BELGRADE: Serbian authorities on Friday allowed into the country a Russian antiwar activist who was previously denied entry and had spent more than one day at the Belgrade airport.
Peter Nikitin said he received no explanation from the authorities for what happened. A fierce critic of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Nikitin told Serbian media he believed Moscow was behind his ordeal.
“I have no idea how I became persona non grata. The only explanation is that this was done on Putin’s order,” he said. “This is an illustration how big an influence Russian regime holds here.”
Though it formally seeks European Union membership and has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Serbia has maintained friendly relations with Moscow and refused to impose Western-backed sanctions over the aggression.
Serbia’s pro-Russian intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin this week was sanctioned by the United States for alleged crime and corruption and for aiding “Russian malign influence.” Serbian media have reported that Vulin wiretapped a Russian opposition meeting in Belgrade in 2021, which he has denied.
Nikitin holds both Russian and Dutch citizenship and has a residence permit for Serbia, where he and his family have lived for years.
He was turned back early on Thursday upon returning from a trip abroad and told to return to Frankfurt, Germany, from where he had flown in. Nikitin refused this and stayed at the Belgrade airport until he was allowed into the country on Friday.
Nikitin is well known as an outspoken critic of Putin and of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was one of the organizers of antiwar and pro-democracy protests in Serbia called for by Russians and Ukrainians living in the country.
Some 200,000 Russian citizens have moved to Serbia since the start of the war in Ukraine as the Balkan country requires no entry visas for Russians and is a fellow-Slavic nation. Many have fled being drafted into the army or moved their businesses to a sanctions-free country.
Russian antiwar activist allowed into Serbia after spending more than a day at the Belgrade airport
https://arab.news/4gc4v
Russian antiwar activist allowed into Serbia after spending more than a day at the Belgrade airport
- A fierce critic of Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Nikitin told Serbian media he believed Moscow was behind his ordeal
- “I have no idea how I became persona non grata. The only explanation is that this was done on Putin's order,” he said
Britain needs ‘AI stress tests’ for financial services, lawmakers say
- Lawmakers urge AI-specific stress tests for financial firms
LONDON: Britain’s financial watchdogs are not doing enough to stop artificial intelligence from harming consumers or destabilising markets, a cross-party group of lawmakers said on Tuesday, urging regulators to move away from what it called a “wait and see” approach.
In a report on AI in financial services, the Treasury Committee said the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England should start running AI-specific stress tests to help firms prepare for market shocks triggered by automated systems.
The committee also called on the FCA to publish detailed guidance by the end of 2026 on how consumer protection rules apply to AI, and on the extent to which senior managers should be expected to understand the systems they oversee.
“Based on the evidence I’ve seen, I do not feel confident that our financial system is prepared if there was a major AI-related incident and that is worrying,” committee chair Meg Hillier said in a statement.
TECHNOLOGY CARRIES ‘SIGNIFICANT RISKS’
A race among banks to adopt agentic AI, which unlike generative AI can make decisions and take autonomous action, runs new risks for retail customers, the FCA told Reuters late last year.
About three-quarters of UK financial firms now use AI. Companies are deploying the technology across core functions, from processing insurance claims to performing credit assessments.
While the report acknowledged the benefits of AI, it warned the technology also carried “significant risks” including opaque credit decisions, the potential exclusion of vulnerable consumers through algorithmic tailoring, fraud, and the spread of unregulated financial advice through AI chatbots.
Experts contributing to the report also highlighted threats to financial stability, pointing to the reliance on a small group of US tech giants for AI and cloud services. Some also noted that AI-driven trading systems may amplify herding behavior in markets, risking a financial crisis in a worst-case scenario.
An FCA spokesperson said the regulator welcomed the focus on AI and would review the report. The regulator has previously indicated it does not favor AI-specific rules due to the pace of technological change.
The BoE did not respond to a request for comment.
Hillier told Reuters that increasingly sophisticated forms of generative AI were influencing financial decisions. “If something has gone wrong in the system, that could have a very big impact on the consumer,” she said.
Separately, Britain’s finance ministry appointed Starling Bank CIO Harriet Rees and Lloyds Banking Group ‘s Rohit Dhawan as “AI Champions” to help steer AI adoption in financial services.
