U.N. calls Russia ‘occupying power’
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. General Assembly has passed a resolution that recognizes Crimea as “temporarily occupied” by Russia and condemns the “abuses” and “discrimination” against Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians, and other groups on the peninsula. The General Assembly vote on December 19 was 70 in favor and 26 against the resolution, with 77 countries abstaining. The resolution also calls on Russia, as an “occupying power,” to end all abuses against people living in Crimea, including arbitrary detentions, torture and other “cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.” Serhiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s vice minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement after the General Assembly’s vote that the human rights situation on Crimea had “deteriorated sharply” since Russian forces took control of the Ukrainian territory in February 2014 and illegally annexed it. Mr. Kyslytsya noted that the latest report on Crimea by the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, released on December 8, described the situation since Russia took control as a “climate of repression against dissenting voices.” The General Assembly resolution was first approved by the U.N.’s human rights committee on November 15. Russia had lobbied against the resolution, calling it “politically motivated” and “one-sided.” (RFE/RL)
Verkhovna Rada passes 2017 budget
KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament has approved a budget for 2017, raising its chances of securing more aid from the International Monetary Fund under a $17.5 billion loan package. The document approved by 274 to 226 on December 21 keeps the budget deficit at 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), in line with the IMF’s guidelines. Legislators had intended to pass the budget weeks ago. Delays in approving it have held up the disbursement of another $1.3 billion loan, causing foreign exchange reserves to fall below the central bank’s target. The IMF and other international backers have propped up Ukraine’s economy since the country plunged into turmoil in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of a separatist war in the east. Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk called the new budget “realistic” and said it was needed to give momentum to economic reform. The budget projects economic growth of 3 percent next year, up from 1 percent in 2016. The IMF said last month that to secure more loans, Ukraine needed to pass a suitable budget and step up efforts to fight corruption – including by jailing crooked officials. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters and TASS)
NATO, Moscow still at odds over Ukraine
BRUSSELS – NATO and Russia still “have profound disagreements on the crisis” in Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after the NATO-Russia Council, their main forum for dialogue. The council held more than three hours of talks in Brussels on December 19. It was only the third such meeting of the council in 2016. NATO has suspended all practical cooperation with Russia after Moscow’s seizure and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in March 2014. Mr. Stoltenberg said NATO allies “reiterated their strong support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and insisted that they would never “recognize Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea.” The meeting also looked at ways to avoid incidents and accidents between Russian and NATO forces. Russia has annoyed NATO with snap military exercises or by buzzing the alliance’s ships and aircraft with fighter jets, as well as what NATO sees as aggressive use of propaganda. Douglas Lute, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, told ABC News on December 18 that “I don’t believe that anyone in Russia today intends to attack NATO.” But Mr. Lute added, “I worry about attempts by Russia… to influence political campaigns, flooding allied capitals, the news media with misinformation or disinformation and all these with an attempt to fragment internally our societies, perhaps distort our political processes, and to sow discontent and a lack of cohesion across the allies.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels, AP, and Reuters)
EU extends sanctions against Russia
BRUSSELS – The European Union has extended sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine for another six months. The European Council formally approved the extension on December 19 after EU leaders agreed to the move at a summit last week. “The council prolonged the economic sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy until July 31, 2017,” the council said in a statement. The sanctions target the financial, energy and defense sectors, and material that can be used for both industrial and military means. Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande voiced support for prolonging the sanctions. They faulted Moscow for failing to do its part in implementing the Minsk accords. While agreement on the extension was reached with little trouble by the 28-member EU, supporters of the sanctions fear it could be far harder to prolong them again next summer, even if there is little progress toward implementation of the Minsk accords. That is in part due to the impending exit of Britain, which has supported the measures, as well as opposition to the sanctions in some other countries and uncertainty about the U.S. stance after President-elect Donald Trump – who has vowed to seek to improve relations with Russia – takes office in January. Meanwhile, French voters appear likely to elect a president who is less critical of Russia than Mr. Hollande in an election in the spring. (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL’s Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak)
