Russian dissidents find haven in Lithuania

Yevegeni Titov, a Russian seeking asylum in Lithuania, poses on July 16, 2018 in Vilnius. (AFP)
Updated 27 July 2018
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Russian dissidents find haven in Lithuania

  • Titov, working for the anti-Kremlin Novaya Gazeta daily in Moscow, received further death threats after exposing corruption surrounding the bridge project
  • More than 30 other Russian dissidents have also received asylum in the Baltic state, along with special protective status for family members, since 2014

VILNIUS: Journalist Yevgeny Titov, reporting from Crimea after Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, understood the risk he was taking.
He is one of a growing number of Russians seeking asylum in Lithuania, a small staunchly pro-Western state that makes no secret of its wariness toward the Kremlin, its unwanted Soviet-era master.
“When I was reporting about the bridge being built (by Russia) to Crimea, my friends received an SMS saying that I had been murdered,” Titov, 41, told AFP, speaking in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
Titov, working for the anti-Kremlin Novaya Gazeta daily in Moscow, received further death threats after exposing corruption surrounding the bridge project — prompting his move to Lithuania in 2016 on the advice of a friend.
Vilnius granted Titov political asylum in July.
More than 30 other Russian dissidents have also received asylum in the Baltic state, along with special protective status for family members, since 2014.
Dozens more have sought refuge here, as well as in nearby Estonia and Latvia — which like Lithuania are EU and NATO members.
All three are former Soviet-ruled republics that are now among Moscow’s most vocal critics.
Vsevolod Chernozub, 32, was among the first to arrive in December 2013.
One of the leaders of the anti-Kremlin Solidarnost party, Chernozub decided to leave Russia during a heavy-handed crackdown triggered by mass protests against Putin’s inauguration for a third Kremlin term in May 2012.
The demonstrations quickly descended into clashes with police.
Criminal charges were brought against around 30 demonstrators, many of whom were sentenced to prison terms of up to four-and-a-half years.

While he could have sought refuge elsewhere in the EU, Chernozub says he chose Vilnius for practical reasons, notably because of the ethnic Russian community that settled in Lithuania during nearly five decades of Soviet rule.
“Lithuania is a country where you can still speak Russian on a daily basis,” he told AFP. “My wife was pregnant at the time and she wanted a Russian-speaking doctor,” he noted.
The Baltic state has welcomed dissidents, while underscoring its support for opposition circles in Russia.
“One of the principles (of our relationship with Russia) is to support civil society there,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told AFP.
“Lithuania is a place where they (Russians) can feel safe and we are proud of it,” he said.
The foreign ministry has held an annual forum for Russian opposition circles since 2013, and former Russian chess world champion Garry Kasparov, an outspoken Kremlin critic, hosts human rights events in Vilnius.
With the backing of the Lithuanian parliament, Russian dissidents spearheaded a move in May to rename a square outside the Russian embassy after Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition politician gunned down near the Kremlin in February 2015 by unknown assailants.
Their activism in Lithuania has not gone unnoticed by Moscow, according to Titov.
“The Russia 24 propaganda channel aired several reports about our initiatives. They called us all kinds of names. That just means that what we’re doing is important,” he told AFP.

Titov now works as a journalist for the Russian service of Delfi, a popular news website with branches in all three Baltic states.
Chernozub, meanwhile, has teamed up with several fellow Russians to create the “Russia Tomorrow” website, an ironic allusion to “RT” formerly known as “Russia Today,” Moscow’s state-funded international broadcaster.
The new dissidents make up a tiny part of Lithuania’s ethnic Russian minority, where pro-Kremlin views prevail.
The community accounts for about six percent of the Baltic state’s overall population of 2.9 million.
All three Baltic states were deeply rattled by its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, which prompted NATO to quickly ramp up its presence along its eastern flank.
Chernozub warned that the open atmosphere that reigned briefly in Russia during the football World Cup tournament could soon give way to fresh crackdowns on the opposition.
“During the World Cup the situation was frozen, with few protests and few arrests, but now I don’t know what will happen,” Chernozub told AFP.


