Future of Putin pal Shoigu on line after Wagner revolt

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, speaks with Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, left, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, after a meeting with senior military officers in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. (AP)
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Updated 26 June 2023
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Future of Putin pal Shoigu on line after Wagner revolt

  • The Wagner chief had previously accused Shoigu and Russia’s top General Valery Gerasimov, his other bete noire, of being responsible for the deaths of “tens of thousands of Russians” in the conflict and the “surrender of territory to the enemy”

PARIS: They have sun-bathed bare-chested together in remote Siberia, shared fishing holidays and played on the same ice hockey team.
Russia’s long-serving Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has long been seen not just as a political ally of President Vladimir Putin but one of the Kremlin chief’s few friends within the Russian elite.
But their bromance and Shoigu’s decades-long political career now face their biggest test after the revolt led by Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had lambasted the defense minister’s handling of the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin appears to have for now survived the revolt after a surprise mediation led by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. But Shoigu’s position remains deeply precarious due to the unprecedented severity of the attacks by Prigozhin against him and his ministry.
Prigozhin succeeded in capturing the Russian army’s southern command headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, the nerve center of the invasion of Ukraine, and accused Shoigu of fleeing “like a coward” and vowing he “will be stopped.”
The minister of defense was nowhere to be seen at the time and has, for the moment, completely vanished from the public view.
The Wagner chief had previously accused Shoigu and Russia’s top General Valery Gerasimov, his other bete noire, of being responsible for the deaths of “tens of thousands of Russians” in the conflict and the “surrender of territory to the enemy.”

“The big winner of the night was Lukashenko,” said Arnaud Dubien, director of the Franco-Russian Observatory think tank. “The big loser was Shoigu.”
But even before the revolt broke out on Friday night, Shoigu had been under immense pressure due to Prigozhin’s attacks and the failure of the Russian armed forces to make progress.
On June 12 a video was widely shared, with Putin and Shoigu attending a handing out of medals at a military hospital, where the Russian president was shown turning his back on the defense minister in apparent disdain.
Shoigu has had a career of unmatched political longevity in post-Soviet Russia and his presence at the center of power in Moscow predates that of Putin himself.
Hailing from the Tuva region of southern Siberia, Shoigu is among the few non-ethnic Russians to have occupied a top post in government after the collapse of the USSR.
He began his ascent in 1994 when he was appointed emergency situations minister in the early years of the presidency of Boris Yeltsin.
Shoigu became a familiar and unflappable presence for Russians, as well as one of the country’s most popular politicians, as he raced around the country to deal with disasters ranging from plane crashes to earthquakes.
Serving under a dozen prime ministers, he held that post until 2012, when he was appointed governor of the Moscow region before swiftly being named defense minister by Putin the same year after a corruption scandal felled his predecessor Anatoly Serdyukov.

He was immediately named a general, despite having no high-level military experience, but successfully oversaw operations including the 2015 intervention in Syria which has kept Moscow’s ally Bashar Assad in power.
For his 65th birthday, Putin had a special present for his friend, one of Russia’s highest decorations, the “For Merit to the Fatherland” medal to add to a chest already stuffed with decorations.
But the far less successful invasion of Ukraine — which the Kremlin initially hoped would see Russian tanks roll into Kyiv — has persistently raised questions about his future.
“Prigozhin wanted to send the message that Shoigu and Gerasimov must be fired because they are incompetent and a change of strategy is needed,” said Pierre Razoux, academic director of the France-based Mediterranean Foundation of Strategic Studies (FMES).
There are no more expressions of macho friendship or pictures as in 2017 of the two men with their shirts off bronzing their chests by a river on the Siberian taiga.
Instead, Shoigu has been reduced to mumbling encounters reporting to Putin or simply consigned to a video screen as the Kremlin chief oversees a video conference.
Prigozhin has also taken aim at Shoigu’s family, in particular the husband of his daughter Ksenia, Alexey Stolyarov, a fitness blogger who has steered well clear of the war and has been accused by opposition media of liking a post opposing the invasion.
Russian-language Telegram channels have fizzed with speculation over who could succeed Shoigu, with the governor of the Tula region Alexei Dyumin, who has held top army and presidential security posts, seen as favorite.
“Shoigu’s group is on the verge of collapse, and Sergei Kuzhugetovich himself is in disgrace and, most likely, will resign,” said the widely followed Telegram channel Preemnik.
 

