The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Vladimir Putin

  • Russia suspends plutonium deal with U.S

    Russia has suspended an agreement with the United States on the disposal of surplus weapons-grade plutonium, the latest sign of worsening bilateral relations.

    In a decree, President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S of creating “a threat to strategic stability, as a result of unfriendly actions” towards Russia.

    Moscow also set pre-conditions for the U.S for the deal to be resumed, the BBC reports.

    Under the 2000 deal, each side is supposed to get rid of 34 tonnes of plutonium by burning it in reactors.

    It is part of cuts to nuclear forces.

    The U.S state department said the combined 68 tonnes of plutonium was “enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons.”

    Both sides had reconfirmed the deal in 2010.

    In Monday’s decree (in Russian), President Putin said Russia had to take “urgent measures to defend the security of the Russian Federation.”

     

  • Putin sacks chief of staff

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has unexpectedly dismissed his chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov.

    Mr. Ivanov has been part of Mr. Putin’s trusted inner circle for many years, the BBC reports.

    The 63-year-old has now been made a special representative for environmental and transport issues.

    A statement from the Kremlin said Mr. Putin had “decreed to relieve Ivanov of his duties as head of the Russian presidential administration,” but gave no reason for the decision.

    Mr. Ivanov’s deputy since 2012, Anton Vaino, has been appointed as his successor.

     

  • Russia demands ‘Putin corruption’ proof

    The Kremlin has called on the United States Treasury to come up with proof after it told the BBC it considered President Vladimir Putin to be corrupt.

    Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the allegation was an “official accusation” and a “total fabrication.”

    Adam Szubin, who oversees U.S Treasury sanctions, told the BBC that the U.S government had known Mr. Putin was corrupt for “many, many years.”

    It is thought to be the first time the U.S has made such a direct accusation.

    Washington has already imposed sanctions on Mr. Putin’s aides, but has stopped short of levelling corruption allegations at the president himself.

    U.S restrictions were placed on a number of Kremlin insiders in 2014, after President Putin ordered the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine.

    The European Union imposed similar measures against Russian companies and individuals, focusing on sectors of the Russian economy that were close to the elite.

    The U.S government stated at the time that President Putin had secret investments in the energy sector.

    Mr. Peskov told reporters in Moscow that the allegations would have looked like “another classic case of irresponsible journalism, if not for an official comment from a representative of the U.S finance

  • Sisi, Putin discuss cooperation in anti-terror campaign

    Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have discussed international cooperation in the fight against terrorism, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.

    The two leaders agreed in a telephone call on the need for greater international security cooperation, the statement said.

    Russia’s FSB security service, according to Reuters, said on Tuesday it was certain a bomb had brought down a Russian passenger plane in Egypt’s Sinai on October 31, joining Britain and the United States in reaching that conclusion.

  • Ukraine: Putin, Poroshenko meet amid tension

    Ukraine: Putin, Poroshenko meet amid tension

    Russian President Vladimir Putin began talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, yesterday as tensions flared on the two nations’ border.

    Putin said he’s ready for an exchange of opinions on Ukraine as he addressed a summit of the Russian-led Customs Union in Minsk, Belarus. Poroshenko said he’s optimistic about the meeting, which includes European Union foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton and the presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan.

    “I understand that all players who’ve been drawn into the situation would like to exit with dignity,” Poroshenko said in Russian. “I’m ready to discuss different options that would allow such an exit strategy — an exit to a peaceful future for Ukraine, an exit to a peaceful future for Europe.”

    The conflict between Ukraine’s government and pro-Russian separatists has left at least 2,000 dead since Putin annexed Crimea in March. Ukraine said today that 200 rebels and 12 Ukrainian servicemen died in the past 24 hours.

    A military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, accused Russia of attempting to “create a new front” in the fighting close to the Sea of Azov in the southern Donetsk region. Ukraine released video footage of Russian servicemen it said it captured when an armored column crossed the frontier yesterday.

    Poroshenko called for Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to support a peace plan for eastern Ukraine, saying his nation’s territorial integrity must be respected. He also said Ukraine’s free-trade pact with the EU is compatible with Customs Union rules and that his government is interested in agreements with the trading bloc championed by Putin.

    Ashton said peace in Ukraine is the goal of the talks.

    After the initial comments, the leaders went into closed-door negotiations. No separate bilateral meeting is planned between Putin and Poroshenko, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday.

    Meabwhile, a group of Russian soldiers captured in eastern Ukraine crossed the border “by accident”, Russian military sources are quoted as saying.

