Immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of troops are crucial negotiation matters
The key question of the negotiations for Kiev is to achieve immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, President Zelensky’s office announced as peace talks begin in Belarus. Kiev’s delegation on Monday arrived at the Ukraine-Belarus border to take part in the negotiations with the Russian delegation.
The Ukrainian delegation came in two helicopters, as reported by the Russian agency Ria Novosti. On Monday morning, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry published a photo of the room for the negotiations, announcing the site was prepared.
The Russian delegation, headed by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin and former culture minister, arrived in Gomel, eastern Belarus, on Saturday. Ukrainian officials initially refused to send a delegation to Belarus, arguing that it was inappropriate to hold talks in the country since Russian troops were using its territory to stage attacks. Minsk denied that its forces were participating in the Russian operation.
After a phone call between Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus on Saturday, Kiev agreed to the talks. However, the arrival of the Ukrainian team was further delayed due to logistical issues.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that he “doesn’t really believe” the negotiations will bear fruit, but still thought it was “a chance, however small, to de-escalate the situation.”
Russian military forces launched an attack on Ukraine on Thursday, after the authorities claimed the country had to be “demilitarized” and “denazified” to protect the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as Russia. The operation caused massive international protest, as Ukraine and its Western supporters accused Moscow of “unprovoked” aggression. The US, UK, EU and several other countries have since imposed several packages of sweeping sanctions targeting the Russian economy as a whole, as well as President Vladimir Putin personally and other officials.
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February 27, 2022 at 11:08PM
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Russia is facing more calls for sporting snubs from international rivals
Albanian officials have said their nation will not compete against Russia in any form of sport, a move notable due to the UEFA Nations League clashes scheduled between the two countries later this year.
“Albania will not take part in any sport games with the Russian Federation until the end of Ukraine’s occupation,” Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka said at the weekend, according to the AP.
Russia and Albania are in the same group for the next edition of the UEFA Nations League tournament. The pair are due to meet in Tirana on June 2, with the return leg on June 13.
The other nations drawn in League B Group 2 alongside Russia and Albania are Iceland and Israel, neither of whom have officially stated their position as yet.
UEFA has already announced that Russian teams at club and international level must play home matches at neutral venues in any competitions run by the organization.
The European football governing body has also stripped Russia of the 2022 Champions League final, which was scheduled for St. Petersburg in May.
Elsewhere, FIFA announced on Sunday that Russian teams would be forced to play under the name of the Russian Football Union (RFU) and that the national flag and anthem would be banned.
Home matches involving Russia must also be held at neutral venues and without fans, FIFA added.
However, the organization has thus far resisted calls to remove Russian teams from international competition, including the crucial 2022 World Cup playoff matches scheduled for March.
Poland have already refused to play their qualifying match against Russia which was planned for Moscow on March 24, and potential rivals Sweden and Czech Republic have taken a similar stance.
Elsewhere, the English FA said on Sunday that it would no longer play matches against Russian teams in light of the military operation in Ukraine.
Russian officials have condemned the steps as “politicizing” football.
Wealthy citizens will no longer be able to buy European citizenship
Western countries pledged to limit the ‘Golden Passport’ program, which allows Russians to obtain European citizenship by investment.
“We commit to acting against the people and entities who facilitate the war in Ukraine and the harmful activities of the Russian government. Specifically, we commit to taking measures to limit the sale of citizenship – so called golden passports – that let wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial systems,” the leaders of the EU, UK, US, and Canada said in a joint statement announcing a new round of sanctions on Russia, published on Saturday.
The measure comes amid Russia’s ongoing operation to “demilitarize” Ukraine, condemned by many Western nations as an “unjustified” attack.
The statement also pledged to employ “sanctions and other financial and enforcement measures on additional Russian officials and elites close to the Russian government, as well as their families, and their enablers to identify and freeze the assets they hold in our jurisdictions.”
The ‘Golden Passport’ program differs from country to country; in general, it allows a person to gain citizenship in exchange for investment in the country, be it launching a business project, funding an existing enterprise, purchasing property, or making a donation to the country’s approved investment fund.
According to industry experts, European golden passports have gained in popularity among Russians since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The previous boom was recorded in 2014, after Crimea cut ties with Kiev following a referendum, and joined Russia. Portugal and Montenegro were among the most popular destinations for obtaining golden passports due to the lower investment thresholds as of 2020, according to Forbes.
Beijing believes the West should address Moscow’s “legitimate security demands”
China said on Saturday that Western sanctions slapped on Russia over its military operation in Ukraine will not solve the crisis. Many countries have imposed sweeping restrictions on Moscow, hitting its banks, trade, and largest airline, among other things. Foreign Minister Wang Yi made his comments during a phone call with his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang said “China doesn’t support the use of sanctions to solve problems, and even more so opposes unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law.”
“It’s been long proven that sanctions not only fail to solve [existing] problems, but create news ones, resulting ‘lose-lose’ effects on the economy and interfering in the process of political settlement,” he added.
The minister said China opposes both the use of force and sanctions regarding Ukraine. He argued that Russia’s “legitimate security demands” on NATO’s eastward expansion “should be properly addressed.” Moscow said it seeks legally binding assurances that NATO will never accept Ukraine as a member state and will pull its troops from Eastern Europe – demands that the US-led bloc rejects.
The US, Britain, EU member states, and several other countries imposed new sweeping sanctions on Moscow after it launched a military operation against Kiev on Thursday. Russia argued that the move was necessary to defend the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which broke off from Ukraine after the 2014 coup in Kiev. Ukraine said the attack by Russia was entirely unprovoked.
Russia vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution condemning its operation in Ukraine on Friday, while China abstained from voting.
