Kremlin opponent Kara-Murza urges against ‘face-saving exit’ for Putin in Ukraine war

Kremlin opponent Kara-Murza urges against ‘face-saving exit’ for Putin in Ukraine war
Russian-British political activist, journalist, author, filmmaker, and former political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza poses during a photo session in Paris on September 9 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Kremlin opponent Kara-Murza urges against ‘face-saving exit’ for Putin in Ukraine war

Kremlin opponent Kara-Murza urges against ‘face-saving exit’ for Putin in Ukraine war
  • Vladimir Kara-Murza, who had been serving a 25-year sentence in a Siberian penal colony on treason and other charges after denouncing the invasion of Ukraine

PARIS: A leading opponent of Vladimir Putin, freed in a prisoner swap last month, on Monday urged the West against allowing the Russian leader any “face-saving” way out of the war against Ukraine, saying the end of his quarter-century of rule was the only solution for peace.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, who had been serving a 25-year sentence in a Siberian penal colony on treason and other charges after denouncing the invasion of Ukraine, was one of 16 Russian dissidents and foreign nationals freed on August 1 in the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse in Paris, Kara-Murza, 43, predicted he would be able to return to his homeland as the “regime” of Putin would not last.
Arriving in France after visits to countries including Germany, he acknowledged there was “fatigue” in Western societies over the war sparked by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine but insisted the “Putin regime must be defeated.”
“It is very important that Vladimir Putin is not allowed to win the war against Ukraine,” said Kara-Murza, who met with French President Emmanuel Macron later Monday.
“It is very important that Vladimir Putin is not allowed to have a face-saving exit from this war in Ukraine.”
The Cambridge-educated Kara-Murza lashed out at Western “realpolitik” in dealing with Russia under Putin, which he said had made the Russian leader “the monster he is today.”
“Enough of realpolitik,” he said.
“If, God forbid, the Putin regime is allowed to present the outcome of this war as a victory and survive in power, all this means is that a year or 18 months from now we will be talking about another war, conflict or another catastrophe.”
Kara-Murza, a dual Russian and UK national, said he would be “honored” to go to Ukraine and meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that he was in favor of building bridges between Russia’s pro-democracy movement and Ukraine.
“We will have to find ways of living together and of overcoming this horrendous tragedy that the Putin regime has unleashed,” he said.
“It is not going to be an easy process, it’s not going to be a quick process, but we know that it’s possible.”
He said he felt a “special kind of solidarity” with Ukrainian officers who were held in his Siberian prison camp, even though they were not allowed to speak to each other.
Kara-Murza said he had been “absolutely certain” he would die in the penal colony in the Omsk region — until one morning he was suddenly put on a plane to Moscow and then with other prisoners involved swapped in the Turkish capital Ankara.
“Nobody has ever asked our consent,” he said. “They herded us on a plane like cattle and threw us out of Russia.”
Macron applauded the Kremlin opponent for his “courage” during their meeting late Monday, while reiterating “France’s support for all defenders of human rights and freedom of expression,” the presidency said in a statement.
Kara-Murza earlier said he had no doubt he would return to his country.
“Not only is the Putin regime not forever, I think... it will be over in the very foreseeable future,” he said.
“And we will have a mammoth task ahead of us in rebuilding our country from the ruins that Putin is going to leave.”
Pointing to the collapse of Tsarist rule in 1917 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kara-Murza said that “major political change in Russia comes suddenly, unexpectedly and no one is ever prepared for it.”
Kara-Murza, who sees as his mentor the campaigner Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in Moscow in 2015, brushed off fears for his own safety outside Russia.
“Security is not a word that comes into the vocabulary of somebody who is in opposition to Putin’s regime in Russia,” said Kara-Murza, who was the target of two poisoning attacks against his life even before his arrest in 2022.
“Whether Putin likes it or not, the future is coming,” he said.
Kara-Murza recalled his own shock at hearing about the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a remote Arctic prison camp in February.
“I heard the news on the radio,” he said. “I don’t think I have the words to describe the feeling,” he said, adding that at first he could not believe it.
“After months and months in solitary confinement, your mind starts playing tricks on you,” he said. “I thought that maybe I’d made all of this up.”
He said he was confident Navalny was killed on the orders of Putin.
“Any Western leader who shakes hands with Vladimir Putin is shaking hands with a murderer.”
His wife Yevgenia, who tirelessly campaigned for his release, said “rage” against the “crimes” committed by the Kremlin in Ukraine and Russia had sustained her.
“The rage that I’ve been feeling for all these years... outweighs any fears that I can experience,” she said, pledging to continue to fight for the release of other political prisoners.
Vladimir called himself “the luckiest man in the world.”
“I would not be sitting here speaking with you today if it wasn’t for Yevgenia,” he said.


Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida steps down to make way for likely successor Shigeru Ishiba

Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida steps down to make way for likely successor Shigeru Ishiba
Updated 01 October 2024
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Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida steps down to make way for likely successor Shigeru Ishiba

Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida steps down to make way for likely successor Shigeru Ishiba
  • Kishida took office in 2021 but is leaving so his party can have a fresh leader after his government was dogged by scandals
  • Ishiba plans to call a parliamentary election for Oct. 27 after he is formally chosen as prime minister later in the day

TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida resigned with his Cabinet on Tuesday, paving the way for his likely successor Shigeru Ishiba to take office.
Kishida took office in 2021 but is leaving so his party can have a fresh leader after his government was dogged by scandals. Ishiba plans to call a parliamentary election for Oct. 27 after he is formally chosen as prime minister later in the day.
“I believe it is important to have the new administration get the public’s judgment as soon as possible,” Ishiba said Monday in announcing his plan to call a snap election. Opposition parties criticized Ishiba for allowing only a short period of time for his policies to be examined and discussed in parliament before the vote.
Ishiba was chosen as the governing Liberal Democratic Party’s leader on Friday to replace Kishida, who announced in August he would resign at the end of his three-year term.
Ishiba is assured of becoming prime minister later Tuesday in a vote by parliament because it is dominated by his party’s ruling coalition.
Kishida and his ministers stepped down at a Cabinet meeting in the morning, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
Hayashi, who is Kishida’s top confidante, said the world has high expectations for Japan’s diplomatic role, noting a deepening global divide over Russia’s war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East. “We hope the next administration will pursue an active and powerful diplomacy while placing importance on (Japan’s) main pillars such as achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Hayashi said.
Ishiba earlier announced his party’s leaders ahead of naming his Cabinet, once he becomes prime minister. Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who came in third in the party leadership race, will head the party’s election task force. He is expected to name defense experts Takeshi Iwaya as foreign minister and Gen Nakatani as defense chief.
The majority of his Cabinet ministers, like Ishiba, are expected to be unaffiliated with factions led and controlled by party heavyweights, and none are from former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s powerful group linked to damaging scandals.
Ishiba’s lack of stable power base could also mean a fragility of his government, and “could quickly collapse” even though Ishiba hopes to build up party unity as it prepares for the upcoming election, the liberal-leaning Asahi newspaper said.
The move is also seen as a revenge by Ishiba, who was largely pushed to the side during most of Abe’s reign.
Ishiba has proposed an Asian version of the NATO military alliance and more discussion among regional partners about the use of the US nuclear deterrence. He also suggested a more equal Japan-US security alliance, including joint management of US bases in Japan and having Japanese Self Defense Force bases in the United States.
Ishiba outlined his views in an article to the Hudson Institute last week. “The absence of a collective self-defense system like NATO in Asia means that wars are likely to break out because there is no obligation for mutual defense. Under these circumstances, the creation of an Asian version of NATO is essential to deter China by its Western allies,” he wrote.
Ishiba proposes combining of existing security and diplomatic groupings, such as the Quad and other bilateral and multilateral frameworks involving the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and the Philippines.
He also noted that the Asian version of NATO can also consider sharing of the control of US nuclear weapons in the region as a deterrence against growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia.
Ishiba on Friday stressed Japan needs to reinforce its security, noting recent violations of Japanese airspace by Russian and Chinese warplanes and repeated missile launches by North Korea.
He pledged to continue Kishida’s economic policy aimed at pulling Japan out of deflation and achieving real salary increases, while tackling challenges such as Japan’s declining birthrate and population and resilience to natural disasters.
The LDP has had a nearly unbroken tenure governing Japan since World War II. The party members may have seen Ishiba’s more centrist views as crucial in pushing back challenges by the liberal-leaning opposition and winning voter support as the party reels from corruption scandals that drove down Kishida’s popularity.
Ishiba, first elected to parliament in 1986, has served as defense minister, agriculture minister and in other key Cabinet posts, and was LDP secretary general under Abe.


