Russia meddling caused ‘serious mistrust
MANILA – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he has told his Russian counterpart that Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election created “serious mistrust” between the two countries. Mr. Tillerson, speaking on August 7 on the sidelines of a regional forum in Manila, said he emphasized in a meeting with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov that interference in the election was “a serious incident.” He said he tried to help Mr. Lavrov “understand just how serious this incident had been and how seriously it had damaged the relationship between the U.S. and the American people and the Russian people, that this had created serious mistrust and that we simply have to find some way to deal with that.” The chief U.S. diplomat also warned Mr. Lavrov that Washington was deciding on a response to the Kremlin’s decision to order a substantial reduction in the size of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia, a move made in retaliation for a new set of sanctions slapped on Russia by the United States. He asked Mr. Lavrov “several clarifying questions” about Moscow’s retaliatory moves and warned his Russian counterpart that the U.S. would respond to these actions by September 1. Nevertheless, the secretary of state said the United States still wants to work with Moscow and that it was “not useful” to cut all ties based on one issue. “We should find places we can work together. …In places we have differences we’re going to have to continue to find ways to address those,” he told reporters. “The fact that we want to work with them on areas that are of serious national security interest to us, and at the same time having this extraordinary issue of mistrust that divides us, that is just what we in the diplomatic part of our relationship are required to do,” he said. Mr. Tillerson also told reporters that Moscow had indicated “some willingness” to seek ways to move forward on matters related to Ukraine. He noted that the United States has a new special representative for negotiations on the conflict, Kurt Volker, who traveled to Ukraine in July to assess the situation. “We appointed a special envoy to engage with Russia but also coordinating with all parties. This is full visibility to all parties,” he said. “We are not trying to cut some kind of deal on the side.” Hours earlier, Russia’s foreign affairs minister said he believed his U.S. counterpart was ready to continue dialogue with Russia on complex issues despite the bilateral tensions and the imposition of new U.S. sanctions. “We felt the readiness of our U.S. colleagues to continue dialogue. I think there’s no alternative to that,” Mr. Lavrov said after what he said was a lengthy meeting with Mr. Tillerson. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, TASS, AFP and AP)
Pentagon: Send military aid to Ukraine
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Defense Department has recommended sending a package of lethal defensive military aid to Ukraine worth about $50 million, U.S. news media are reporting. The Wall Street Journal, NBC, The New York Times and other media outlets have cited unnamed Defense Department officials as saying the recommendation has been forwarded to the White House for consideration. A Pentagon official would not confirm the reports but told NBC on August 4 that “we haven’t ruled anything out.” The reports are in line with comments made in an interview with Current TV on July 25 by the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine negotiations, Kurt Volker, who said the administration is considering sending “defensive arms” to Ukraine. The reported weapons package purportedly would include Javelin shoulder-launched anti-tank missiles. Ukraine has long sought the Javelins to defend against Russian-made armored vehicles operating in rebel-held areas. Until now, the U.S. military has been training the Ukrainian army in methods to stop armored vehicles without missiles, such as by laying wire traps that damage treads of tracked vehicles. The New York Times reported the military aid would also include anti-aircraft arms that would be defined as defensive weapons. During a visit to Kyiv last month, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg asserted that Russia has “thousands” of troops on Ukrainian soil. Although Russia denies military involvement in the conflict, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 determined the conflict to be “an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Stars And Stripes, BBC and The New York Times)
UCCA reacts to sanctions’ enactment
NEW YORK – The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the largest representative body of Americans of Ukrainian descent, On August 2 issued a statement following the enactment of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA (H.R. 3364). Having previously advocated for meaningful assistance programs such as the Ukraine Freedom Support Act (2014), the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (2015), and the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act (2016), the UCCA had repeatedly called upon their fellow supporters of Ukraine to contact their elected Representatives to pass this critical legislation. In the statement, the UCCA welcomes the “codifying [of] all existing sanctions imposed on Russia for its illegal annexation of Crimea and its military invasion of Ukraine,” as well as the “strong, bipartisan support for Ukraine” demonstrated by the U.S. Congress in passing CAATSA by overwhelming, veto-proof majorities: 98-2 in the Senate and 419-3 in the House. Responding to the two signing statements issued by the White House, the UCCA’s statement called upon President Trump to “stand firm with the United States Congress and openly denounce Russia’s attacks on American democracy, our NATO partners, as well as Russia’s invasion and occupation of America’s strategic ally, Ukraine.” The statement concludes with a call to “supply Ukraine with antitank systems and other defensive weaponry, as already authorized by Congress.” Since the beginning of 2017, there have been nearly 2,000 recorded attacks by Russian forces across the ‘ceasefire’ line in Ukraine, with dozens of civilians killed this year alone, bringing Russia’s death toll in Ukraine to over 10,000. (UCCA)