    Ukraine said 10 paratroopers were captured, and has released video interviews of some of the men.

    The two regions declared independence from Kiev following Russia’s annexation of the southern Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March.

    A Russian defence ministry source was quoted by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti as saying: “The soldiers really did participate in a patrol of a section of the Russian-Ukrainian border, crossed it by accident on an unmarked section, and as far as we understand showed no resistance to the armed forces of Ukraine when they were detained.”

    The source also said that some 500 Ukrainian servicemen had crossed the border at various times, adding: “We did not give much publicity to that. We just returned all those willing to return to Ukrainian territory at safe places.”

  • Russia ‘violated nuclear 1987 missile treaty’, says U.S.

    Russia ‘violated nuclear 1987 missile treaty’, says U.S.

    The United States Government has said that Russia has violated a key arms control treaty by testing a nuclear cruise missile.

    Russia tested a ground-launched cruise missile, breaking the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed in 1987 during the Cold War.

    According to a  senior US official, who  did not provide further details on the alleged breach,  described it as “very serious”.

    The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was a landmark Cold War agreement. It essentially eliminated an entire, and highly controversial, class of nuclear weapons. For that reason, it still has resonance.

    There have been questions dating back at least to 2008 over whether Russia was developing a weapon that might breach the treaty. So one issue is why Washington has decided to make its declaration now. Is it a reflection of the general deterioration in US-Russian relations, and in particular the fallout from the Ukraine crisis?

    Russia has said little. It might argue the Americans are simply wrong, that the missile falls below the range limit. But the widespread suspicion is that it does breach the limits of the treaty. Moscow might also argue the treaty has been overtaken by world events, that other countries are developing similar missiles, and – after all – the Americans pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty when it suited them.

    But there is also the argument that such an iconic treaty should actually be expanded beyond the US and Russia, rather than falling into disuse. The US claims come at a time of heightened tensions between the two sides, with the US criticising Russia for its alleged involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.

    US President Barack Obama has written to Russian leader Vladimir Putin over the matter, officials say.

    This is the first time the US government has made its accusations public, though the issue has simmered for years, the BBC’s Paul Blake in Washington reports.

    The 1987 treaty is at the heart of American-Russian arms control efforts, and was signed by then-Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the final years of the Cold War.

     

  • ‘China gas deal’ll affect prices in Europe’

    ‘China gas deal’ll affect prices in Europe’

    Russia’s landmark deal to supply natural gas to China will affect prices in Europe and have an impact on international liquefied natural gas projects, the chief executive of state-run Gazprom said on Friday.

    Russia and China signed a 30-year gas supply contract on Wednesday worth a total of more than $400-billion (237.5 billion pounds), during a visit by President Vladimir Putin to Shanghai.

    The EU has named 15 politicians and military leaders that will be subject to asset freezes and travel bans. But as Ivor Bennett reports few expect it to have a significant impact in Russia and Gazprom has warned it could be Europe that ends up suffering.

    “Literally a day ago a really historical event took place, an epoch-making event. We, Russia and Gazprom, have discovered the Asian gas market for ourselves,” Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

    “It can be assumed that the signing of the contract will affect gas prices on the European market,” he said without giving any details.

    Miller added that the deal will also have an impact on LNG projects in eastern Africa, Australia and western Canada.

     

     

    Fitch Ratings said on Thursday that the deal “sets a new benchmark for what China is willing to pay for natural gas over longer-term contracts”.

    The deal opens up a huge new market for Gazprom, which generates around 80 per cent of its revenue from Europe, where demand is stagnating and profits are falling.

    “This is the contract, which will influence the whole gas market,” Miller said.

    Neither side disclosed the price in the Russia-China contract, but industry sources said it was between $350 and $380 per 1,000 cubic metres, similar to what most European utilities pay under discounted long-term contracts signed in the last two years.

    Gazprom has yet to build a pipeline to carry 38 billion cubic metres of gas annually to China from 2018. Russia and China have agreed on a $25-billion prepayment under a supply deal, Alexander Medvedev, chief executive of Gazprom Export, said on Friday.

