North Korean leader’s entourage ensures dust-free welcome in Russia’s far east
As Kim Jong-un arrived at the Vladivostok railway station on Wednesday, white-gloved attendants ran alongside his armoured train, wiping the dust from any surfaces that the North Korean leader might touch exiting the carriage.
Before he could disembark, the train had to back up precisely so that the carriage doors lined up with the red carpet laid out for Kim’s arrival.
Continue reading...Summit between North Korean leader and Russian president to take place in late April
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, will visit Russia in late April for his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, Moscow has said.
“Following an invitation from Vladimir Putin ... Kim Jong-un will visit Russia in the second half of April,” said the Kremlin in a statement on its website on Thursday.
Continue reading...Election victory gives Israeli PM confidence he will get his way on Iran and Palestine
His supporters call him a magician. And there is truly something uncanny about how Benjamin Netanyahu has conjured up three-way US, Russian and Arab support for his hardline security and nationalist agenda. For a small country, Israel packs an ever bigger punch – and pugnacious Bibi’s likely fifth term presages a new era of escalating confrontation.
First in line for the Netanyahu treatment is Iran. He claimed credit on Monday for Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, including its al-Quds force, a foreign terrorist organisation. The provocative move, akin to singling out the US marine corps for punishment, bought a vengeful riposte from Tehran.
Continue reading...It is difficult not to marvel at the scale of Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal achievement. Israel’s prime minister celebrates 10 consecutive years in power on 31 March. His country’s youngest-ever leader in 1996, he has been re-elected three times since 2009, matching David Ben-Gurion’s record. As matters stand, he has a good chance of winning again in polls on 9 April.
Netanyahu’s political achievement is altogether less marvellous. Under his grimly negative, fearful tutelage, Israeli society has shifted steadily rightwards. Attitudes to a peace settlement with the Palestinians have perceptibly hardened. Thanks in large part to Netanyahu’s uncompromising stance, the issue no longer occupies centre stage as it once did.
Continue reading...New report raises questions about Mikhail Lesin, whose death was ruled an accident but has been shrouded in suspicion
Newly released documents show that a former adviser to Vladimir Putin sustained a complete fracture of his neck “at or near the time of his death” in a Washington hotel room in 2015.
The documents from the city’s medical examiner were released to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE) in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed nearly two years ago.
Continue reading...The final unravelling of the Islamic State’s evil caliphate exerts a horrible fascination. The jihadis committed many appalling crimes in Syria and Iraq – exploiting the chaos caused by the Syrian civil war – and were responsible, directly or indirectly, for murderous attacks in Britain and several other European countries.
Most people expect a reckoning. It is only right that Isis fighters who have been captured alive, and those who gave them aid and succour, should face justice as soon as possible.
Continue reading...Russian money – some legitimate, some the proceeds of fraud – was channeled through a Lithuanian bank into the UK, according to a major leak of banking documents. The Guardian’s Juliette Garside has been investigating for months and describes how Prince Charles and some of England’s most exclusive schools have benefited. Plus: Ben Beaumont-Thomas on the legacy of the Prodigy’s Keith Flint
The leak of more than 1m bank transactions has shown how an estimated $4.6bn (£3.5bn) was sent to Europe and the US from a Russian-operated network of 70 offshore companies with accounts in Lithuania.
The Guardian’s Juliette Garside has been investigating the network and where the money ended up. She tells India Rakusen that money linked to major Russian fraud cases was laundered with funds from legitimate enterprise, making it impossible to trace the original source. It could then be spent on luxury goods, private school fees and property.
Continue reading...Exclusive: investigation reveals how Troika Dialog channelled $4.6bn to Europe and US
A charity run by Prince Charles received donations from an offshore company that was used to funnel vast amounts of cash from Russia in a scheme that is under investigation by prosecutors, the Guardian can reveal.
Money flowing through the network included cash that can be linked to some of the most notorious frauds committed during Vladimir Putin’s presidency.
Continue reading...Gallup poll measuring opinion in 133 countries and areas in 2018 found 31% approved of US leadership and 30% for Russia
Global confidence in US leadership is so low that the country is now in a virtual tie with Russia for worldwide approval.
Related: 2018: the year the global order frayed
Continue reading...New hypersonic missiles could hit targets including Pentagon in under five minutes, it claims
Russian state television has broadcast a map of the US showing military facilities Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, in a report that was unusual even by its own bellicose standards.
The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland. A hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in less than five minutes, it said.
Continue reading...Salvini spokesman says claims of Moscow meeting to fund the party are ‘fantasies’
Italian opposition politicians have demanded an urgent explanation from the government after allegations surfaced accusing Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party of links to the Kremlin.
According to claims made in L’Espresso magazine, an arrangement was struck to sell 3m tonnes of diesel fuel to an Italian oil company by Russian representatives close to the government of Vladmir Putin, diverting profits to the League.
Continue reading...Former FBI chief says president believed Russian leader over US security agencies and ‘a crime may have been committed’ over Comey firing
A former FBI acting director has alleged Donald Trump dismissed advice from his own security agencies on the threat posed by North Korea’s missiles, saying “I don’t care. I believe Putin.”
Andrew McCabe made the claims in an interview with 60 Minutes, in which he discussed his tenure at the FBI after James Comey was fired by the president in 2017.
Continue reading...Moscow announces move after US said on Friday it would withdraw from INF nuclear treaty
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will suspend its involvement in a cold war-era nuclear pact, following a similar decision by the US, and begin developing new nuclear-capable missiles banned by the treaty.
The move came a day after Donald Trump confirmed the US would exit the intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty. The US had complained for several years that a Russian cruise missile violated the treaty, a claim that Russia has denied.
Continue reading...The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on three companies, including the aluminum giant Rusal, linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Democrats had led a push in Congress to continue the restrictions.
Related: 'Sex trainer' who said she could prove Russia meddled in US election freed
Continue reading...Alexey Knedlyakovsky and Lusine Djanyan say they fear being arrested and beaten if sent home
Two Russian opposition activists denied political asylum in Sweden say they fear being arrested and beaten up if they are forced to go home.
“You never know when something will happen,” say Alexey Knedlyakovsky and Lusine Djanyan, who fled their home city of Krasnodar in March 2017 after what they say was a campaign of persecution by the secret police. They flew to Sweden with their two-year-old son and claimed asylum.
Continue reading...Russian president claims alleged increase of western influence is ‘destablising’
Vladimir Putin has weighed into the row over Macedonia’s name-change, accusing the US and its allies of destabilising the Balkans by “asserting their dominant role” in the region.
The Russian president criticised what he described as deliberate efforts to increase western influence in a part of the world Moscow has long regarded as falling within its own orbit.
Continue reading...Russian president, on a visit to a fortress, says he commanded a howitzer artillery battalion
Vladimir Putin has revealed that he commanded an artillery battalion during the Soviet period, a detail of his shadowy biography that was previously unknown.
Putin made the comment during a visit on Monday to St Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress, where he pulled the lever on a cannon that fires a daily salute at noon over the Neva River.
“I received the rank of lieutenant as an artilleryman, as the commander of a howitzer artillery battalion… 122mm [calibre],” Putin said, according to video footage posted by the Kremlin. He gave no further details.
An official at the fortress congratulated the Russian president on a “wonderful” cannon shot.