Moroccan man guilty of murdering man in UK in revenge for Gaza

Updated 2 sec ago
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Moroccan man guilty of murdering man in UK in revenge for Gaza

Ahmed Alid killed his 70-year-old victim after approaching him from behind
After his arrest, he told detectives he had committed the acts because of the conflict in Gaza, and in revenge for Israel killing innocent children

LONDON: A Moroccan man who stabbed to death a passer-by in the street in northeast England in what he later told police was revenge for Israeli action in Gaza was found guilty of murder on Thursday.
Ahmed Alid, 45, who had sought asylum in Britain, killed his 70-year-old victim after approaching him from behind on a road in Hartlepool the early hours of Oct. 15 last year, having previously attacked his housemate with two knives, prosecutors said.
After his arrest, he told detectives he had committed the acts because of the conflict in Gaza, and in revenge for Israel killing innocent children, blaming Britain for creating Israel, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Alid said if he had had a machine gun, and more weapons, he would have killed more people.
“By his own admission, Ahmed Alid would have killed more people on that day if he had been able to,” Nick Price, Head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement.
“Whatever his views were on the conflict in Gaza, this was a man who chose to attack two innocent people with a knife, and the consequences were devastating.”
Alid had first used two knives to attack his sleeping housemate, to whom he had become aggressive after learning of his conversion to Christianity, stabbing him six times while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or “god is greatest,” the CPS said.
The 32-year-old housemate, one of five asylum seekers who shared the property, managed to fight him off and another occupant came to his aid. Alid left the house with one of the knives and walked toward the center of Hartlepool.
He passed Terence Carney on the opposite side of the road before circling back and attacking him from behind, stabbing him six times in the chest, abdomen and back. Carney died shortly after police arrived.
Following his interview with police, he attacked the two female detectives, with one suffering injuries to her shoulder and wrist.
He was found guilty at Teeside Crown Court of murder, attempted murder and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker. He will be sentenced on May 17, when the judge will decide if his actions were related to terrorism.

India dismisses US human rights report as ‘deeply biased’

Updated 44 min 16 sec ago
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India dismisses US human rights report as ‘deeply biased’

  • Report found “significant” abuses in India’s Manipur state and attacks on minorities, dissenters
  • India’s foreign ministry spokesperson says New Delhi does not attach any “value” to the report 

NEW DELHI: New Delhi said on Thursday it does not attach any value to a US State Department report critical of human rights in India, and called it deeply biased.

The annual human rights assessment released earlier this week found “significant” abuses in India’s northeastern Manipur state last year and attacks on minorities, journalists and dissenting voices in the rest of the country.

Asked about it, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jasiwal told journalists on Thursday that the report “as per our understanding, is deeply biased and reflects a very poor understanding of India.”

“We attach no value to it and urge you to also do the same,” Jaiswal said.

Responding to a question about the growing protests on US university campuses against Israel’s offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 33,000 people, Jaiswal said that “there has to be the right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety and order.”

He added that “democracies in particular should display this understanding in regard to other fellow democracies, after all we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad.”

While India and the US have a tight partnership, and Washington wants New Delhi to be a strategic counterweight to China, the relationship has encountered some minor bumps recently.

In March New Delhi dismissed US concerns over the implementation of a contentious Indian citizenship law, calling them “misplaced” and “unwarranted,” and objected to a US State Department official’s remarks over the arrest of a key opposition leader.

Last year Washington accused Indian agents of being involved in a failed assassination plot against a Sikh separatist leader in the US, and warned New Delhi about it.

India has said it has launched an investigation into Washington’s accusations but there has not been any update about the investigation’s status or findings.