  • New U.S. sanctions on Russian officials, companies

    New U.S. sanctions on Russian officials, companies

    The United States levied new sanctions yesterday on seven Russian government officials, as well as 17 companies with links to Vladimir Putin’s close associates, as the Obama administration seeks to pressure the Russian leader to deescalate the crisis in Ukraine.
    The U.S. sanctions were implemented in coordination with the European Union, which moved to slap visa bans and asset freezes on 15 individuals alleged to be involved with stoking instability in eastern Ukraine.
    President Barack Obama announced the U.S. sanctions while traveling in the Philippines, the last stop on a weeklong trip to Asia. He said that while his goal was not to target Putin personally, he was seeking to “change his calculus with respect to how the current actions that he’s engaging in could have an adverse impact on the Russian economy over the long haul.”
    Among the targets of the new sanctions is Igor Sechin, the president of state oil company Rosneft, who has worked for Putin since the early 1990s. Sechin was seen as the mastermind behind the 2003 legal assault on private oil company Yukos and its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who at the time was Russia’s richest man. The most lucrative parts of Yukos were taken over by Rosneft, making it Russia’s largest company. Rosneft has a major partnership deal with ExxonMobil.
    In addition to the new sanctions, the U.S. is adding new restrictions on high-tech materials used by Russia’s defense industry that could help bolster Moscow’s military.
    Obama has been building a case for this round of penalties throughout his trip to Asia, both in his public comments and in private conversations with European leaders. The new sanctions are intended to build on earlier U.S. and European visa bans and asset freezes imposed on Russian officials, including many in Putin’s inner circle, after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine last month.
    But even with the new measures, Obama voiced pessimism about whether they would be enough to change Putin’s calculus.
    Also on the list of those sanctioned by the U.S. Monday are Aleksei Pushkov, the Kremlin-connected head of Russian parliament’s lower house, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, and Sergei Chemezov, another longtime Putin ally. The White House said Putin has known Chemezov, CEO of the state-owned holding company Rostec, since the 1980s, when they both lived in the same apartment building in East Germany.
    Most of the 17 companies on the list are controlled by three businessmen with close links to Putin: Gennady Timchenko, and brothers Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, all of whom were targeted by the first round of U.S. sanctions imposed in March.

    White House officials say they decided last week to impose additional penalties after determining that Russia had not lived up to its commitments under a fragile diplomatic accord aimed at easing the crisis in Ukraine. But the U.S. held off on implementing the sanctions in order to coordinate its actions with Europe.
    The EU is Russia’s biggest trading partner, giving it much greater economic leverage over Moscow than the U.S.. However, the EU treads more carefully in imposing sanctions since Russia is also one of its biggest oil and gas suppliers.

  • Ukraine crisis: NATO suspends co-operation with Russia

    Ukraine crisis: NATO suspends co-operation with Russia

    Nato foreign ministers have agreed to suspend all practical civilian and military co-operation with Russia.

    In a strongly worded statement, they condemned Russia’s “illegal” annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and praised the Ukrainian government’s “restraint”.

    Moscow is believed to have massed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s eastern border in recent days, causing alarm in Kiev and the West.

    Nato’s top official said there was no evidence troops had been pulled out.

    On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel he had ordered a partial withdrawal of Russian troops.

    But Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters: “Unfortunately, I cannot confirm that Russia is withdrawing its troops. This is not what we are seeing.”

    Ministers from the 28-member bloc gathered in Brussels for their first meeting since Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

    They agreed to suspend Nato co-operation with Russia in a number of bodies but added that dialogue in the Nato-Russia Council could continue, as necessary, at ambassadorial level and above “to allow us to exchange views, first and foremost on this crisis. We will review Nato’s relations with Russia at our next meeting in June”.

    They are also looking at options including situating permanent military bases in the Baltic states to reassure members in Eastern Europe. Russia’s actions in Ukraine have rattled nerves in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which were part of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

    Nato jets will take part in air patrols in the region later in a routine exercise that analysts say has taken on added significance due to the crisis. Several Nato countries, including the UK, US and France, have offered additional warplanes.

    Mr Rasmussen said Nato’s message was clear: it stood by its allies, it stood by Ukraine and it stood by the international system of rules that had developed in recent decades.

    He urged Russia to be part of a solution “respecting international law and Ukraine’s borders”.

    Answering questions from reporters, he said he expected Nato-Russia co-operation over Afghanistan – including counter-narcotics operations – to continue.

     

    Ukrainian ministers were also in Brussels to meet their Nato counterparts. And joint Nato-Ukraine statement issued after their meeting announced that they would intensify co-operation and promote defence reforms in Ukraine through training and other programmes.

    Speaking earlier, Mr Rasmussen praised what he termed the “exemplary restraint” shown by the Ukrainian government and military, and welcomed the advent of “solid democracy” in Ukraine.

    “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine challenges our vision of a Europe whole free and at peace,” Mr Rasmussen also said.

    But despite the uncompromising language, Mr Rasmussen concluded by saying: “The only path to follow is the political and diplomatic path.”