Kremlin echoes Trump’s assessment
WASHINGTON – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says the Kremlin agrees with President Donald Trump’s statement that the U.S. “relationship with Russia is at an all-time and very dangerous low.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a regular conference call on August 4, “We fully share this opinion,” adding, “The danger may lie in a deficit of interaction and cooperation in those matters which are vitally important for our two countries and peoples,” he said. Mr. Trump made the remark on Twitter on August 3. He blamed the state of ties between Moscow and Washington on the U.S. Congress, which adopted a bill last week imposing new sanctions on Russia and preventing the president from easing the punitive measures without its consent. “You can thank Congress, the same people that can’t even give us HCare!” Trump said in the tweet, referring to a defeat in the Senate for his plans for health-care legislation. The president signed the sanctions legislation – which was passed with veto-proof majorities in both houses of Congress – on August 2. U.S. lawmakers said the legislation is a response to Russia’s occupation and illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, its support for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, and its alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election that Trump won. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a prominent advocate of a tough stance toward Russia, took issue with Mr. Trump’s assertion that Congress is to blame for the strained ties with Russia. “Our relationship w/ Russia is at dangerous low. You can thank Putin for attacking our democracy, invading neighbors & threatening our allies,” Sen. McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, tweeted on August 3. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, AP, Interfax and RIA)
Medvedev on U.S. sanctions bill
KYIV – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev sharply denounced the sanctions bill signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump on August 2, saying it ends hope for improving relations and ignites “an all-out trade war with Russia.” He wrote on Facebook: “The hope for improving our relations with the new U.S. administration is now over.” Mr. Medvedev attacked U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to sign the bill in a bow to Congress, where it passed with sizable majorities that ensured lawmakers could override any potential veto. “Trump’s administration has demonstrated total impotence by surrendering its executive authority to Congress in the most humiliating way,” Mr. Medvedev said. “The American establishment has won an overwhelming victory over Trump. The president wasn’t happy with the new sanctions, but he had to sign the bill.” Mr. Medvedev said the bill’s sanctions, aimed at punishing Russia for allegedly meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria, will only make Russia grow stronger as it is forced to develop new markets and industries. “We will continue to work calmly to develop our economy and social sphere, deal with import substitution, and solve important government tasks counting primarily on ourselves,” he said. “We have learned how to do it over the past few years.” With the sanctions sealed into law, Mr. Medvedev said they will aggravate U.S.-Russia relations for years to come and will be almost impossible to reverse. (Mike Eckel of RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, TASS and Interfax)
Pro-Kyiv activist sentenced in Crimea
SYMFEROPOL – A court in Ukraine’s Russia-controlled Crimea region has sentenced pro-Kyiv activist Volodymyr Balukh to prison on charges of weapons and explosives possession he says was politically motivated. The Rozdolne District Court convicted Mr. Balukh on August 4 and sentenced him to three years and seven months in prison. He pleaded not guilty and says the case was groundless. Mr. Balukh is one of dozens of Crimeans whom Russia has prosecuted in what rights groups say has been a persistent campaign to silence dissent since Moscow seized control over the Ukrainian region in March 2014. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that officers searched Mr. Balukh’s home in December and found 90 bullets and some explosives in the attic. The search was conducted shortly after Mr. Balukh planted a Ukrainian flag in his yard and affixed a sign to his house that read 18 Heavenly Hundred St. The Heavenly Hundred is a term Ukrainians use for the dozens of people killed when security forces sought to disperse protesters in Kyiv whose demonstrations drove Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February 2014. Rights groups say Crimea residents who opposed Russia’s takeover have faced discrimination and abuse at the hands of the Moscow-imposed authorities. In March, the European Parliament called on Moscow to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists. (Crimean Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