 


Trump insults Detroit while campaigning in the city

Updated 10 sec ago
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Trump insults Detroit while campaigning in the city

DETROIT: Former President Donald Trump criticized Detroit while delivering remarks to an economic group there on Thursday, saying the whole country would end up like the city if his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is elected.
“The whole country will be like — you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit,” the Republican presidential nominee said. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president.”
Trump’s remarks came as he addressed the Detroit Economic Club in a speech appealing to the auto industry, a key segment of the population in battleground Michigan’s largest city. But he made conflicting remarks about Detroit throughout the speech, saying it was a “developing” city in an apparent compliment.
Democrats in the state were quick to criticize Trump for his comments. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan lauded the city’s recent drop in crime and growing population.
“Lots of cities should be like Detroit. And we did it all without Trump’s help,” he said on social media.
US Rep. Shri Thanedar, who represents Detroit, said on social media that Trump should “keep Detroit and our people out of your mouth.” Referring to Trump’s efforts to win Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel said on X, “This guy is calling us ugly and then asking us out on a date.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has been a major surrogate for the Democratic presidential ticket, shot back at Trump, saying on X, “And you better believe Detroiters won’t forget this in November.”
Wayne County, which is home to Detroit, hasn’t been kind to Trump in previous elections. In both 2016 and 2020, Trump got about 30 percent of the vote in Wayne, losing the county by huge margins.
Trump’s campaign said in a statement after his appearance that Detroit has “suffered from globalist policies championed by Kamala Harris” that have led to manufacturing moving overseas.
“As President Trump emphasized in his speech, his policies will usher in a new era of economic success and stability for Detroit, helping the city reach its fullest potential,” said Victoria LaCivita, Trump’s Michigan communications director.
Trump’s comments come as many in the city feel that Detroit has turned the corner from national joke to national attraction. Nearly a decade from exiting its embarrassing bankruptcy, the Motor City has stabilized its finances, improved city services, stanched the population losses that saw more than a million people leave since the 1950s and made inroads in cleaning up blight across its 139 square miles.
Detroit is now a destination for conventions and meetings. In April, Detroit set an attendance record for the NFL draft when more than 775,000 fans poured into the city’s downtown for the three-day event. And just a few hours after Trump’s remarks, thousands of people were expected to pour into the same area as the city’s baseball team, the Tigers, aimed to win their AL Division Series.
Some event attendees understood Trump’s Detroit comment to be in reference to the city’s previous financial woes.
“I don’t think it was intentional on his part,” said Judy Moenck, 68. “There was blight. Now tremendous work has been done, and Detroiters will feel probably a little bit hurt by that.”
Her husband, Dean Moenck, 74, who said he no longer considers himself a Republican in Trump’s GOP, said the comment fits into his campaign rhetoric style, “bringing out the negative things of Detroit.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has insulted the city he’s campaigning in.
While in New York for his civil fraud and criminal trials, he routinely bashed the city, calling it dirty and crime-ridden and arguing that its overwhelmingly Democratic residents might be swayed to vote for him over concerns about migrants and safety.


