MOSCOW: A Moscow court is expected Wednesday to outlaw the organizations founded by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny — part of authorities’ efforts to muzzle critics ahead of a crucial parliamentary election in September.
Prosecutors have asked the Moscow City Court to designate Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his sprawling network of regional offices across Russia as extremist organizations. In conjunction with a new law, the ruling would bar people associated with the groups from running for public office, derailing the hopes of Navalny’s allies of seeking parliamentary seats.
The extremism label would also mean that activists who have worked with the organizations, anyone who donated to them, and even those who simply shared the groups’ materials could be prosecuted and receive lengthy prison terms.
Navalny, the most adamant political foe of president Vladimir Putin, was arrested in January upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months convalescing after a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin — accusations that Russian officials reject. In February, Navalny was given a 2 1/2-year prison term for violating the terms of a suspended sentence from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that he dismissed as politically driven.
The court hearing on his organizations was held behind closed doors on the grounds that classified materials would be discussed.
Ivan Pavlov, who heads a team of defense lawyers in the case, said the court is expected to issue its verdict Wednesday. The judge has rejected a defense appeal to allow Navalny to take part in the hearings via a video link from prison and dismissed other motions by the defense.
“There is no talk about the equal representation of the parties in the case,” he said.
Navalny’s offices in dozens of Russian regions already shut down in April after the prosecutors issued an injunction to suspend their activities pending the court’s ruling, but the opposition leader’s associates have vowed to continue their work in different formats.
His foundation, started 10 years ago, has relentlessly targeted senior government officials with colorful and widely watched videos that detail corruption allegations against them. One of its latest productions, which has received 117 million views on YouTube, claimed that a lavish palace on the shores of the Black Sea was built for Putin through an elaborate corruption scheme. The Kremlin has denied any links to Putin.
Navalny also has relied on his offices across Russia to organize anti-Kremlin protests and implement his Smart Voting strategy — a project to support the candidates most likely to defeat those from the Kremlin’s dominant United Russia party in various elections.
During Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutors accused Navalny’s organizations of staging protests to overthrow the government.
Just as the Moscow court was considering the prosecutors’ request to outlaw Navalny’s organizations, Russian lawmakers have fast-tracked a new law that banned members of organizations declared extremist from running for public office. The law was signed by Putin last week — and combined with the expected court ruling will dash the hopes of several of Navalny’s associates who have declared their intention to run for the Russian parliament in the Sept. 19 election.
Ivan Zhdanov, a top Navalny associate who headed his foundation, said the court was waiting for the law to take effect to tag Navalny’s organizations as extremist. He vowed that the team will continue publishing exposes of corrupt officials and apply the Smart Voting strategy.
“Navalny’s team will not stop its activities, they shouldn’t hope for that,” Zhdanov, who lives abroad, told the independent Dozhd TV.
The September vote is widely seen as an important part of Putin’s efforts to cement his rule ahead of the 2024 Russian presidential election. The 68-year-old leader, who has been in power for more than two decades, pushed through constitutional changes last year that would potentially allow him to hold onto power until 2036.
The crackdown on Navalny and his associates is just one part of a multi-pronged government strategy to steamroll the opposition ahead of the vote. Last week, authorities also arrested Andrei Pivovarov, the head of another anti-Kremlin group that they have labeled “undesirable” — a designation used by the Kremlin to outlaw more than 30 groups.
Days before his arrest, Pivovarov announced the dissolution of his Open Russia movement to protect members from prosecution, but that didn’t stop authorities from pulling him off a Warsaw-bound plane at St. Petersburg’s airport last week. A court in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region ordered him to be held for two months pending an investigation.
Membership in “undesirable” organizations is a criminal offense under a 2015 law, and another bill now making its way through the Russian parliament increases the punishment for it, introducing prison terms of up to six years for their members.
Open Russia was financed by Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who moved to London after spending 10 years in prison in Russia on charges widely seen as political revenge for challenging Putin’s rule. Khodorkovsky has described the ongoing crackdown on dissent as a reflection of authorities’ concern about the waning popularity of the main Kremlin-directed party, United Russia.
Another opposition activist, Dmitry Gudkov, a former Russian lawmaker who has aspired to run again for the parliament, was held for two days last week on financial charges that he and his supporters allege were trumped up. He went abroad after being released, saying that he had received a warning that he would be jailed if he didn’t leave the country.