U.N., OSCE resolutions presented at trial
SYMFEROPOL, Ukraine – Resolutions from the United Nations General Assembly and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region have been presented at the trial of Mykola Semena, an RFE/RL contributor who is fighting what he says is a politically motivated separatism charge. Mr. Semena told RFE/RL after the trial’s August 3 session in the Crimean capital, Symferopol, that the judge agreed to include the resolutions on Crimea into the case file. He expressed hope that the documents, as well as Russian laws that guarantee freedom of expression, would be taken into consideration by the court. Both international resolutions condemned the annexation of Crimea as illegal under international law. The hearing was adjourned until August 31. The charge against the 66-year-old Mr. Semena stems from an article he wrote for RFE/RL’s Krym.Realii (Crimea Realities) website in 2015. The Kremlin-installed prosecutor in Crimea charged that the article called for the violation of Russia’s territorial integrity. Mr. Semena faces up to five years in prison if convicted. His trial has been postponed several times since it started in late March. (Crimean Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Russia not ‘transparent’ about Zapad
PRAGUE – A senior U.S. general in Europe says the U.S. military is keeping a close eye on Moscow’s planned military exercises in Russia and Belarus – exercises that some experts say could involve 100,000 troops. U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. John Healy, who directs U.S. forces’ military exercises in Europe, told Reuters on August 3 that Moscow was not being “transparent” in regard to its Zapad 2017 exercises because it is not allowing Western observers. He said Russian observers attended the recent U.S. and NATO exercises in the Black Sea region, but a similar invitation has not been extended for the Zapad maneuvers set for September. Russia has said the war games do not require invitations to outside observers, claiming they will involve fewer than 13,000 troops. Brig. Gen. Healy said the U.S. military is stepping up its own global exercises in response to a more aggressive Russia and other worldwide threats. He said the goal was to carry out more challenging exercises that involve forces from all nine U.S. combatant commands – instead of focusing on specific regions or one military service. The general said it was important to conduct war games and training events that reflect the global nature of military threats in the current environment, including cyberwarfare. He said the U.S. military plans 11 major exercises in the next year that will include air, ground, and naval forces with a range of NATO allies. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters)
Saakashvili speaks at Warsaw event
WARSAW – Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region who was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship in late July, has taken part in Poland’s commemorations marking the anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation. Speaking at a ceremony in Warsaw on August 4, Mr. Saakashvili thanked Poles and their country for their contribution to “the fight of Ukraine and my native Georgia against the [Russian] aggressor.” He noted: “Just like Poland had faced the dilemma to be or not to be, Ukraine and Georgia also faced the same question caused by the same reasons, to remain or not to remain on the world’s map,” adding that Ukraine and Georgia followed the path Poland had left for them in 1944. “Poland is a symbol of freedom in this part of Europe and an example for Ukraine, Georgia, and other nations in the region,” Mr. Saakashvili said. He also credited the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s arrival in Tbilisi in August 2008 – when bolstered Russian forces in Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia launched attacks on adjacent regions of Georgia – with stopping Russia from expanding its presence in other regions of Georgia. “The absence of beautiful buildings and the big walls of old Warsaw destroyed in the 1940s is a symbol of the Polish nation’s indestructible soul,” Mr. Saakashvili said. Mr. Saakashvili arrived in Warsaw from the United States for what was his first international trip since Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship on July 26. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Telewizja Republika and YouTube)
Yanukovych treason trial adjourned again
KYIV – A Ukrainian judge has adjourned the in-absentia treason trial of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Judge Vladyslav Devyatko rejected a request by Mr. Yanukovych to give him another month to get acquainted with the case and adjourned the trial until August 10. Judge Devyatko also denied a motion on August 3 by Mr. Yanukovych’s state-appointed lawyer, Vitaliy Meshechek, for a one-month delay. Mr. Yanukovych’s previous lawyers withdrew from the case on July 6, saying the former president had informed them that he no longer needed their services. Mr. Yanukovych announced on that day that he would not participate in the trial, charging that it was politically motivated. The court then decided to hold the trial in absentia and provide Mr. Yanukovych with a state-appointed lawyer. Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Mr. Yanukovych, who is accused of treason, violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and abetting Russian aggression. After he fled Ukraine, Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and fomented opposition to the central government in eastern Ukraine, where the ensuing war between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014. (Crimean Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
