Russian FM: US, NATO directly involved in Ukraine conflict

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 01 December 2022

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MOSCOW - Russia’s foreign minister on Thursday accused the West of becoming directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying it with weapons and training its soldiers.

Sergey Lavrov also said that Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities and other key infrastructure that have left millions without power, heating and water were intended to weaken Ukraine’s military potential and derail the shipments of Western weapons.

“You shouldn’t say that the U.S. and NATO aren’t taking part in this war, you are directly participating in it,” Lavrov said in a video call with reporters. “And not just by providing weapons but also by training personnel. You are training their military on your territory, on the territories of Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries.”

He said that the barrage of Russian missile strikes was intended to “knock out energy facilities that allow you to keep pumping deadly weapons into Ukraine in order to kill the Russians.”

“The infrastructure that is targeted by those attacks is used to ensure the combat potential of the Ukrainian armed forces and the nationalist battalions,” Lavrov said.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of targeting key civilian infrastructure in order to reduce morale and force Ukraine into peace talks on Moscow’s conditions.

Lavrov insisted that Moscow remains open for talks on ending the conflict. “We never asked for talks but always said that we are ready to listen to those who are interested in a negotiated settlement,” Lavrov said.

The Kremlin has urged Ukraine to acknowledge Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as part of Russia and recognize other land gains that Russia has made since sending its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. It also has continued to push for guarantees that Ukraine wouldn’t join NATO, along with vaguely formulated “demilitarization” and “denazification” goals.

Asked if a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden is possible, Lavrov responded that “we don’t shun contacts” but added that “we haven’t yet heard any serious ideas yet.”

Lavrov said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has raised the issue of U.S. citizens imprisoned in Russia in a phone call, but noted that Putin and Biden agreed to set up a separate channel of communication between special services to discuss the issue when they met in Geneva in June 2021.

“It’s working and I hope that some results will be achieved,” he added.

The Biden administration has been trying for months to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American jailed in Russia, Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, including through a possible prisoner swap with Moscow.

Commenting on Russia’s decision to postpone a round of nuclear arms control talks with the United States that was scheduled for this week, Lavrov argued that “it’s impossible to discuss strategic stability nowadays while ignoring everything that is happening in Ukraine.”

“The goal has been announced to defeat Russia on the battlefield or even destroy Russia,” he said. “How can the goal of defeating Russia not bear significance for strategic stability, considering that they want to destroy a key strategic stability actor?”

During the online news conference that lasted for 2½ hours, Lavrov ranted against the U.S. and its NATO allies, accusing them of trampling on international law while trying to isolate and destroy Russia.

He claimed that the U.S. has tried to discourage other countries, including India, from maintaining close ties with Russia, but those attempts have failed.

EU Commission to keep Hungary's EU funds in limbo

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 25 November 2022

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BRUSSELS - The European Union (EU) Commission will continue to propose to suspend some of the EU funds to Hungary as officials think prime minister Viktor Orbán's government has failed to implement all the previously agreed rule of law and anti-corruption measures, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The commission is expected to make the formal decision next Wednesday (30 November), and is poised to conclude that Hungary did not make enough progress on the 17 measures it had agreed with the commission in September.

There’s encouraging news that the European Commission may be holding the line in dealing with the authoritarian government in EU member Hungary.

If fresh reports are correct, the Commission seems likely to determine that Budapest has not adopted necessary rule-of-law reforms, and, as a result, billions in frozen EU funds will continue to be withheld.

This is rightly seen as a crucial test of the EU’s willingness to stand up for its values.

Hungary has been falling deeper and deeper into the anti-democratic abyss for years, with the government under Viktor Orbán using every trick to expand his and his party’s power.

Despite the European Parliament sometimes pushing hard for action, the real drivers of EU policy – member state leaders and the executive European Commission – did too little or nothing to stop Hungary becoming an authoritarian state in the heart of Europe.

In September, the Commission demanded the country address its rule-of-law crisis, as well as corruption in public procurement, if it wanted to see those EU funds.

French MP told to 'go back to Africa' in parliament

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 22 November 2022

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PARIS - When Carlos Martens Bilongo, a French parliamentarian, stood up in the national assembly this month to urge the country to help 234 migrants stranded at sea in the Mediterranean, a far-right MP shouted: "Let him go back to Africa." Gasps rippled across the parliament, with Bilongo's colleagues immediately calling the comment racist and demanding that Gregoire de Fournas, a newly elected member of the anti-immigration National Rally (RN), be kicked out.

Bilongo himself calmly retorted: "No way!" Even by French standards, such open racism was shocking, and parliament was quickly suspended. "The comment made me feel sad," said Bilongo recalling the incident in his first interview outside France. "I was shocked to hear such language in the French parliament. However, I stayed calm and didn't move. It was so terrible to hear that."

Born and raised in Val-d'Oise, northern France, to parents of Congolese and Angolan origin, Bilongo said the racist comment speaks to a growing and more strident discourse amongst the far right, now the third-largest party in parliament. "I was talking about the situation in the Mediterranean on the request of the SOS Mediterranee, an NGO that had rescued 234 migrants for which Italian authorities had refused safe passage, when the extremist white nationalist member spoke out," said Bilongo.

"The French parliament is not normally like that - just the white nationalists are like that." Bilongo is unbowed and does not underestimate the challenge ahead. "The problem is Europe-wide, not one contained in a single country. You have extremist nationalist parties in Italy, France and Austria, but not only there," he said. The new far-right, populist government in Italy led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made it a point to take a hard line against migrants.

It was the decision of Meloni's government's to stop migrants rescued in the Mediterranean from landing in Italy, violating international law, that led Bilongo to call for the French government to step in and save them.