Russia expected to outlaw opposition leader Navalny’s groups
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Russia expected to outlaw opposition leader Navalny’s groups
- Navalny, the most adamant political foe of president Vladimir Putin, was arrested in January upon returning from Germany
- Prosecutors accused Navalny’s organizations of staging protests to overthrow the government
During Delhi visit, Japanese PM announces $75 billion plan to counter China in Indo-Pacific
- Kishida promises billions of dollars in investment to help economies in everything from industry to disaster prevention
- The plan is Tokyo's bid to forge stronger partnerships with countries in South and Southeast Asia to counter China
NEW DELHI: Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday announced an expansive new plan for an open and free Indo-Pacific, promising billions of dollars in investment to help economies across the region in everything from industry to disaster prevention.
The plan announced in New Delhi is seen as Tokyo's bid to forge stronger partnerships with countries in South and Southeast Asia to counter China's growing assertiveness.
Kishida said the new free and open Indo-Pacific plan had "four pillars": maintaining peace, dealing with new global issues in cooperation with Indo-Pacific countries, achieving global connectivity through various platforms, and ensuring the safety of the open seas and skies.
To achieve this, Kishida pledged $75 billion to the Indo-Pacific by 2030 through private investments and yen loans, and the ramping up of aid through official governmental assistance and grants.
Indian-administered Kashmir gets first foreign investment from Dubai's Emaar
- Dubai’s Emaar Group due to build a $60 million shopping and office complex in Srinagar
- Emaar, builder of the world's tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa, is Dubai’s largest listed developer
SRINAGAR: Indian-administered Kashmir is to get its first foreign investment, with Dubai’s Emaar Group due to build a $60 million shopping and office complex, as the government looks to stabilize a region where separatists have for years battled the government.
The 5 billion rupee ($60.50 million) development will include a shopping mall and multi-purpose commercial tower in Srinagar, the capital of the Muslim-majority Himalayan region, Emaar announced at an investment summit in the city.
The announcement on Sunday of what the region’s government said was its first foreign investment comes after the central government said last week Kashmir had received record investment of 15 billion rupees ($181 million) in the first 10 months of the 2022-23 (April-March) fiscal year.
Governments have long tried to woo investors, both domestic and foreign, but with little success due to the three-decade insurgency in a region claimed by both India and Pakistan.
India says Muslim Pakistan has long supported the insurgency. Pakistan denies that.
Emaar Properties Amit Jain told reporters that the investment would have a ripple effect.
“This is the start, we should inspire people, people should aspire to follow us. This is a one million square feet mall with 500 shops and will generate around 7,000 to 8,000 jobs,” Jain said after the ground-breaking ceremony for the “Mall of Srinagar.”
Emaar, builder of the world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa, is Dubai’s largest listed developer. The Dubai government owns a minority stake in the developer through its sovereign wealth fund.
Top administrator Manoj Sinha said the project had infused confidence in foreign investors and would boost the region’s economy.
In August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally administered territories as part of an effort to tighten its grip over the region at the heart of more than 70 years of hostility with Pakistan and integrate it more closely with the rest of the country.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full but rule in part, and have fought two of their three wars over it.
The reorganization was enacted with a communications blackout and a security clamp-down, with the government flooding the heavily militarised region with troops. Many of those restrictions have been eased and the Kashmir Valley, known for is snow-topped mountains and scenic lakes, attracted more than 16 million tourists in 2022, the most since British colonial rule ended in 1947.
Srinagar gets first foreign investment from Dubai's Emaar
SRINAGAR: Indian-administered Kashmir is to get its first foreign investment, with Dubai’s Emaar Group due to build a $60 million shopping and office complex, as the government looks to stabilise a region where Muslim separatists have for years battled the government.
The 5 billion rupee ($60.50 million) development will include a shopping mall and multi-purpose commercial tower in Srinagar, the capital of the Muslim-majority Himalayan region, Emaar announced at an investment summit in the city.
The announcement on Sunday of what the region's government said was its first foreign investment comes after the central government said last week that Jammu and Kashmir had received record investment of 15 billion rupees ($181 million) in the first 10 months of the 2022-23 (April-March) fiscal year.
Governments have long tried to woo investors, both domestic and foreign, but with little success due to the three-decade insurgency in a region claimed by both India and Pakistan.