Scholz denies halting German arms exports to Israel, pledges weapons

Updated 10 October 2024
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Scholz denies halting German arms exports to Israel, pledges weapons

  • The pledge put him at odds with French President Macron, who has suggested an embargo on weapons for use in Gaza
  • German opposition politician Sahra Wagenknecht has said German weapons deliveries to Israel are “aiding and abetting war crimes”

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected claims Thursday that Berlin had imposed a de facto stop on arms exports to Israel and said more defense goods would be sent soon.
The pledge put him at odds with France, where President Emmanuel Macron last week suggested an embargo on weapons for use in Gaza, sparking a sharp rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Scholz told the German parliament that “we have not decided to stop delivering weapons. We have delivered weapons and we will deliver weapons.”
The government had taken steps “that ensure that there will be further deliveries soon,” Scholz added, without specifying what equipment would be sent.
Conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz had charged, during a parliamentary session on Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, that the German government had for months failed to approve any new arms deliveries to Israel.
Germany has long sought to atone for the Holocaust by pledging steadfast support for Israel but the relationship has come under strain since the October 7 attack sparked the devastating Gaza war.
Berlin has repeatedly joined other Western governments in calling for ceasefires in Gaza and in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hamas’ ally Hezbollah.
Merz — the CDU party’s candidate who hopes to topple Scholz in elections next September — alleged there were “cracks in Germany’s solidarity” with Israel.
For months “the government has been refusing to grant export permits for the delivery of ammunition and even for the delivery of spare parts for tanks to Israel,” he charged.
The parliamentary group leader of Scholz’s SPD party, Rolf Muetzenich, insisted Berlin was supporting Israel with weapons as well as humanitarian and financial aid.
He added that the use of defense exports must “comply with international humanitarian law.”
German far-left opposition politician Sahra Wagenknecht sharply criticized German weapons deliveries to Israel, saying they are “aiding and abetting war crimes.”
“Israel has the right to protect itself and its citizens,” she told the Rheinische Post daily. “But Israel does not have the law on its side when it razes Gaza to the ground and buries its inhabitants under rubble and ash with unbridled ruthlessness.”
She added that “this brutality is being repeated in Lebanon. Israel’s government, which is partly made up of right-wing radicals, is threatening to plunge an entire region into the abyss. There must be no weapons from Germany for this.”
 


Erdogan inaugurates mosque in Albania, pledges military drones as he begins Balkan tour

Updated 11 October 2024
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Erdogan inaugurates mosque in Albania, pledges military drones as he begins Balkan tour

  • Two sides sign agreements to boost cooperation in agriculture and education
  • Erdogan will also visit Serbia as he tries to boost ties with a region once ruled by the Ottoman empire

TIRANA, Albania: Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled Thursday to Albania’s capital to inaugurate a Turkish-funded mosque with 50-meter-high minarets as part of a trip to boost ties and discuss regional issues.
Erdogan also said that his country would give an unspecified number of drones to boost military capabilities in Albania, whose population is slightly more than 50 percent Muslim.
The new Namazgah mosque in Tirana is one of the largest in the Balkans.
Erdogan met with Albanian President Bajram Begaj and later with Prime Minister Edi Rama, with whom he has close ties. Following a meeting of top officials from both countries, the two sides signed agreements to boost cooperation in agriculture and education.

A view of The Great Mosque of Tirana or Namazgah Mosque, the largest mosque in the Balkans, on the day of its inauguration on October 10, 2024. (REUTERS)

Turkiye is a strategic partner of Albania and one of its largest investors, contributing to infrastructure and other sectors. Erdogan said the two countries should aim to double their annual trade to 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion).

Some 600 Turkish companies employ more than 15,000 people in Albania, Erodgan said in February when he hosted Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
It is one of the five biggest foreign investors in the country, he said, with $3.5 billion (3.2 billion euros) committed there.
Construction of the new mosque was started in 2015 with some 30 million euros ($34 million) from the state-run Turkish Muslim organization Diyanet.
The construction already had been completed for more than a year, but the inauguration was delayed because of Erdogan’s concerns that a group that Turkiye calls the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, or FETO, would have influence over the mosque.
Under agreements reached with the local Albanian Muslim community, Turkiye’s Diyanet organization will have representation on the mosque’s governing board.