FBI cuts ties with Poroshenko accuser
KYIV – The U.S. Justice Department has cut ties with a fugitive Ukrainian member of Parliament who said he had turned over damning evidence proving the corruption of Ukraine’s president, a spokesman told RFE/RL on December 16. The disclosure confirms for the first time that the department had held talks with the lawmaker. Oleksandr Onyshchenko, the runaway lawmaker, said on December 1 that he had handed FBI agents audio recordings he made of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and members of his inner circle discussing schemes to steal money from state and private companies and buy votes in parliament – charges the president’s administration vehemently denies. Since then, Mr. Onyshchenko has gone on a media blitz, discussing the allegations – which included a complex scheme to drive down the approval ratings of the former prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, to make way for a Poroshenko ally – contacting Ukrainian and international media as well as RFE/RL. The scandal has caused an uproar in Ukraine, where the public is becoming increasingly frustrated by the slow progress of anticorruption reforms. But despite having met with Mr. Onyshchenko, the Justice Department said it would not be contacting him again and gave no indication that it would pursue the allegations. “While the Department of Justice does not usually comment on such meetings, in light of Mr. Onyshchenko’s decision to speak publicly in this regard, we can state that the U.S. Department of Justice has no plans to have further meetings or communications with Mr. Onyshchenko,” Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr told RFE/RL by e-mail without saying when, where, or how many times the department met with him. Mr. Carr declined to say what specifically – if anything – Mr. Onyshchenko had handed over to U.S. law enforcement. As a general matter, Mr. Carr explained, the Department of Justice and U.S. law enforcement agents will meet with individuals who claim to have evidence regarding violations of U.S. law. But the mere fact of such a meeting is not an indication that such violations have occurred or that the individual’s information is considered to be accurate. Mr. Onyshchenko, who fled Ukraine before being stripped of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution last summer, is being investigated by Ukrainian authorities for allegedly stealing $64 million from a state gas producer. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has accused Mr. Onyshchenko of spying for Russia. His current whereabouts are unknown, although he has spent much of his time in London since leaving Ukraine. Mr. Poroshenko’s office, which dismissed the Onyshchenko accusations as “the expedient fiction of the suspect” in a statement to RFE/RL on December 7, has gone on the offensive and even threatened to sue some journalists who report on the lawmaker’s claims. (Christopher Miller of RFE/RL)
Biden hopes for hostage swap
WASHINGTON – U.S. Vice-President Joseph Biden supports the decision by the Ukrainian side to turn over 15 prisoners from a list of representatives of various districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and hopes Russia and pro-Russia militants will react to the goodwill gesture. “The VP expressed his support for the decision of Ukrainian officials to unilaterally free 15 individuals… with the hope Russia and pro-Russia militants will respond in kind… It is a gesture of goodwill and will give an impulse to the exchange of prisoners foreseen in the Minsk agreements,” the U.S. White House said on Friday following talks between Mr. Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. According to the White House, the interlocutors confirmed resolute support for the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and underlined the necessity of a full ceasefire and ensuring the complete access of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for monitoring the withdrawal of forces along the disengagement line. The leaders agreed that sanctions against Russia must remain in place until Russia fully complies with its obligations under the Minsk agreements. In addition, Vice-President Biden expressed the hope that the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will be ratified in the near future and Ukrainians will soon receive visa-free status in Europe. (Interfax-Ukraine)
Netherlands, EU reach deal on Ukraine
BRUSSELS – European Union leaders have reached an agreement about a demand from the Netherlands on a deal that would establish closer ties between the EU and Ukraine. The EU’s Association Agreement with Ukraine is vital to Kyiv’s efforts to establish closer ties with the West since mass protests toppled pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014. The Netherlands is the only country that has not ratified the deal, with Dutch voters rejecting it in a referendum in April. The Dutch government had asked the EU for additional guarantees to ensure that ratification of the Association Agreement does not lead to EU membership for Ukraine. On December 15, EU leaders meeting in Brussels agreed to issue a special statement saying Ukraine’s Association Agreement “does not confer on Ukraine the status of a candidate country for accession to the Union, nor does it constitute a commitment to confer such status to Ukraine in the future.” The statement also says the pact “does not contain an obligation for the union or its member states to provide collective security guarantees or other military aid or assistance to Ukraine.” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will now take the proposal to the Dutch parliament for a vote on whether to override the April referendum results. Mr. Rutte said the next day that he is confident the Dutch Parliament will approve the compromise he secured from other European Union leaders on an EU-Ukraine pact, and his government on December 16 prepared legislation clearing the way for Parliament to approve the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL Correspondent Rikard Jozwiak, DPA, AFP, Reuters and AP)