    In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry warned Kiev against any attempts to join Nato, saying such efforts in the past had “led to a freezing of Russian-Ukrainian political contacts, a ‘headache’ in Nato-Russia relations and… a deepening split within Ukrainian society”.

    Meanwhile, Russian energy firm Gazprom has announced an increase of the price it charges Ukraine for gas from Tuesday.

    Gazprom’s chief executive Alexei Miller said the price of Russian gas for Ukraine had gone up to $385.5 (£231) per 1,000 cubic metres in the second quarter of 2014 from the previous rate of $268.5.

    Mr Miller added that Ukraine’s unpaid gas bills to Russia stood at $1.7bn.

  • Ukraine crisis: Putin signs Russia-Crimea treaty

    President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Crimea have signed a bill to absorb the peninsula into Russia.

    Mr Putin told parliament that Crimea, which was taken over by pro-Russian forces in February, had “always been part of Russia”.

    Kiev said it would never accept the treaty and the US has called a G7-EU crisis meeting next week in The Hague.

    After the signing, Kiev said a Ukrainian serviceman had been killed in an attack on a base in Crimea. The defence ministry said the attack took place in the capital, Simferopol.

    US Vice-President Joe Biden, speaking earlier in Poland, said Russia’s involvement in Crimea was “a brazen military incursion” and its annexation of the territory was “nothing more than a land grab” by Moscow.

    The Ukrainian foreign ministry said: “We do not recognise and never will recognise the so-called independence or the so-called agreement on Crimea joining the Russian Federation.”

    Ukraine’s interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the Crimea crisis had moved from the political to the military stage.

    Germany and France quickly condemned the Russia-Crimea treaty.

    UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: “It is completely unacceptable for Russia to use force to change borders on the basis of a sham referendum held at the barrel of a Russian gun.”

    Mr Putin later appeared before crowds in Moscow’s Red Square, telling them: “Crimea and Sevastopol are returning to… their home shores, to their home port, to Russia!”

    He shouted “Glory to Russia” as the crowds chanted “Putin!”

    The Ukrainian crisis began in November last year after pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned an EU deal in favour of stronger ties with Russia. He fled Ukraine on 22 February after deadly protests.

    Crimean officials say that, in a referendum held in the predominantly ethnic-Russian region on Sunday, 97% of voters backed splitting from Ukraine.

    The EU and US have declared the vote illegal. Travel bans and asset freezes have been imposed on government officials and other figures in Russia, Crimea and Ukraine, but these have been largely dismissed as ineffectual in Russia.

    In a televised address in front of both houses of parliament and Crimea’s new leaders, Mr Putin said: “In the hearts and minds of people, Crimea has always been and remains an inseparable part of Russia. The referendum had been legal and its results were “more than convincing”, he said.

    “The people of Crimea clearly and convincingly expressed their will – they want to be with Russia,” he said, and were no longer prepared to put up with the “historical injustice” of being part of Ukraine.

    Crimea was transferred from Russia to Ukraine while under Soviet rule in 1954.

    Mr Putin criticised Ukraine’s post-uprising leaders and those behind the unrest, saying they were “extremists” who had brought chaos.

    He also praised the “courage, bearing and dignity” of Crimeans, and thanked all Russians for their “patriotic feeling”.

    The West, he said, had behaved “irresponsibly” in backing the uprising, and he denied Russia was interested in annexing more territory.

    “Don’t trust those who frighten you with Russia… we do not need a divided Ukraine” he said.

    Russia “will of course be facing foreign confrontation,” he said, adding: “We have to decide for ourselves, are we to protect our national interest or just carry on giving them away forever?”

    The audience frequently applauded Mr Putin at length during his emotionally charged speech, and gave him a standing ovation.

    President Putin, Crimea’s Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, the region’s Speaker Vladimir Konstantinov and the mayor of Sevastopol, Alexei Chaliy, then signed a treaty on making the Black Sea peninsula a part of Russia.

    Earlier, Mr Putin had recognised Crimea as a sovereign state and approved a draft bill on its accession to the Russian Federation.

    The bill must now be approved by the constitutional court and then ratified by parliament.

    The BBC’s Richard Galpin in Moscow says the process is likely to be completed by the end of the week.

    Western powers have roundly condemned Tuesday’s treaty. The UK was suspending “all bilateral military co-operation [with Russia] not subject to treaty obligations”, Foreign Secretary William Hague told Parliament.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the referendum, the declaration of independence and Crimea’s “absorption into the Russian Federation” were “against international law”.

    French President Francois Hollande called for a “strong and coordinated European response” to the Russian moves.