India says Muslim Pakistan has long supported the insurgency. Pakistan denies that.
Emaar Properties CEO Amit Jain told reporters that the investment would have a ripple effect.
“This is the start, we should inspire people, people should aspire to follow us. This is a one million square feet mall with 500 shops and will generate around 7,000 to 8,000 jobs,” Jain said after the ground-breaking ceremony for the "Mall of Srinagar".
Emaar, builder of the world's tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa, is Dubai’s largest listed developer. The Dubai government owns a minority stake in the developer through its sovereign wealth fund.
Top administrator Manoj Sinha said the project had infused confidence in foreign investors and would boost the region's economy.
In August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally administered territories as part of an effort to tighten its grip over the region at the heart of more than 70 years of hostility with Pakistan and integrate it more closely with the rest of the country.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full but rule in part, and have fought two of their three wars over it.
The reorganisation was enacted with a communications blackout and a security clamp-down, with the government flooding the heavily militarised region with troops.
Many of those restrictions have been eased and the Kashmir Valley, known for its snow-topped mountains and scenic lakes, attracted more than 16 million tourists in 2022, the most since British colonial rule ended in 1947.
Tear gas, arrests as Kenya opposition stages protests
- Kenyans are suffering from surging prices for basic necessities, as well as a sharp drop in the shilling against the US dollar
- Many businesses in Nairobi were shut ahead of the demonstrations, with some employers telling their staff to work from home
NAIROBI: Kenyan riot police fired tear gas and water cannon Monday against demonstrators joining a day of action called by the opposition to protest a punishing cost-of-living crisis.
Running battles erupted between stone-throwing demonstrators and police in parts of Nairobi and at least one other city, in the first major unrest since President William Ruto became president last year, correspondents said.
Ruto’s government has vowed to take a tough stance over the protests, which opposition leader Raila Odinga insisted would go ahead despite not receiving police authorization.
“I want Kenyans to come out in large numbers and show the displeasure of what is happening in our country,” Odinga, who narrowly lost last year’s election to Ruto, told supporters on Sunday.
Police used tear gas against protesters gathered at a site near government offices in the heart of the capital Nairobi, where the major rally was scheduled to take place, and several other areas of the city.
“We came here peacefully but they tear gassed us,” said Charles Oduor, 21, who joined the large crowds in downtown Nairobi.
“They lie to us everyday. Where is the cheap maize flour they promised? Where are the jobs for the youth they promised? All they do is hire their friends.”
Kenyans are suffering from surging prices for basic necessities, as well as a sharp drop in the shilling against the US dollar and a record drought that has left millions hungry.
Odinga said he had called the rallies to protest the “skyrocketing” cost of living but also the “stolen” election last August.
In Nairobi’s biggest slum Kibera, a bastion of Odinga support, people also set tires ablaze while police used water cannon to disperse protesters.
Demonstrators and police also clashed in the lakeside city of Kisumu in western Kenya, another Odinga stronghold.
“Our victory was stolen and we are determined to get it back, we can’t sit back and watch as life becomes more difficult by the day. We want Raila in State House,” said Kevin Ojwang in Kisumu.
Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei said on Sunday that police received requests to hold two demonstrations only late Saturday and early Sunday, when normally three days’ notice is required.
“For public safety, neither has been granted,” he said.
Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki warned on Sunday that anyone inciting public disorder or disturbing the peace would be prosecuted.
Many businesses in Nairobi were shut ahead of the demonstrations, with some employers telling their staff to work from home.
“We are here trying to fight for our rights. Life is so hard. If you see, these young men and women, we don’t have jobs, people are losing their jobs. So that’s why we’re talking about our rights,” said shoeshiner Henry Juma, 26.
Odinga, the leader of the Azimio la Umoja party, who described Monday as a “day of destiny,” continues to claim that Ruto’s August election win was fraudulent and denounces his government as illegitimate.
According to official results, Odinga — who was making his fifth bid for the presidency — lost to Ruto by around 233,000 votes, one of the slenderest margins in Kenya’s history.
The Supreme Court dismissed his appeals, with its judges giving a unanimous ruling in favor of Ruto, finding there was no evidence for Odinga’s accusations.
Ruto has declared that he would not be intimidated by the demonstrations, saying: “You are not going to threaten us with ultimatums and chaos and impunity.”
“We will not allow that,” he said, calling on Odinga to act in a “legal and constitutional manner.”
