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Wall Street Journal marks 1 year since Evan Gershkovich’s detention in Russia
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Ukrainian foreign minister tells India not to rely on Russia
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on India to reconsider its traditionally close relationship with Russia during a visit to New Delhi.
“The co-operation between India and Russia is largely based on the Soviet legacy,” Kuleba told Britain’s Financial Times newspaper in comments from the Indian capital on Friday. “But this is not the legacy that will be kept for centuries; it is a legacy that is evaporating.”
New Delhi has taken a neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, does not support Western sanctions against Moscow and repeatedly promotes conflict resolution through dialogue. The world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion inhabitants maintains good relations with Western nations and Russia.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, India has increased its imports of cheap oil from Russia – and is one of its largest customers. The country has also been purchasing a large proportion of its military equipment from Russia for a long time. However, India is increasingly trying to reduce its dependency in this respect, importing more from other countries or producing domestically.
Kuleba also told the Financial Times that India should be concerned about the closer relations between Russia and China. India has had extremely strained relations with neighbouring China since a deadly clash on their shared and heavily militarized border in the Himalayan mountains in 2020.
Kuleba also expressed interest in more trade between Ukraine and India. His country was looking to import heavy machinery from India, for example, he said.
Russia mulls labelling queen of Soviet pop, a foreign agent
Russian prosecutors have asked the justice ministry to consider labelling Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, as a “foreign agent,” a move that would officially designate Russia’s most famous star a foe of the Kremlin.
Pugacheva, known across generations for hits such as the 1982 song “Million Scarlet Roses” and the 1978 film “The Woman who Sings,” has expressed disgust with the Ukraine war.
In 2022, she said the war was killing soldiers for illusory aims, burdening ordinary people and turning Russia into a pariah. Earlier this month, the 74-year-old said that no normal person would return to Russia. She is currently abroad.
Vitaly Borodin, an activist who heads an anti-corruption group and who regularly appears on state television, submitted an official request to recognise Pugacheva as a foreign agent.
Then Borodin published a letter from the prosecutor general’s office showing that a request had been made to the justice ministry to consider that.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had heard no official statements about the issue. Pugacheva, thought to be in Cyprus, did not immediately comment.
Officially labelling her a “foreign agent” would underscore the rift between the Kremlin and many — but not all — of the cultural icons of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia over Ukraine.
Such a step would almost certainly need approval from the Kremlin. It has yet to opine in public on Pugacheva and could still stop the process.
The New York Times in 2000 described her as “the goddess of Russian pop, Moscow’s Tina Turner with a hint of Edith Piaf, whose songs have given voice to the yearnings of millions.”
Shot, a Russian media outlet with close ties to the security services, said an official announcement may be made on her 75th birthday on April 15.
Long list
Being labelled as a “foreign agent” is often the first sign of serious trouble from authorities in Russia. There are 787 organisations and people listed as such.
The label has negative Soviet-era connotations and its bearers have to place it prominently on all content they publish. They also face arduous financial and bureaucratic requirements.
For many opponents of President Vladimir Putin, though, the designation is considered a badge of honour — evidence they stood up to a leader they cast as a dictator and say has led Russia towards ruin.
Supporters of Putin say that the pro-Western cultural elite which grew up after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union is being cleared out and replaced by patriotic singers, writers and artists who will ensure Russia remains sovereign.
Pugacheva came to the attention of Putin supporters for taking six days from Friday’s gun attack on Crocus City Hall to make a comment in public.
“Grief should be in your soul, not in Instagram,” she posted on Instagram on Thursday.
Pugacheva was also criticised for apologising to a Tajik singer who wept over the “public torture” of the Tajik suspects detained for the attack.
Some of the suspects were shown being interrogated beside a road. One was shown in unverified footage having part of his ear cut off and stuffed into his mouth.
Pugacheva in 2022 even asked for the state to label her a foreign agent in solidarity with her husband, TV comedian Maxim Galkin, who was put on the list that year.
Pugacheva has in the past been feted by both Putin and his predecessor Boris Yeltsin. When Mikhail Gorbachev died in 2022, she praised the last Soviet leader for allowing freedom and rejecting violence.
After Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022, Pugacheva left Russia. She has Israeli citizenship and has come back for some periods.
Russia is rounding up more journalists a year after the arrest of Evan Gershkovich
Six journalists working for independent media outlets in Russia were arrested in a span of just a few hours this week on the eve of the anniversary of American reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention in the city of Yekaterinburg.