Turkiye says that FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated a failed coup in Turkiye on July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and nearly 2,200 wounded. Gulen has denied any involvement.
In addition to the four minarets, the Namazgah mosque has a central dome of 30 meters and the capacity to hold 8,000 people. It sits on a 10,000-square-meter parcel of land near Albania’s parliament, and the first floor includes a cultural center.
The site is near landmark Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals.
Sunni Muslims make up nearly 46 percent of Albania’s population, and Bektashi Muslims another 5 percent. Catholics are 8 percent and Orthodox Christians 7 percent, according to a 2023 census. The various religious groups live together peacefully without tensions.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, his wife Emine Erdogan and Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama cut the ribbon, during the inauguration of the Namazgah Mosque in Tirana on October 10, 2024. (REUTERS)

Kamikaze drones

At a briefing after the meetings, Rama said Turkiye’s gift of military drones sends a “very clear message” that “Albania cannot be attacked.”
“It is a present that comes as a strong message from the Republic of Turkiye that Albania is unhittable,” Rama told a joint news conference during on one-day visit by Erdogan.

The so-called kamikaze drone is a loitering munition that cruises toward its target before plummeting at velocity and detonating on impact.
Rama also said that the acquisition of an unspecified number of Turkish kamikaze drones does not mean “Albania will attack anyone.”
Most countries in the Western Balkans, including Albania, have started to upgrade their aging militaries after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Albania and Turkiye are both members of NATO. The government in Tirana has already acquired a fleet of Turkish-made Bayraktar reconnaissance and attack drones.

Trip to Serbia

On Friday, Erdogan will move on to Serbia, where Turkiye made a major diplomatic comeback in 2017 with a landmark visit to Belgrade.
The trip helped Erdogan and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic mend ties between the countries.
The five centuries of the Ottoman presence in Serbia have traditionally weighed heavily on relations between Belgrade and Ankara.
Another source of tension has been Turkiye’s cultural and historic ties with Serbia’s former breakaway province of Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade still refuses to recognize.
But Erdogan’s 2017 visit repaired Turkiye’s relationship with Serbia, Belgrade-based analyst Vuk Vuksanovic told AFP.
Since then “the Balkans is quite a success story for Turkiye,” he added.

Even so, it has not been all plain sailing with Belgrade furious last year when Turkiye sold drones to Kosovo, something Serbia said was “unacceptable.”
But the row could be patched up, the analyst insisted.
“I would not be surprised if we see a military deal at the end of this visit,” Vuksanovic said.
He expected the talks in Belgrade to focus on “military cooperation, the position of Turkish companies, and attempts by Belgrade to persuade Ankara to tone down support for Kosovo.”
Even though the rapprochement is relatively recent, economic ties between the two countries are already significant.
Turkish investment in Serbia has rocketed from $1 million to $400 million over the past decade, the Turkiye-Serbia business council told Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.
Turkish exports to Serbia hit $2.13 billion in 2022, up from $1.14 billion in 2020, according to official Serbian figures.
Turkish tourists are also hugely important for Serbia, second only in visitor numbers to those from Bosnia.
 

 

 


Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims

Harrods is advising new complainants to obtain advice through the Harrods Survivors Group legal team or another legal team.
Updated 10 October 2024
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Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims

  • New allegations have emerged after the BBC last month aired an expose claiming he had raped and sexually abused women during his ownership of Harrods