China’s Xi arrives in Russia to meet Putin over Ukraine war
- Russia is presenting Xi’s trip as evidence that it has a powerful friend prepared to stand with it against a hostile West
Chinese President Xi Jinping flew into Moscow on Monday where he was expected to press Beijing’s role as a potential peacemaker in the Ukraine conflict while Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped for support against Western pressure.
Xi will be the first national leader to shake Putin’s hand since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him on Friday over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia since its invasion.
Moscow said the charge was among a number of “clearly hostile displays” and Beijing said it reflects double standards.
Russia is presenting Xi’s trip, his first since securing an unprecedented third term this month, as evidence that it has a powerful friend prepared to stand with it against a hostile West that it accuses of trying to isolate and defeat Moscow.
“We can feel the geopolitical landscape in the outside world undergoing drastic changes,” Putin said in an article in China’s People’s Daily published on the Kremlin website, adding that he had high hopes for the visit from his “good old friend.”
For Xi, the visit is a diplomatic tightrope.
China has released a 12-point proposal to solve the Ukraine crisis, but at the same time strengthened ties with Moscow.
China has repeatedly dismissed Western accusations that it is planning to arm Russia but says it wants a closer energy partnership after boosting imports of Russian coal, gas and oil following Putin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine. Western sanctions on Russian energy mean Beijing has saved billions of dollars.
Xi arrived in Moscow on Monday afternoon and was due to hold “informal” talks with Putin, followed by dinner.
Formal talks are scheduled for Tuesday.
Xi wrote in an article published in Russia that the two countries adhered to the concept of “eternal friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation” and that China’s Ukraine peace proposal, released last month, reflects global views.
“Complex problems do not have simple solutions,” Xi wrote in Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a daily published by the Russian government, according to a Reuters translation from Russian.
Ukraine and its Western backers say any cease-fire would merely buy Putin time to reinforce ahead of a planned Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will only consider peace settlements after Russian troops leave Ukrainian territory.
China’s proposal contains no concrete proposal on how to end the year-long war which has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed cities and forced millions to flee.
Putin welcomed China’s offer to mediate and the Kremlin said he would provide Xi with detailed “clarifications” of Russia’s position, without elaborating. Putin signed a “no limits” partnership with Xi last year shortly before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine to end what he said was a threat to Russia from its moves toward the West.
The US notes that China has declined to condemn Russia and given it an economic lifeline.
Alongside growing oil and coal deliveries to China, Putin said Russia was helping to build nuclear power reactors there and the two countries were deepening cooperation in space exploration and new technologies.
As Western pressure on Russia grows, Putin’s administration has told officials to stop using Apple iPhones because of concerns the devices are vulnerable to Western intelligence agencies, a newspaper reported on Monday.
“Either throw it away or give it to the children,” the Kommersant daily quoted a participant of the meeting as saying.
Justice ministers from around the world will meet in London on Monday to discuss support for the ICC and several European Union countries are expected to sign an agreement in Brussels to buy 155 mm artillery shells for Ukraine.
Ukraine has identified the shells’ supply as critical, with both sides firing thousands of rounds every day. The first joint orders are not expected until the end of May but EU officials hope the plan will encourage member states to send more of their stockpiles to Ukraine.
In Ukraine, fierce fighting continued in the eastern town of Bakhmut with each side launching counter offensives. Ukrainian forces have held out in Bakhmut since last summer in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
Giving its regular morning roundup from the front, Ukraine’s military said defenders in Bakhmut, Lyman, Ivanivske, Bohdanivka and Hryhorivka — all towns in the Donetsk region — had repelled 69 Russian attacks in the past day.
“Bakhmut remains the epicenter of hostilities,” it said.
British intelligence said Ukrainian supply lines both west of Bakhmut and west of the town of Avdiivka, further south, were under pressure.
Ukraine’s military said that Russian forces were on the defensive in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to the south.
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group which is spearheading the assault on Bakhmut and has suffered heavy losses, plans to recruit some 30,000 new fighters by the middle of May, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said at the weekend.
In January, the United States assessed that Wagner had about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 40,000 convicts Prigozhin had recruited from Russian prisons with a promise of a pardon if they survived six months.
Ukrainian officials have said that some 30,000 of Wagner’s fighters have deserted or been killed or wounded, a figure that could not be independently verified.
