International

US, UK, most EU nations to boycott Putin inauguration

Published

2 weeks ago

May 7, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin

US, UK, most EU nations to boycott Putin inauguration

The United States and most European Union nations have said they will not send envoys to Tuesday’s inauguration of Vladimir Putin as Russian president.

Putin, 71, secured a fifth term in office in a March election that critics said lacked democratic legitimacy.

He gained 87.28 percent of the vote, weeks after the sudden death of his most vocal critic, Alexey Navalny, in an Arctic prison.

“We will not have a representative at his inauguration,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. “We certainly did not consider that election free and fair but he is the president of Russia and he is going to continue in that capacity.”

The United Kingdom and Canada said they would not send anyone to the ceremony, while a spokesperson for the European Union told the Reuters news agency the bloc’s ambassador to Russia would not attend the inauguration, in keeping with the position of most of the EU’s member states.

The three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – which have withdrawn their ambassadors from Moscow – ruled out attending the inauguration.

“We believe that the isolation of Russia, and especially of its criminal leader, must be continued,” Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said.

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“Participation in Putin’s inauguration is not acceptable for Lithuania. Our priority remains support for Ukraine and its people fighting against Russian aggression.”

The Czech Republic is also expected to snub the ceremony, while Germany’s Foreign Office said its representative would not attend – it earlier recalled its ambassador over alleged Russian cyberattacks.

An aide to Putin said the heads of all foreign diplomatic missions in Moscow including those from “unfriendly states” had been invited to attend the inauguration, which starts at noon (09:00 GMT) and will be broadcast live on Russian television.

Putin is due to arrive in a luxury motorcade – state-run RT reported modifications to his armoured Aurus limousine including improved sound insulation and all-round cameras – at the Grand Kremlin Palace. The one-time KGB spy will then walk through the palace corridors to the ornate Saint Andrew Hall, where he will take the presidential oath and make a brief address. He will also received a blessing from the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The ceremony is taking place a day after Russia announced plans for a tactical nuclear weapons drill, blaming what it said were “provocative” moves by Western countries over Ukraine. Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.

“Ukraine sees no legal grounds for recognising him as the democratically elected and legitimate president of the Russian Federation,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony, it said, sought to create “the illusion of legality for the nearly lifelong stay in power of a person who has turned the Russian Federation into an aggressor state and the ruling regime into a dictatorship”.

Despite the apparent boycotts, France, Hungary and Slovakia are all expected to send representatives to the ceremony, Reuters reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.

Speaking alongside China’s president on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “We are not at war with Russia or the Russian people, and we have no desire for regime change in Moscow.”

The source said France had previously condemned the context of repression in which the election was held, depriving voters of a real choice, as well as the organisation of elections in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, which France considers a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.

Franco-Russian relations have deteriorated in recent months as Paris has increased its support for Ukraine.

Last week, Macron said it would be legitimate for France to send troops to Ukraine if Russia broke through the Ukrainian front lines and Kyiv requested assistance.

US, UK, most EU nations to boycott Putin inauguration

International

JUST IN: Helicopter carrying Iran’s president crash-lands

Published

1 hour ago

May 19, 2024

Trends Admin

JUST IN: Helicopter carrying Iran’s president crash-lands

A helicopter carrying Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, has been involved in an plane crash on Sunday.

The incident happened while he was visiting neighbouring Azerbaijan, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on X on Sunday according to CNN.

“Some of the president’s companions on this helicopter were able to communicate with Central Headquarters, raising hopes that the incident could have ended without casualties,” it added.

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It is unclear what the exact status is of Raisi’s helicopter.

The helicopter was part of a convoy of three helicopters. Two of those helicopters were carrying ministers and officials who arrived at their destination safely, according to Tasnim.

“Seyyed Mohammad-Ali Al-Hashem, Tabriz’s Friday Prayer Imam, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were also reportedly on the helicopter with the president,” Tasnim said on X.

JUST IN: Helicopter carrying Iran’s president crash-lands

International

Biden may face pro-Palestine protests during address of US black voters

Published

2 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Joe Biden

Biden may face pro-Palestine protests during address of US black voters

Joe Biden is likely to be greeted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during his speech at the former university of Martin Luther King Jr in the United States president’s latest bid to attract Black voters.

Biden’s graduation speech on Sunday at Morehouse College in Atlanta in the election battleground state of Georgia is aimed at encouraging Black and young voters to help him win later this year against former President Donald Trump.

Those were two groups that helped him win the presidency in 2020, but have been increasingly dissatisfied with him due to the handling of the war on Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians so far, mostly women and children.

The protests at Morehouse, a historically Black college, come after students called on the school to cancel Biden’s speech over his support for Israel despite the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The White House last week sent a senior official to meet students and faculty members at Morehouse to discuss the objections to Biden’s speech, according to US broadcaster NBC News.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday said Biden sought to use the speech as “an opportunity to lift up and to give an important message to our future leaders”.

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Bernice King, the civil icon’s daughter, told Bloomberg in an interview last week that Black voters are “very disgruntled right now with the president” and that Biden risks losing a considerable share of their votes.

The civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) had said Biden should not speak at Morehouse.

“His team should have made the decision that this is not the right time to take the spotlight from Morehouse students to the president and his bad policy on Gaza,” CAIR’s Edward Ahmed Mitchell said.

The controversy over the Morehouse speech is coming after weeks of major protests at US universities, including the Atlanta college, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from Israel.

Biden said “order must prevail” on campuses, and police have made thousands of arrests across the US while attacking student encampments.

Protesters were arrested during a violent police crackdown in New York’s Brooklyn on Saturday, while hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Washington, DC to demand an end to bloodshed in Gaza and the arming of Israel by the US.

The protests, which have spread globally, are continuing amid the Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, along with a deadly incursion into Jabalia in the north.

Meanwhile, Israel is allowing very little aid into the enclave, and the US is proceeding with a much-criticised plan to deliver humanitarian assistance via a temporary floating pier.

Biden may face pro-Palestine protests during address of US black voters

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

International

Nearly 10,000 evacuated in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region after Russia attack

Published

1 day ago

May 18, 2024

Trends Admin

Nearly 10,000 evacuated in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region after Russia attack

Nearly 10,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region since a ground attack launched by Russian forces on May 10, its governor said Saturday.

The assault may only be the first wave of a wider offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told AFP.

Over a week after its launch, “a total of 9,907 people have been evacuated,” governor Oleg Synegubov said.

They were fleeing Russian soldiers who managed to advance between five to 10 kilometres (three to six miles) along the northeastern border before being stopped by Ukrainian forces.

Synegubov said Ukraine’s armed forces had repelled two attempts to break through defences overnight.

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The situation was “under control” with “defenders in certain areas conducting assault… and combing operations.”

Moscow has been attacking several settlements including Vovchansk, just five kilometres from the border.

“In the area of the city of Vovchansk, Ukrainian troops are reinforcing their defence,” Synegubov said.

There are about 100 people left in the city where “heavy fighting” is taking place, he added later.

Russian forces have taken 278 square kilometres (107 square miles) between May 9 and 15, their biggest gains since the end of 2022, AFP calculated using data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Russia’s offensive “could consist in several waves. There was the first wave” in the Kharkiv region, Zelensky told AFP journalists.

Zelensky played down Russia’s gains in the offensive but added: “We have to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory. Not vice versa. And that’s still their advantage.”

Speaking about the offensive during a visit to China on Friday, President Vladimir Putin said it was a response to Ukraine shelling Russian border regions.