LONDON: More than 200 women are now in settlement talks with Harrods over alleged abuse by its former owner Mohamed Al Fayed, the upmarket London department store said Thursday.
The Egyptian billionaire died last year aged 94. But new allegations have emerged after the BBC last month aired an expose claiming he had raped and sexually abused women during his ownership of Harrods.
“Since the airing of the documentary, so far there are 200+ individuals who are now in the Harrods process to settle claims directly with the business,” the store said in a statement.
Separately, the BBC said Thursday that another 65 women had told them they were abused by Fayed, while lawyers for the Justice for Harrods Survivors group representing alleged victims said they now have more than 70 clients.
Harrods is advising new complainants to obtain advice through the Harrods Survivors Group legal team or another legal team.
The new allegations sent to the BBC stretch back to 1977, include sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape: 37 of the 65 new claimants had worked at the UK’s most famous shop, the broadcaster added.
Justice for Harrods Survivors said women were now “feeling safe to come forward” and that the number of accusers was “increasing on a daily basis.”
The group “now retains 71 clients and is processing a further 220 inquiries” having been contacted by people from all around the world, it added.
London’s Metropolitan Police said it was also investigating a number of new allegations.
In 2008, Fayed was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl and prosecutors reviewed evidence in 2009. In 2015 he was investigated over claims of rape two years earlier.
In both instances, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was no “realistic prospect of conviction” and did not bring charges against the Harrods chairman.
Harrods’ managing director, Michael Ward, has admitted his former boss presided over a “toxic culture of secrecy, intimidation, fear of repercussion and sexual misconduct.”
But he said he had not been “aware of his criminality and abuse” and expressed his “personal horror at the revelations.”
Fayed’s accusers say the assaults took place in his apartments in London and his properties in Paris, including the Ritz hotel. The businessman also owned Fulham Football Club.
Allegations include a repeated pattern of women who underwent a selection process for positions close to Fayed, and an “invasive” gynaecological examination, the results of which were shared with Fayed.
The women said when they tried to complain about their abuse they were threatened by senior security staff, demoted and subject to false allegations until they had “no choice” but to leave Harrods.
Fayed sold Harrods to the investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund for a reported £1.5 billion ($2.2 billion).


Princess Kate joins husband William on visit to English town hit by killings, riot

Britain’s Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales, speak to members of the emergency services.
Updated 10 October 2024
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Princess Kate joins husband William on visit to English town hit by killings, riot

  • Disinformation spread on social media in the aftermath of the July attack wrongly identified the assailant as an Islamist migrant, and led to violent clashes

LONDON: Prince William was accompanied by wife Kate on Thursday for their first joint public engagement since she ended chemotherapy treatment, meeting bereaved families of three young girls murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in Southport.
Southport, a quiet seaside town in northwest England, drew a global spotlight on July 29 when three girls were stabbed to death and other children were seriously hurt in an attack on the summer vacation event. Rioting then broke out days later.
On their visit on Thursday, William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, spoke privately with families of the victims and a dance teacher who was present at the time of the attack, and later met representatives from local emergency services who had responded to the incident.
“We continue to stand with everyone in Southport,” the pair said in a statement through their office, Kensington Palace, signed with their initials.

Britain's Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales, arrive to meet rescue workers and the families of those caught up in the Southport knife attack earlier this year in Southport, England, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP)


“Meeting the community today has been a powerful reminder of the importance of supporting one another in the wake of unimaginable tragedy. You will remain in our thoughts and prayers.”
It was one of the first engagements Kate has carried out since she began to slowly return to work after ending her course of preventative chemotherapy for cancer, and it was her first in public since then.
Kate’s unexpected appearance came because the couple wanted to visit to show their support to the families and community, and let them know they had not been forgotten.
The visit echoes one made by William’s father King Charles who went to Southport in August where he met some of the surviving children and their families.
Disinformation spread on social media in the aftermath of the July attack wrongly identified the assailant as an Islamist migrant, and led to violent clashes between protesters and police in Southport, and an attempt to attack the town’s mosque.
A teenager, who was 17 at the time of the incident, has been charged with carrying out the murders.
Days of similar rioting followed across the country which police and the government blamed on far-right thuggery, leading to about 1,500 arrests and almost 400 people being jailed as the authorities sought to stamp out the trouble.