According to Berlin, during her phone call with Wang, Baerbock “stressed that China bears a special responsibility” for the events in Ukraine as a permanent member of the UN’s top decision-making body.
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February 26, 2022 at 11:13PM
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Aleksandar Vucic has promised Russian teams the "best conditions" if they move matches to serbia
Russian football and basketball teams would receive "the best conditions" if they move matches to Serbia because of rules imposed by governing bodies such as UEFA and FIFA, the country's President, Aleksandar Vucic, has said.
Sports chiefs are under pressure to stop teams from hosting matches in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in Champions League organizers UEFA moving the final of the competition from St. Petersburg to Paris.
Following an emergency meeting, UEFA announced on Friday that Russian and Ukrainian teams will be required to play home games on neutral territory for the foreseeable future.
Russia's World Cup qualifying playoff semifinal opponents Poland, who are due to visit Moscow for the crunch game on March 24, have appealed to the governing bodies to switch the venue for the game.
The Polish Football Association co-signed its letter with footballing authorities in Sweden and the Czech Republic, who will play a concurrent semifinal to decide who will be due to travel to Russia for a final match to decide which nation will be heading to the finals in Qatar in November and December.
There have been calls for Euroleague basketball teams to boycott matches against Russia, and the Netherlands Basketball Federation has even abandoned a 2023 World Cup qualification match against Russia that was scheduled for Almere on Sunday.
"Clubs from some countries do not want to go to Moscow, Novgorod, Krasnodar, Kuban and other cities," Vucic said via Blic when he was asked about the offer to host games involving Russian teams.
"I really don't know [whether] there is anyone's initiative, FIBA [International Basketball Federation] or UEFA, [to do this].
"If everyone agrees with that, we are good hosts and if we can help solve some problems, we have no problem with that.
"We offered them the best conditions and we would guarantee the safety of both formal hosts and guests.
"Serbia has always been a good host and we [would] never interfere in such things... [if] someone asks us to be the hosts... we would accept it but we never push ourselves in such [matters] because we just know how small we are and that these are issues for the great powers."
Russia have one remaining team in UEFA club competitions after Zenit St. Petersburg were controversially knocked out of the Europa League at Spanish side Real Betis on Thursday.
Spartak Moscow are due to face German side RB Leipzig in a two-legged Europa League tie in March.
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February 25, 2022 at 11:46PM
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The two face an investigation into insider trading over Tesla stock sales
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into whether recent stock sales by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk have “violated insider trading rules,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing sources.
According to the WSJ, the investigation started last year after Kimbal sold shares of the EV maker valued at $108 million, a day before Musk polled Twitter users over whether he should offload 10% of his stake in Tesla.
Kimbal Musk did not know about the Twitter poll ahead of time, Elon Musk told the Financial Times. Tesla boss has added that his lawyers were “aware” of the poll.
An earlier settlement with the SEC required Musk’s public statements about the company's finances and other issues to be vetted by Tesla’s legal counsel.
The SEC reportedly issued a subpoena on November 16, ten days after Musk's poll, seeking information related to some financial data.
The potential probe comes amid Musk's escalating battle with the US regulator, which has been following his social media posts and Tesla's treatment of workers.
Last week, Musk accused the SEC of harassing him and his company with an “endless" and “unrelenting” investigation.
Penalties over Ukraine crisis target Russian finance, energy, and transport
EU leaders have agreed to introduce “massive” sanctions on Russia, targeting a wide range of economic sectors, including finance, energy and transport, aviation, and space sectors.
The decision comes days after Moscow launched a “special military operation” in Donbass at the request of the region’s recently recognized Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) People’s Republics, vowing to “demilitarize” Ukraine and defend the people against “aggression” by Kiev.
The EU authorities have banned public financing for trade with Russia, as well as investment in the state, according to the document released by the Publications Office of the European Union. Brussels also blocked access to EU loans for the Russian government and the country’s central bank.
The measures prohibit direct or indirect financing of new loans or credit after February 26, 2022.
The bloc “prohibited to sell, supply, transfer or export, directly or indirectly, goods and technology suited for use in aviation or the space industry” to Russian companies or individuals. The ban covers products that originate both in the EU and outside.
The latest decision, as well as the entire package of sanctions imposed after the 2014 reunification of Crimea with Russia, is set to apply until July 31, 2022.
Earlier, the bloc imposed personal sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and FM Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu, and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov.
Delays meant victims faced an average 706-day wait between reporting an offense and a trial
Rape survivors in England and Wales are being failed by the criminal justice system, leaving them facing an average wait of nearly two years for a trial, a new report found.
The damning findings were released on Friday by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI), and accuse the system of a lack of collaboration between authorities, as well as poor communication with accusers.
"Rape victims are continually and systematically failed by the criminal justice system,” the report stated, criticizing its “deep divisions between the police and prosecutors.”
The official report claimed that “the process is worse than the offence” for some victims, as they have to “wait years for a court date” and “experience multiple adjournments” in their quest for justice.
Part of the reason for the failures identified in the report was that authorities were still often listing rape cases as “floaters” or “backers,” which meant they could be moved and rescheduled, even at the last minute on the day of the trial.
One of the victims spoken-to had “21 court delays, most at 24-hours’ notice,” the report detailed, describing the situation as “almost unendurable.”
The investigation by HMICFRS and HMCPSI examined 556 files from the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and also spoke with rape survivors and victim support services.
The director of public prosecutions, Max Hill, accepted the report’s findings, stating that “strong collaboration between prosecutors and police is vital,” while also outlining the “extensive work” being undertaken to improve support services and communication.
Responding to the report, Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, described it as a “sobering and considered analysis,” and pledged that the government will work “to give victims greater support and swifter justice.”
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February 25, 2022 at 12:21AM
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