Sweden to send NATO troops to Latvia next year: PM

Updated 25 April 2024
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Sweden to send NATO troops to Latvia next year: PM

  • The Swedish troop contribution was the first to be announced since the Scandinavian country joined NATO in March
  • The battalion would be comprised of around 400 to 500 troops

STOCKHOLM: Sweden will next year contribute a reduced battalion to NATO forces in Latvia to help support the Baltic state following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Thursday.
The Swedish troop contribution was the first to be announced since the Scandinavian country joined NATO in March.
Kristersson had in January announced that Sweden would likely send a battalion to take part in NATO’s permanent multinational mission in Latvia, dubbed the Enhanced Forward Presence, aimed at boosting defense capacity in the region.
“The government this morning gave Sweden’s armed forces the formal task of planning and preparing for the Swedish contribution of a reduced mechanized battalion to NATO’s forward land forces in Latvia,” Kristersson told reporters during a press conference with his Latvian counterpart Evika Silina.
He said the battalion, which will be in Latvia for six months, would be comprised of around 400 to 500 troops.
“Our aim is a force contribution, including CV 90s armored vehicles and Leopard 2 main battle tanks.”
“We’re planning for the deployment early next year after a parliament decision,” he said.


UK police make fourth arrest after migrant deaths off France

Updated 25 April 2024
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UK police make fourth arrest after migrant deaths off France

  • NCA said it arrested an 18-year-old from Sudan late Wednesday on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally
  • The latest arrest took place at Manston in Kent, southeast England, and the suspect was taken into custody for questioning

LONDON: UK police said Thursday that they had arrested another man after five migrants, including a child, died this week trying to cross the Channel from France.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said it arrested an 18-year-old from Sudan late Wednesday on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally.
The arrest came as part of an investigation into the Channel small boat crossing which resulted in the deaths of five people on a French beach on Tuesday.
The NCA detained two Sudanese nationals aged 19 and 22, and a South Sudan national, also 22, on Tuesday and Wednesday, also on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally.
The 19-year-old has been released without charge, and is now being dealt with by immigration authorities, said the NCA.
The latest arrest took place at Manston in Kent, southeast England, and the suspect was taken into custody for questioning.
Three men, a woman and a seven-year-old girl lost their lives in the early hours of Tuesday in the sea near the northern French town of Wimereux.
They had been in a packed boat that set off before dawn but whose engine stopped a few hundred meters from the beach.
Several people then fell into the water. About 50 people were rescued and brought ashore but emergency services were unable to resuscitate the five.
Fifteen people have died this year trying to cross the busy shipping lane from northern France to southern England, according to an AFP tally.
That is already more than the 12 who died in the whole of last year.


Belgium summons Israeli ambassador over aid worker’s death

Updated 25 April 2024
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Belgium summons Israeli ambassador over aid worker’s death

  • Abdallah Nabhan, 33, along with his seven-year-old son, 65-year-old father, 35-year-old brother and six-year-old niece, were killed in Israel strike
  • The airstrike hit the family home where 25 people were sheltering

BRUSSELS: Belgium said Thursday that it would summon Israel’s ambassador to explain the death in a Gaza airstrike of an aid worker with its Enabel development agency, as well as members of his family.
“Bombing civilian areas and populations is contrary to international law. I will summon the Israeli ambassador to condemn this unacceptable act and demand an explanation,” Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said on X.
Enabel said in a statement that Abdallah Nabhan, 33, along with his seven-year-old son, 65-year-old father, 35-year-old brother and six-year-old niece, were killed “after an Israeli airstrike in the eastern part of the city of Rafah.”

 


The airstrike hit the family home where 25 people were sheltering, including people displaced by the Israeli military operation in Gaza, Enabel said.
It said that Nabhan, who had worked on a Belgian development project helping young people find jobs, and his family were on a list Israel had of people eligible to exit Gaza, but that they were killed before being granted permission to leave.
Enabel’s chief, Jean Van Wetter, called their deaths “yet another flagrant violation by Israel of international humanitarian law.”
The health ministry in Gaza, run by the Hamas militant group, says more than 34,000 people have died in the war being waged in the Palestinian territory, most of them women and children.
Israel is conducting airstrikes and ground operations there in retaliation for a Hamas attack on October 7 that killed around 1,170 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.
Belgium, which currently holds the EU presidency, is among the European countries most vocal in condemning Israel’s operation as disproportionately deadly for Palestinian civilians.