AI on Crimean Tatars’ persecution
LONDON – Amnesty International has decried what it called Russia’s “systematic persecution” of the Crimean Tatars since “the occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation” in 2014. In a December 15 report, the London-based rights group said Russian authorities use “repressive tactics… against the Crimean Tatar community and other dissenting voices.” The report also said that “Russia imposed its legislation wholesale on the Crimean territory – in breach of international law – which has enabled the authorities to pursue key figures in the Tatar community” on trumped-up charges. It criticized steps Moscow has taken against the Crimean Tatars’ self-governing body, the Mejlis. Russian authorities have barred the Mejlis from operating in Crimea, labeling it as an “extremist organization” and criminalizing any association with it. “All restrictions on the Mejlis must be lifted, and criminal proceedings designed to harass and intimidate its members and others that peacefully oppose the Russian occupation and annexation should cease,” said John Dalhuisen, director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Program. (RFE/RL)
Rights activist tricked into interview
MOSCOW – Prominent Russian human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alekseyeva says journalists from pro-Kremlin NTV television tricked her into giving an interview by claiming they were with RFE/RL. The 89-year-old head of the Moscow Helsinki Group also said that NTV took her comments out of context when it aired excerpts from the interview, and paired them with footage in a way that made her appear to criticize migrants. Ms. Alekseyeva told RFE/RL’s Russian Service that NTV journalists phoned her twice several days ago. After she rejected their request for an interview in the first call, they called a second time and presented themselves as RFE/RL correspondents, she said. She said she agreed, believing they were RFE/RL, and invited them to interview her at her Moscow apartment. When the journalists were leaving the apartment after the interview, Ms. Alekseyeva said, her assistant noticed the NTV logo on their equipment cases. A brief excerpt aired on NTV on December 18 showed her appearing to comment on footage of a man – identified by NTV as a migrant – pushing a woman on a subway staircase in Berlin. It showed Ms. Alekseyeva calling the man “a scoundrel.” German media reported that the man in the footage was an EU citizen from Bulgaria. On Facebook, NTV spokeswoman Maria Bezborodova did not comment directly on the phone calls but said the journalists had told Ms. Alekseyeva that they were from NTV, and called it a “strange situation.” In NTV footage from the end of the interview, one of the journalists can be heard telling Ms. Alekseyeva when the material will air and adding, “on NTV,” but it is unclear whether she hears that. Ms. Alekseyeva said she would not have knowingly agreed to be interviewed by NTV. The channel, which is controlled by the media arm of Russian natural gas giant Gazprom, has targeted Kremlin opponents in documentaries and reports that subjects and their supporters say have been falsified. (RFE/RL’s Russian Service)
Navalny slams Kremlin on Ukraine
MOSCOW – Russia has turned close neighbor Ukraine into a “hostile state” through its aggression, Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny has said in an interview. Mr. Navalny, an anti-corruption crusader and opposition leader who announced last week that he plans to run for president in 2018, spoke to RFE/RL’s Russian Service on December 20. Mr. Navalny cited the level of animosity in Ukraine toward Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and has backed separatists in a war that has killed more than 9,750 people in eastern Ukraine since that April. “We just see that with our own hands we have created a hostile state where… people hate Russia en masse,” Mr. Navalny said. He said that “a couple of generations” will have to pass before ties with “the culturally and linguistically” close neighbor can return to normal. He also said that to make sure that no Russian troops are on Ukrainian territory, Russia must fully implement the Minsk agreements on resolution of the conflict in Ukraine’s east, where Russia-backed separatists control some districts. If elected, Mr. Navalny said, he would initiate “a normal referendum” in Crimea to legally define the status of the peninsula. Russia seized control of Crimea in March 2014 after flooding the peninsula with troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by Ukraine, the United States, and a total of 100 United Nations member states. Mr. Navalny predicted that recent and upcoming elections in the United States and European Union countries will have little long-term effect on their relations with Russia, in part because election cycles mean leaders in the West can frequently be replaced. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will seek to improve ties with Russia, which are badly strained by Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Syria, among other things. But, Mr. Navalny said, “Trump is supported by Republicans, and Republicans are very belligerent on [Russia-related] issues.” (Abridged from a story written by Merhat Sharipzhan based on an interview by RFE/RL’s Russian Service)