The journalists include Antonina Favorskaya, who covered the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Thursday.
Favorskaya, who works for the independent Russian media outlet SOTA Vision, is accused of “extremist activities” because of her coverage of Navalny and his work, the media freedom organization said in a statement.
On Friday, Gershkovich marked the grim milestone of one year in Russian detention. Shortly after his arrest, the Wall Street Journal reporter was charged with espionage — an accusation vehemently denied by Gershkovich, his employer and the US government. He was the first journalist to be arrested on such charges since the Cold War, and the Russian government has yet to provide any evidence to support its claim.
Favorskaya is the journalist who filmed what would later become Navalny’s last video before he died. The opposition activist could been seen laughing and joking as he appeared at a court hearing via video link from the penal colony where he was serving his sentence.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, had requested Favorskaya’s arrest for “participating in an extremist organization,” Russian state news agency TASS has reported.
According to the independent outlet Mediazona, over the last two years Favorskaya covered all of Navalny’s court hearings and traveled to the penal colonies where he was serving his sentence. She also followed developments at the cemetery where Navalny was buried.
The six journalists, including Favorskaya, were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday, RSF said.
“With six new arrests in a span of a few hours, accompanied by violence, threats and searches, the authorities are stepping up their persecution of the last independent journalists and media in Russia,” said Jeanne Cavelier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.
“RSF condemns the arbitrary arrests and unacceptable violence against these journalists,” Cavelier added.
Favorskaya was arrested while she was being released after spending 10 days in detention in Moscow on a charge of “disobeying the police,” RSF said.
She was detained along with two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musayeva, who came to meet her and are now “involved in the case as witnesses,” according to SOTA Vision. “All three were searched.”
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1 year after Evan Gershkovich’s arrest in Russia, Biden vows to “continue working every day” for his release
Washington — President Biden pledged Friday to “continue working every day” to secure the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from Russian detention, as the American journalist’s time imprisoned in Russia hit the one-year mark.
“We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips,” Mr. Biden said in a statement released Friday that also mentioned the case of Paul Whelan, another U.S. citizen who has been held in Russia since 2018.
Gershkovich — whom the U.S. State Department deemed “wrongfully detained” soon after his arrest — is still awaiting a trial on espionage charges that the White House, his family and his employer all insist are fabricated, but which could still see him sentenced to decades in prison.
The U.S.-born son of Soviet emigres covered Russia for six years, as the Kremlin made independent, on-the-ground reporting increasingly dangerous and illegal.
NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty
His arrest in March 2023 on charges of spying — the first such charge against a Western journalist since the Soviet era — showed that the Kremlin was prepared to go further than ever before in what President Vladimir Putin has called a “hybrid war” with the West.
The Journal and the U.S. government dismiss the espionage allegations as a false pretext to keep Gershkovich locked up, likely to use him as a bargaining chip in a future prisoner exchange deal.
Putin said last month that he would like to see Gershkovich released as part of a prisoner swap, but the Biden administration has said Moscow rejected the most recent exchange offer presented to it.
The 32-year-old, who has been remanded in custody until at least the end of June, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The Gershkovich family said in a letter published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday that they would pursue their campaign for his release.
“We never anticipated this situation happening to our son and brother, let alone a full year with no certainty or clear path forward,” they said. “But despite this long battle, we are still standing strong.”
Gershkovich reported extensively on how ordinary Russians experienced the Ukraine conflict, speaking to the families of dead soldiers and Putin critics. Breaking stories and getting people to talk was becoming increasingly hard, Gershkovich told friends before his arrest.
But as long as it was not impossible, he saw a reason to be there.
“He knew for some stories he was followed around and people he talked to would be pressured not to talk to him,” Guardian correspondent Pjotr Sauer, a close friend, told AFP. “But he was accredited by the foreign ministry. I don’t think any of us could see the Russians going as far as charging him with this fake espionage.”
Speaking to CBS News’ Leslie Stahl last week, the reporter’s sister Danielle said the family back in the U.S. was still worried, despite Gershkovich’s repeated assurances to them of his accreditation, which he thought would keep him safe, as it always had.
But as Stahl reported, what used to be unprecedented in Russia has become almost routine under Putin. Gershkovich is only the most recent American to inadvertently become a pawn on Putin’s geopolitical chessboard against the West.
