PARIS: The leaders of a pro-Russia group in France behind a poster campaign declaring “Russia is not my enemy” have been taken into custody and are being held on suspicion of intelligence-gathering for a foreign power.
The SOS Donbass group confirmed the arrest of its founder, Anna Novikova, in a Telegram post. The group’s president, Vincent Perfetti, is also facing charges, his lawyer said. The Paris prosecutor’s office identified them on Wednesday only as Anna N. and Vincent P., saying that both are in detention.
The breakup of the alleged intelligence-gathering operation came as French President Emmanuel Macron warned about Russian destabilization efforts targeting France, a key backer of Ukraine in the nearly four-year war.
Macron said this week that Russia is waging “hybrid wars” against Europe, including by employing proxies.
“It pays people, mercenaries. It has pushed people to carry out destabilization activities in our countries,” he said.
In videos posted by SOS Donbass, Novikova and Perfetti have both promoted posters that are downloadable on the group’s website and which show a handshake in the Russian colors and the words, “Russia is not my enemy.”
The prosecutor’s office said that the pair face preliminary charges of criminal conspiracy, intelligence contacts with a foreign power and gathering information for a foreign power — crimes each punishable by up to 10 years in prison as well as large fines. It didn’t name the foreign power.
In a text message to The Associated Press, Perfetti’s lawyer called the accusations “absurd” and “a worrying shift toward the criminalization of pro-Russian opinions.”
“This isn’t an espionage case,” said the lawyer, David Bocobza. “It’s a case of poster-stickers.”
The SOS Donbass website says Novikova founded the group in 2022 after visiting the Donbas, the name that Russians use for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine that Moscw’s forces have largely occupied.
The organization describes itself as a humanitarian nongovernmental organization that collects funds and distributes aid to Donbas residents “who have been bombarded by the Ukrainian army with NATO weapons.” It also says that it wants to “build a bridge of peace between Europe and Russia.”
According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, Novikova is a 40-year-old French-Russian national who was born in Russia. It said the General Directorate of Internal Security, or DGSI, France’s domestic secret service that specializes in counterespionage, has been investigating her activities.
She is “suspected of having approached executives from various French companies in order to obtain information related to French economic interests,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
SOS Donbass said Novikova was arrested in Paris last week.
According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, two other men were also taken into custody. It identified them as Vyacheslav P. and Bernard F.
It said Vyacheslav P. is a 40-year-old Russian who is alleged to have fixed pro-Russia posters onto the Arc de Triomphe in September. The posters showed a Russian soldier and the words “say thank you to the victorious” Soviet soldier.
Vyacheslav P. faces preliminary charges of criminal conspiracy and property damage to serve a foreign power.
He remains in detention, was identified in video footage as being the person who stuck posters on the Paris landmark, and had contacts by phone with Novikova, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Preliminary charges of criminal conspiracy and intelligence contacts with a foreign power have been filed against Bernard F., a 58-year-old French national who isn’t in detention, but is barred from leaving France and must report weekly to authorities.
French government, intelligence and military officials say Russia has increasingly been targeting France with cyberattacks, disinformation and other destabilization efforts — tactics also employed against other countries backing Ukraine.
Mapping by the AP of the disruption campaign has documented dozens of incidents across Europe since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Russian nationals among 4 people arrested in France over espionage investigation
https://arab.news/m23nx
Russian nationals among 4 people arrested in France over espionage investigation
- The SOS Donbass group confirmed the arrest of its founder, Anna Novikova
- Macron said this week that Russia is waging “hybrid wars” against Europe, including by employing proxies
Youth voters take center stage in Bangladesh election after student-led regime change
- About 45% of Bangladeshis eligible to vote in Thursday’s election are aged 18-33
- Election follows 18 months of reforms after the end of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule
DHAKA: When he goes to the polls on Thursday, Atikur Rahman Toha will vote for the first time, believing that this election can bring democratic change to Bangladesh.
A philosophy student at Dhaka University, Toha was already eligible to vote in the 2024 poll but, like many others, he opted out.
“I didn’t feel motivated to even go to vote,” he said. “That was a truly one-sided election. The election system was fully corrupted. That’s why I felt demotivated. But this time I am truly excited to exercise my voting rights for the first time.”
The January 2024 vote was widely criticized by both domestic and international observers and marred by a crackdown on the opposition and allegations of voter fraud.
But the victory of the Awami League of ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was short-lived, as a few months later the government was ousted by a student-led uprising, which ended the 15-year rule of Bangladesh’s longest-serving leader.
The interim administration, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, took control in August 2024 and prepared a series of reforms to restructure the country’s political and institutional framework and organize the upcoming vote.
About 127.7 million Bangladeshis are eligible to cast their ballots, according to Election Commission data, with nearly a third of them, or 40.4 million, aged 18-29. Another 16.9 million are 30-33, making it a youth–dominated poll, with the voters hopeful the outcome will help continue the momentum of the 2024 student-led uprising.
“We haven’t yet fully transitioned into a democratic process. And there is no fully stable situation in the country,” Toha said. “After the election we truly hope that the situation will change.”
For Rawnak Jahan Rakamoni, also a Dhaka University student, who is graduating in information science, voting this time meant that her voice would count.
“We are feeling that we are heard, we will be heard, our opinion will matter,” she said.
“I think it is a very important moment for our country, because after many years of controversial elections, people are finally getting a chance to exercise their voting rights and people are hoping that this election will be more meaningful and credible. This should be a fair election.”
But despite the much wider representation than before, the upcoming vote will not be entirely inclusive in the absence of the Awami League, which still retains a significant foothold.
The Election Commission last year barred Hasina’s party from contesting the next national elections, after the government banned Awami League’s activities citing national security threats and a war crimes investigation against the party’s top leadership.
The UN Human Rights Office has estimated that between July 15 and Aug. 5, 2024 the former government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with “violent elements” linked to the Awami League, “engaged systematically in serious human rights violations and abuses in a coordinated effort to suppress the protest movement.”
It estimated that at least 1,400 people were killed during the protests, with the majority shot dead from military rifles.
Rezwan Ahmed Rifat, a law student, wanted the new government to “ensure justice for the victims of the July (uprising), enforced disappearances, and other forms of torture” carried out by the previous regime.
The two main parties out of the 51 contesting Thursday’s vote are the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami. Jamaat, which in 2013 was banned from political participation by Hasina’s government, heads an 11-party alliance, including the National Citizen Party formed by student leaders from the 2024 movement.
“I see this election as a turning point of our country’s democratic journey … It’s not just a normal election,” said Falguni Ahmed, a psychology student who will head to the polls convinced that no matter who wins, it will result in the “democratic accountability” of the next government.
Ahmed added: “People are not voting only for their leaders; they are also voting for the restoration of democratic credibility. That’s why this election is very different.”