German party head on Crimea annexation
KYIV – The head of Germany’s Free Democratic Party (FDP) has said in an interview that Germany may need to accept the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region as a “permanent provisional arrangement.” Christian Lindner told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain on August 5 that the move might be necessary to allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to change his policies while still saving face. “The conflict over the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia must be ‘encapsulated’ in order to make progress in other areas,” he said. “We have to get out of the dead-end situation,” he added. “To break a taboo, I fear that we must see the Crimea as a permanent provisional arrangement, at least for now.” In a video statement after the interview was published, Mr. Lindner stressed that recognizing Crimea’s annexation was still unacceptable, the Kyiv Post reported. According to the Tagesschau news website, Mr. Lindner’s comments contradicted the FDP’s official election platform. “We Free Democrats are calling on the Russian government to put an immediate end to the illegal occupation of the Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine,” the platform says. Mr. Lindner’s remarks were sharply criticized by Gernot Erler, Germany’s Russia policy coordinator and a member of the Social Democrats (SPD). Mr. Erler told Funke Mediengruppe that Europeans had agreed to focus on ending the violence in eastern Ukraine before tackling the issue of Crimea in a political process at a later point. “It would be helpful if Mr. Lindner would also stick to this agreement,” he said. “A common European approach is imperative, especially in light of President [Donald] Trump’s withdrawal from the previous consensus approach of the West.” Political polls indicate the FDP could re-enter the German Parliament in the September 24 elections after dropping below the required 5 percent in the 2013 vote. It is seen as a potential coalition partner for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is looking to govern without the need for an SPD alliance. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, TASS and Kyiv Post)
Pro-Kyiv Russian activist on hunger strike
MOSCOW – A Russian activist in the southern region of Krasnodar jailed for propagating extremism and separatism online has started a hunger strike in custody, her mother says. Darya Polyudova’s mother, Tatyana Polyudova, says her daughter started the hunger strike on August 2 to protest conditions in the penal colony. According to Tatyana Polyudova, other inmates in the penal colony constantly mistreat her daughter and provoke her into conflicts. She added that political prisoners should be kept separately from other convicts. Tatyana Polyudova said her daughter suspects the penal colony’s administration is behind the pressure on her. Darya Polyudova was sentenced to two years in a minimum-security penal colony in December 2015, becoming the first person in Russia convicted under a law criminalizing calls for separatism on the Internet, legislation that came into force in May 2014. She was indicted in 2014 after she made pro-Ukrainian statements online critical of Moscow for its support of pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between government forces and the separatists has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014. The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has added Ms. Polyudova to its list of political prisoners in Russia. (RFE/RL’s Russia Service, with reporting by OVD-Inf)
Pussy Riot calls for Sentsov’s release
PRAGUE – Maria Alyokhina says she and another member of the Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot have been detained after staging a protest near the remote prison where Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov is incarcerated. Ms. Alyokhina wrote on Twitter on August 7 that she and Olga Borisova were detained outside the prison near the city of Yakutsk, nearly 5,000 kilometers east of Moscow, a day after they hung a banner reading “Free Sentsov” on a bridge nearby. Mr. Sentsov is from Crimea, the Ukrainian region that Russia forcibly seized in 2014. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of plotting terrorist attacks in 2015, a charge he and supporters say is groundless and politically motivated punishment for his opposition to the Russian takeover. Ms. Alyokhina and fellow Pussy Riot performer Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for a stunt in which band members burst into Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in February 2012 and sang a “punk prayer” against then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was campaigning for his return to the presidency at the time. Ms. Alyokhina and Ms. Tolokonnikova were close to the end of their two-year prison sentences when they were freed in December 2013, under an amnesty they dismissed as a propaganda stunt to improve Mr. Putin’s image ahead of the February 2014 Sochi Olympics. They have focused largely on fighting for the rights of prisoners since their release. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Mediazona)
Long prison term sought for Tatar leader