Whelan, a U.S. Marine veteran, has been jailed in Russia for five years. Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina was arrested in January, accused of treason for helping Ukraine. And basketball star Brittney Griner, imprisoned for nine months on drug charges, was finally freed in an exchange for a notorious arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death.”
Russia launches barrage of 99 drones and missiles on Ukraine’s energy system, officials say
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure Friday, with a mass barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across the country, Ukraine’s armed forces said.
Air raid warnings across the country continued through the night as the strike targeted 10 separate regions, Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, said in a statement on Telegram.
The Ukrainian air force reported that 60 Shahed drones and 39 missiles of varying types were seen across the country, of which 58 drones and 26 missiles were ultimately shot down by air defenses.
Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator, Ukrenergo, said that the attack deliberately targeted energy infrastructure, including thermal and hydroelectric power plants across central and western regions.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private electricity operator, also said Friday that three of its thermal power plants had been damaged in the attack.
Elsewhere, five people were wounded during the attack in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, said local governor Serhii Lysak. The injured included a 5-year-old girl.
The bombardment in the west of Ukraine caused the Polish Armed Forces to scramble its own aircraft, the country’s operational command said on social media.
Last week Warsaw demanded an explanation from Moscow, after one of its missiles strayed briefly into Polish airspace during a major missile attack on Ukraine, prompting the NATO member to activate F-16 fighter jets.
Romania’s defense ministry also said on Friday that an investigation has been launched after fragments that appear to be from a drone were identified on its territory Thursday evening in an agricultural area of Braila county, close to the border with Ukraine.
It did not provide additional details, although since the start of the full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, NATO member Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions. ___
Stephen McGrath in Sighisoara, Romania, contributed to this report.
Russia shuts down UN watchdog tracking North Korea sanctions
Russia has shut down a panel of UN experts that have for years monitored sanctions against North Korea.
The panel last week said it was probing reports that Russia violated rules by buying North Korean weapons like ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.
The UN’s Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions on Pyongyang since 2006 for its nuclear weapons programme.
Those restrictions are still in force – but the experts group set up to monitor violations will now be disbanded.
In a Security Council vote on Thursday, Russia used its veto power as a permanent member to block the renewal, while 13 of the other 14 member states present voted for it. China, Pyongyang’s closest ally, abstained.
Russia’s block triggered a wave of condemnation from the US, UK, South Korea and other Western allies and comes after a year of high-profile public meetings between Moscow and Pyongyang leaders.
This is the first time Russia has blocked the panel – which has been renewed annually by the UN Security Council for 14 years.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media Russia’s veto was tantamount to “a guilty plea” that it was using North Korean weapons in the war.
The US, UK and France all told the Council that Russia was silencing the watchdog because it had begun to report on Moscow’s own violations of the rules- specifically purchasing weapons from North Korea for the battlegrounds in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s representative at the UN criticised Russia’s “blind self-centeredness” and said it had no justification “for disbanding the guardians” of the sanctions regime.
“This is almost comparable to destroying a CCTV to avoid being caught red-handed,” Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said.
Russia has consistently denied using North Korean weapons and its representative at the UN again dismissed the accusations on Thursday.
Vasily Nebenzia also argued that the panel of experts had no added value.
“The panel has continued to focus on trivial matters that are not commensurate with the problems facing the peninsula,” said Mr Nebenzia, who also added that sanctions had imposed a “heavy burden” on the North Korean people.
Since 2019, Russia and China have sought to persuade the Security Council to ease sanctions.
The Security Council first imposed sanctions in 2006 in response to a North Korean nuclear test, and has since passed 10 more resolutions strengthening them as Pyongyang’s nuclear activity has continued.
However Kim Jong Un’s regime has largely ignored the sanctions- despite their impact on the economy. The North Korean leader has rapidly continued nuclear weapons development and has pursued a more aggressive and dangerous military strategy in recent years.
The UN experts say North Korea continues to flout sanctions through increased missile test launches and developing nuclear weapons. The regime launched a spy satellite this year – with technology believed to have been provided by Russia.
In breach of the sanctions, it also continues to import refined petroleum products and send workers overseas, and the UN panel’s most recent report detailed a campaign of cyber attacks.
3/28: CBS Evening News – CBS News
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Zelenskyy tells CBS News that Ukraine will lose without U.S. aid
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