Leaders depart UN facing prospect of a wider Mideast war — but with a blueprint for a better future

Leaders depart UN facing prospect of a wider Mideast war — but with a blueprint for a better future
Updated 01 October 2024
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Leaders depart UN facing prospect of a wider Mideast war — but with a blueprint for a better future

Leaders depart UN facing prospect of a wider Mideast war — but with a blueprint for a better future
  • In the last few days, Yang said, the world has seen “an extremely dramatic escalation” between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that risks war in the entire Middle East

UNITED NATIONS: They gathered at the United Nations surrounded by unsettling warnings of an escalating conflict that could engulf the Middle East and further shatter international relations that are based on “multilateralism” — nations working together and sharing power. A week later, world leaders headed home with the prospect of a broader war intensifying and global divisions front and center, not only in the Mideast but elsewhere.
There was no expectation of major breakthroughs in the public and private meetings at the annual UN General Assembly meeting of presidents, premiers and other leaders. There rarely is. But this year was especially grim, with no end in sight to the three major conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, and Israeli military action in Lebanon escalating.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ warning that multilateralism needs to be brought back “from the brink” added to the gloom, along with speech after speech decrying failures to tackle climate change and address growing inequalities between rich and poor nations, and warning of artificial intelligence with no guardrails and the potential of killer weapons with no human control.
General Assembly President Philémon Yang concluded the weeklong, high-level meeting Monday afternoon, calling it “particularly tumultuous” and pointing to the “violent conflicts” that are raging.
“This is, unfortunately, not an exhaustive list of the crises and conflicts affecting member states of the United Nations,” he lamented.
Parts of the world are broken
There was no disagreement that multilateralism is broken, that this founding principle of the United Nations – established in 1945 on the ashes of World War II — needs urgent resuscitation to deal with the challenges the world faces today.
One example: During the very hour on Friday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the General Assembly that his country genuinely wants peace — a goal stressed by virtually every leader — Israeli warplanes were bombing areas around Beirut in a lethal barrage.
In the last few days, Yang said, the world has seen “an extremely dramatic escalation” between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that risks war in the entire Middle East. “As we speak, peace in the Middle East is hanging delicately on a shoestring,” he warned..
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this year’s meeting of leaders – with its marquee speeches known in UN-speak as the “general debate” – took place at “a very serious and a very intense time.”
“The world doesn’t stop for the general debate,” he told reporters Monday. “So we were focused very much on what member states said, but we continue to be very much focused on what is going on in the world outside of this building.”
There was one positive development welcomed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and many leaders: The adoption of a “Pact for the Future” at a summit just before world leaders began their addresses to the General Assembly. The 42-page blueprint aims to bring the 193 UN member nations together to meet today’s challenges, from climate change and artificial intelligence to escalating conflicts and increasing inequality and poverty.
It challenges leaders of countries large and small, rich and poor, to turn promises into actions. Whether that happens remains to be seen. Yang, the assembly president, said his office has already instituted “an awareness-raising campaign” to spur implementation.
Screeds against selfishness abounded
In an illustration of the blend of woe and weary hope that percolated through the gathering, Burundi’s foreign minister, Albert Shingiro, on Monday decried an international community where “most of us act like we were alone in the world, like others didn’t exist or didn’t count.”
Still, he said, the consensus on the Pact for the Future “shows that multilateralism is not dead and buried.”
From the vantage points where leaders of smaller or less powerful nations sit, the UN can’t change the world without changing itself. Founded with 51 member countries, it now has 193, and many feel included only to a point.
“We must ensure that global institutions give developing countries, especially small, vulnerable ones like my own, seats at the tables of decision-making,” said Barbados’ prime minister, Mia Mottley. “The anger and mistrust of our citizens in institutions, in leaders and in multilateralism and its processes which exclude, while yielding much talk and little action, is very real.”
Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s interim government, said “time demands new attitudes, new values, new compacts, across communities and countries.”
“I believe, the world needs to engage on a shared vision of ‘three zeroes’ that we can materialize together, targeting zero poverty, zero unemployment, and, zero net carbon emissions — where a young person anywhere in the world will have opportunities to grow, not as a job seeker but as entrepreneur,” he told the assembly.
During the global gathering, the assembly heard from 190 countries – all but Brunei, Myanmar and Afghanistan. The speakers included 71 heads of state, 42 heads of government, six vice presidents and crown princes, eight deputy prime ministers, 53 ministers, three vice-ministers and seven heads of delegations. Usually, the UN Security Council holds one meeting during the high-level week, but this year the council met about a half-dozen times because of the global conflicts and crises.
For all the alarm, leaders here are politicians, and many made a point of appealing at least somewhat to optimism. Perhaps none stressed it as much as US President Joe Biden, making his last speech at the annual meeting after more than a half-century in public life.
He noted that humanity has brought to a close some of the seemingly intractable threats, conflicts and injustices that beset the world when he was elected as a senator in 1972, from the Cold War to apartheid in South Africa.
“Things can get better,” Biden said. “We should never forget that.”