SYMFEROPOL, Ukraine – A state prosecutor in Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Crimea region has asked a court to convict a prominent Crimean Tatar leader, Akhtem Chiygoz, and sentence him to eight years in prison. The prosecutor made the sentencing recommendation at the trial in the regional capital, Symferopol, on August 7. Mr. Chiygoz is a leader of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar assembly that was outlawed by Russia after Moscow’s forcible takeover of the Black Sea peninsula. He has been held by the Russian authorities since January 2015, and is charged with organizing an illegal demonstration in Symferopol in February 2014. Defense lawyers say the charge is absurd because the demonstration against Russian moves to seize control of Crimea came before Moscow illegally annexed the peninsula the following month, and no Ukrainian laws were violated. Rights groups say his trial is part of a persistent campaign of reprisals against Crimeans who opposed Russia’s seizure of the region. Russia has been sharply criticized by international rights groups and Western governments for its treatment of members of the indigenous Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority. Mr. Chiygoz, 52, and two other Crimean Tatars charged in connection with the demonstration – Ali Asanov and Mustafa Degermendzhy – are recognized as political prisoners by the Russian human rights group Memorial. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and other international organizations have called for their release. (Crimean Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Athletes suspended over doping charges
KYIV – Two Ukrainian athletes, including an Olympic bronze medal winner, have received provisional suspensions after being charged with doping offenses, international sports officials say. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said sprinters Olesya Povh and Olha Zemlyak face charges of “the use of a prohibited substance” and have been suspended pending the outcome of any appeals in the case. The suspensions come ahead of the World Athletics Championships, which began August 4, meaning the two women will not be able to compete. The Ukrainian Athletics Federation said Ms. Povh and Ms. Zemlyak had written to the IAAF but that “their explanations… were found to be insufficient to explain the abnormal test results.” The federation said Ms. Zemlyak’s coach, Serhiy Basenko, was also removed from Ukraine’s world championship delegation. Ms. Povh won an Olympic bronze medal in the women’s 4×100-meter relay in 2012 in London and had been due to race the 100 and 4×100 at the world championships, also in London. Previously, Ukrainian javelin thrower Oleksandr Pyatnytsya and Denys Yurchenko were stripped of Olympic medals as part of doping investigations. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP and AFP)
Saakashvili predicts Putin’s ‘full isolation’
WARSAW – Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region who was stripped last month of his Ukrainian citizenship, says Russian President Vladimir Putin will eventually face “full international isolation” as a result of tensions between Moscow and the West. In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service on August 7, Mr. Saakashvili also predicted that political opposition forces “will certainly prevail” in Russia. “In the end, Putin will be in full international isolation because [the tension between Moscow and the West] is rolling down with increasing speed,” Mr. Saakashvili said during a visit to Warsaw. “There is a serious opposition rising up inside Russia,” he continued. “I am referring to the youth that we saw in the streets recently following [calls to rally by opposition leader Aleksei] Navalny. They were not those well-to-do people who had come out on Bolotnaya [Square in 2012] for protests that were limited to Moscow and St. Petersburg.” Rather, Mr. Saakashvili said, Russia’s new “rising” opposition was made up of “poor but well educated and very well informed” Russians, “millions and millions of residents of Russia. And that is a very big force.” Mr. Saakashvili acknowledged that Russia’s opposition remained in the minority for now. But he said that together with those who passively support antigovernment protests, the opposition now had the moral support of a majority of Russians, “and they will certainly prevail.” Despite the revocation of his Ukrainian citizenship and Tbilisi’s extradition requests, Mr. Saakashvili told RFE/RL that he was allowed to leave the United States last week and to enter Poland using his Ukrainian passport. He rejected the notion that his Ukrainian passport was now “illegal” and said he planned to challenge President Petro Poroshenko’s order in a Ukrainian court and at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. (Aleksei Dzikavitski of RFE/RL, written by Ron Synovitz in Prague)
Almost 100 drown in one week
KYIV – At least 99 people have drowned in Ukraine in the past week as sweltering heat drove people to rivers, lakes and the Black Sea for relief, officials say. In a statement on August 7, the National Emergency Situations Service said the 99 people who drowned from July 31 to August 6 brought the total number of known drowning deaths this year in the country of 44 million to 685, including 70 children. It did not give figures for previous years. Temperatures in the capital, Kyiv, reached at least 30 degrees Celsius every day during the past week, at times climbing to 35 degrees or higher. The Emergency Situations Service said that relaxing by the water was a good way to cool off when temperatures are so high. “However, if you do not follow elementary rules of safety and self-protection… this can end in real tragedy,” it said. The statement said that 484 people who were in danger of drowning had been saved so far in 2017, including 104 children. (RFE/RL, with reporting by UNIAN)