave his first name, reached Iran through [human] smuggling routes after enduring many difficulties.

“I ask the Islamic republic of Iran not to expel us,” he said.

The announcement has also rattled Afghans with legal permission to live and work in Iran.

"I still cannot rent an apartment easily and cannot open a bank account under my name," Mujibullah Raufi, an Afghan refugee in Iran, told Radio Azadi.

“I cannot get a SIM [mobile phone] card under my name and have no prospects of getting a decent job,” he added.

Iran has hosted millions of Afghans for more than four decades but Tehran has often complained of the lack of international aid for hosting Afghans.

More than 70 percent of the 3.6 million Afghans who left their country after the Taliban militants seized back power in August 2021 fled to Iran.

Data show most are educated middle-class Afghans who served in the fallen pro-Western Afghan republic's security forces or civil bureaucracy.

Ukrainian Forces Hold Out, Zelenskiy Says, Amid Continued Russian Onslaught On Eastern City Ukrainian forces repelled a new Russian attack on the eastern city of Avdiyivka and were holding their ground in heavy fighting in the area, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his evening address on October 20, thanking “all our boys who are powerfully holding the defense and destroying the occupier day after day.”

Avdiyivka has been a focal point of the fighting in the eastern Donetsk region for the past several weeks as Moscow’s forces attempt a breakthrough.

Zelenskiy said Russian losses "are really staggering," adding that "it is precisely losses by the occupier that Ukraine needs." RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here. Zelenskiy and top military commanders on October 20 visited the southern region of Kherson, where they discussed the situation there and around Avdiyivka and Kupyansk, a city in the Kharkiv region north of Avdiyivka where Russian forces have also intensified attacks.

A Telegram channel close to the Russian Defense Ministry said on October 19 that Russian troops were "continuing the operation to capture the Avdiyivka fortified area."

Russian troops were able to occupy the ash pit of the Avdiyivka coke plant, it said, but the Ukrainian troops counterattacked near the village of Berdychiy to the northwest of Avdiyivka and pushed the Russian units back to the railway.

Journalists with a project of the BBC and independent Russian media outlet Mediazona said on October 29 that the number of Russian troop deaths in the war was 34,857. Over the past two weeks, the list has increased by 953 names, the project said.

The project counts only deaths established through open sources -- documents, messages from relatives, and data on graves. The Russian Defense Ministry does not disclose data on personnel losses and does not comment on figures reported by journalists.

Russian state media reported a personnel change in the top ranks of the Russian military on October 20. Citing sources, TASS and RIA Novosti reported that Colonel-General Viktor Afzalov had been appointed commander of the Russian air force. Afzalov was promoted from his position of acting air force chief, a role he assumed after General Sergei Surovikin was removed from the post in August. Reports from the battlefield on October 20 said a Russian missile targeted homes in Kryviy Rih in the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, killing 60-year-old man and leaving a 57-year-old woman in serious condition.

"The enemy aimed a rocket at a dacha cooperative," said Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk, on Telegram.

The shelling caused a fire, which had been extinguished, he said. The Russian military earlier on October 20 launched fresh artillery attacks on civilian areas of nine regions of Ukraine, killing one person, wounding several more, and causing damage to civilian infrastructure that left many residents without electricity. Ukraine's Energy Ministry said in a statement that due to the shelling, power was cut partially or totally in the regions of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv. In the southern region of Kherson, an 80-year-old woman was killed in the city of Beryslav and her home was destroyed by a Russian shell, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram on October 20. Beryslav, like much of the Kherson region that was liberated by Ukrainian forces one year ago, has been systematically targeted by Russian shelling and missile strikes from across the eastern bank of the Dnieper River. In the northeastern region of Kharkiv, Russian forces shelled the village of Kupyansk-Vuzloviy and the town of Vovchansk early on October 20, wounding two people and causing damage to civilian infrastructure, regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on Telegram. Russian forces "fired artillery, mortars, rockets, and other weapons at civilian-populated areas," Synyehubov said, wounding two men and destroying a youth center and damaging several residential buildings. The battlefield information could not be independently verified. With reporting by AFP and Reuters

A Russian court has accepted a request by prosecutors to extend the detention of RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva after she was picked up earlier this week by police on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent. The press service of the Sovetsky district Court of Kazan said Kurmasheva's detention was extended by 72 hours, which would bring it to 1 p.m. Moscow time on October 23. Wearing a black hooded jacket and a white COVID-style breathing mask, Kurmasheva sat in a glass box and waved during the hearing. Kurmasheva -- a journalist with RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service based in the Czech Republic, who holds dual U.S. and Russian citizenship -- traveled to Russia for a family emergency in May. She was temporarily detained while waiting for her return flight on June 2 at Kazan airport, where both of her passports were confiscated. She has not been able to leave Russia since as she awaited the return of her travel documents. Authorities on October 11 fined Kurmasheva 10,000 rubles ($103) for failing to register her U.S. passport with Russian authorities, according to local media reports based on court documents they've seen. Kurmasheva was detained again on October 18 and charged this time with failing to register as a foreign agent, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The code has been copied to your clipboard. The URL has been copied to your clipboard No media source currently available The Investigative Committee said that Kurmasheva is suspected of failing "to fulfill the obligation established by the legislation of the Russian Federation to submit to the authorized body documents necessary for inclusion in the register of foreign agents, committed by a person carrying out the targeted collection of information in the field of military, military-technical activities of the Russian Federation, whose receipt by foreign sources can be used against the security of the Russian Federation." It did not give any further details. "We are concerned by the decision to prolong Alsu's detention," RFE/RL acting President Jeffrey Gedmin said. "Journalism is not a crime. She must be released to her family immediately." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Moscow was engaged in a campaign to persecute U.S. citizens. He did not comment further on Kurmasheva's detention. Russia's detention of Kurmasheva, the second U.S. media member to be held by Moscow this year, triggered a wave of criticism from rights groups and politicians saying the move signals new level of wartime censorship. Russia has been accused of detaining Americans to use as bargaining chips to exchange for Russians jailed in the United States. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested for allegedly spying -- a charge he and the newspaper vehemently deny -- in March. Since 2012, Russia has used its so-called foreign agent laws to label and punish critics of government policies. It has also been increasingly used to shut down civil society and media groups in Russia since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. "The persecution of Alsu Kurmasheva is an example of the relentless crackdown on journalism and the right to freedom of expression in Russia," said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. "It also marks an alarming escalation in the harassment of media professionals, as it’s the first time this offence has been used to directly target a journalist for their professional activities, putting her at risk of a five-year imprisonment." The UN Human Rights Office, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the chairman of the U.S. House of Representative's Foreign Affairs Committee also called for the immediate release of Kurmasheva. The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports that Kurmasheva had been arrested but it had not received official notification from Russia over the matter. The foreign agent law allows authorities to label nonprofit organizations as “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad and are engaged in political activities. RFE/RL says the law amounts to political censorship meant to prevent journalists from performing their professional duties and is challenging the authorities' moves in Russian courts and at the European Court of Human Rights. More than 30 RFE/RL employees have been listed as "foreign agents" by the Russian Justice Ministry in their personal capacity. In March, a Moscow court declared the bankruptcy of RFE/RL's operations in Russia following the company's refusal to pay multiple fines totaling more than 1 billion rubles ($14 million) for noncompliance with the law. With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Tópicos: Media, Russia-Ukraine War

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