 


Ukraine’s Zelensky: Front line ‘very, very difficult,’ must do what we can in autumn

Ukraine’s Zelensky: Front line ‘very, very difficult,’ must do what we can in autumn
Updated 01 October 2024
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Ukraine’s Zelensky: Front line ‘very, very difficult,’ must do what we can in autumn

Ukraine’s Zelensky: Front line ‘very, very difficult,’ must do what we can in autumn
  • Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday that its forces had captured the village of Nelipivka, south of the city of Toretsk, one of Moscow’s targets in the area

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that the situation on the front line of the war against Russia was “very, very difficult,” and Ukraine’s forces had to do everything they could over the autumn period.
“Reports on each of our frontline sectors, our capabilities, our future capabilities and our specific tasks: The situation is very, very difficult,” he said in his nightly video address, referring to a more than 2-1/2 hour meeting with top commanders.
“Everything that can be done this autumn, everything that we can achieve must be achieved,” he said.
It was the second time in less than a week that Zelensky referred to the need to act quickly in the coming months in terms of military action.
Ukrainian military bloggers have reported in recent days that Russian forces have been advancing on the hilltop town of Vuhledar, which Ukrainian forces have defended over the course of the war, in the south of the Donetsk region.
The popular blog Deepstate quoted Russian reports as saying Russian forces were shelling the town and “their infantry was moving in the city and among high-rise blocks. The Russians have raised their flag in western districts of the city.”
Russian forces have also been advancing slowly for months further north, with the aim of capturing the entire Donbas region, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday that its forces had captured the village of Nelipivka, south of the city of Toretsk, one of Moscow’s targets in the area.
Ukraine’s General Staff made no acknowledgement of the village changing hands, but said Russian forces had launched 10 attacks in and around it.
Zelensky made similar comments about the need for fast military action after meeting US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in New York on Friday.
Zelensky has taken great care to steer clear of controversy and suggestions of preference in the US presidential election and made no reference to the poll in his calls for fast action.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party candidate, has pledged continuing steadfast support for Kyiv.
Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News after his meeting with Trump that he received “very direct information” from Trump that the former US president would support Ukraine if re-elected.
Trump has questioned US spending on Ukraine’s war effort. During Zelensky’s visit to the United States last week, he repeated earlier statements that he would find a rapid resolution to the conflict if he won the election, without providing details.


Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska

Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska
Updated 01 October 2024
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Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska

Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska
  • The video release of the close encounter Sept. 23, with the US pilot under the direction of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, comes after a series of Russian incursions into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Military officials have released new video of a startling encounter between a Russian fighter jet flying near Alaska and a US Air Force F-16 sent to intercept it.
In the video released Monday, the Russian plane comes from behind the camera and swoops by the US jet, just feet from the aircraft.
The video release of the close encounter Sept. 23, with the US pilot under the direction of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, comes after a series of Russian incursions into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone just beyond US sovereign airspace.
The interaction drew condemnation from NORAD’s top officer and one of Alaska’s US senators.
“The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander, NORAD and US Northern Command. The NORAD aircraft flew “a safe and disciplined” routine to intercept the Russian aircraft, he added.
A message sent to the Russian Embassy Monday seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The close pass of the Russian jet comes just weeks after eight Russian military planes and four of its navy vessels, including two submarines, came close to Alaska as China and Russia conducted joint drills.
None of the planes breached US airspace. However, about 130 US soldiers were sent along with mobile rocket launchers to Shemya Island, about 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. They were deployed to the Aleutian island for a week before returning to their bases.
In July, Russian and Chinese bombers flew together for the first time in international airspace off Alaska, a sign of cooperation that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said raised concerns.
In 2022, a US Coast Guard ship about 85 miles (137 kilometers) north of Alaska’s Kiska Island in the Bering Sea came across three Chinese and four Russian naval vessels sailing in single formation.
US Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican member of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, said the close pass of the Russian jet is another reason to build America’s military presence in Alaska and the Arctic.
“The reckless and unprofessional maneuvers of Russian fighter pilots — within just a few feet of our Alaska-based fighters — in Alaska’s ADIZ on September 23 put the lives of our brave Airmen at risk and underscore the escalating aggression we’re witnessing from dictators like Vladimir Putin,” Sullivan said in a statement.

 


Austria faces uncertainty after far-right historic election win

Austria faces uncertainty after far-right historic election win
Updated 30 September 2024
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Austria faces uncertainty after far-right historic election win

Austria faces uncertainty after far-right historic election win

VIENNA: Austria entered uncharted territory Monday after the far right scored a historic national election win, with parties facing an uphill task to form a new government.

The far-right Freedom Party, also known as FPOe, under Herbert Kickl has rapidly regained ground lost in a string of corruption scandals, winning 28.8 percent in Sunday’s vote, according to preliminary projections.

The FPOe beat the ruling conservative OeVP into second place and the left-wing Social Democrats, also known as SPOe, into third on 21.1 percent.

But all other parties have refused to work with Kickl because of his radical proposals.

“Winner — and what now?” said the daily Kurier’s main headline with a photo of Kickl giving a thumbs-up.

A vocal critic of the EU and its sanctions against Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Kickl’s abrasiveness has left him isolated among Austrian lawmakers — and beyond.

Uncertainty over what would happen next dominated the Alpine country, as Kickl’s FPOe could end up being sidelined like some of its far-right allies in Europe.

“Times are changing,” Dutch far-right firebrand Geert Wilders posted on the X social media platform after Austria’s election results were announced, listing 11 European countries where nationalist parties were “winning.”

In neighboring Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban hailed the FPOe victory as “another win for the #Patriots.”

With Sunday’s victory ahead of the OeVP, Kickl surpassed results bagged by his predecessors Joerg Haider and Heinz-Christian Strache.

But apart from a few hundred protesters, the far-right win did not trigger major demonstrations.

“We were expecting it, so we’re neither totally shocked nor delighted,” Isabella, a Vienna woman who declined to give her surname, said.

Austria’s powerful Kronen Zeitung tabloid noted that “something revolutionary hangs in the air,” adding that coalition talks would be “tough, long and turbulent.”