Russia showed up in force Monday at an arms fair in the United Arab Emirates, displaying combat-tested weapons up for export, including rifles and air defense systems. 

At an isolated pavilion at the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, Moscow’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said it had more than 200 full-scale models of armament, ammunition and military gear. 

Russian armored vehicles, attack helicopters and anti-aircraft missile systems were also on display at IDEX, which opened Monday, as crippling Western sanctions push President Vladimir Putin to seek new markets for arms exports. 

The UAE has maintained a neutral stance toward Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is nearing its one-year anniversary. 

The oil-rich Gulf nation has also emerged as a top destination for rich Russian emigres fleeing the impact of Western sanctions. 

Russia is one of 65 countries participating in the biennial arms fair in the UAE capital, which runs until the end of the week and is considered the region’s largest.  

Russian Deputy Premier Denis Manturov, who is under sanctions, visited IDEX on Monday, according to Russian state news agency TASS 

“The UAE has retained its first place among the countries of the Arab world in terms of trade with the Russian Federation,” TASS quoted him as saying. 

“In 2022, trade between Russia and the UAE increased by 68% and reached $9 billion,” he said. 

‘Highly competitive’  

Russia is the second-largest arms exporter in the world after the United States, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 

In a statement ahead of IDEX, Rosoboronexport head Alexander Mikheev called Middle Eastern states “important partners” and said his firm was “working out proposals … that could be of immediate interest” to countries in the region. 

He told TASS at IDEX on Monday that Rosoboronexport was preparing to offer reconnaissance and strike drones to foreign partners. 

Russia supplied 20% of the Middle East’s arms imports between 2000-2019, but the Arab Gulf’s arms market has been firmly dominated by American and European firms, said Albert Vidal, a Fulbright scholar at Georgetown University. 

“While Russian firms may be trying to take advantage of the UAE’s search for a more diversified pool of suppliers, they will not have an easy time locking defense contracts with Abu Dhabi,” he told AFP. 

“In addition to traditional Western suppliers, they now face highly competitive arms exporters like South Korea, Israel and Turkey, all of which are already cooperating closely with the Emirati defense industry.”

Israel cooperation

Beyond Russia, Israel also made waves at the Naval Defense and Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX) which opened alongside IDEX.

The UAE and Israel revealed off the coast of Abu Dhabi their first jointly created unmanned vessel. 

The craft, which has advanced sensors and imaging systems and can be used for surveillance, reconnaissance and detecting mines, was created by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Emirati defense consortium EDGE. 

Oren Guter, a former navy captain who leads IAI’s naval program, said the joint project would counter “threats here in the area” but that the aim was also to deploy vessels abroad. 

The UAE and Israel have steadily deepened their military partnership, including defense procurement, since they normalized relations in 2020 as part of the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords. 

In January 2022, Israel’s defense electronics company Elbit Systems said its subsidiary in the UAE was awarded an approximately $53 million contract to supply systems to the UAE air force. 

Emirati and Israeli defense firms are also working to develop an autonomous counter-drone system. 

Countering maritime threats from Iran is “a natural area” of focus for the UAE-Israel partnership, said Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. 

“Countering the growing threat to shipping in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman will be a priority, as both Israeli and Emirati ships have been targeted in Iran-backed drone and missile attacks,” Soltvedt told AFP. 

On Sunday, Israel accused Iran of attacking an Israeli-linked tanker off the coast of Oman in a strike that caused minor damage. It was the second such accusation this year. 
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Myanmar officials and entities were placed under a sixth round of European Union sanctions on Monday over the 2021 military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and sparked global outrage. 

The latest sanctions include restrictions on nine people and seven entities whom the EU says have contributed to the escalating violence and human rights violations in the Southeast Asian country.  

The sanctioned individuals include the energy minister, high-ranking officers, politicians, and prominent businesspeople who have supported the regime. 

Sanctions were also placed on departments in the Ministry of Defense, along with a state-owned enterprise under its jurisdiction, and private companies that supply funds and arms to the military.  

The EU has restrictive measures on 93 individuals and 18 entities. Those who are sanctioned are subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban in EU territory.  

Additionally, export restrictions are being placed on equipment for “monitoring communications which might be used for internal repression,” along with EU prohibition of military training and cooperation with the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military.  

The Feb. 1, 2021, coup happened after the military rejected the outcome of November 2020 elections, in which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide. The junta claimed widespread electoral fraud, allegations the civilian electoral commission denied before it was disbanded. 

Human Rights Watch says that since the coup, military forces have “committed numerous crimes against humanity and war crimes across the country,” documented by the organization and other groups.

Earlier this month, the ruling council declared martial law in more than three dozen of the country’s 330 townships and extended a six-month state of emergency. The military has also been conducting airstrikes targeting a resistance movement that emerged following the coup. 

As of February 20, nearly 20,000 political prisoners have been detained and more than 3,000 people have been killed by the military, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring organization. 

In a press release Monday, the EU said that it condemns “in the strongest possible terms the grave human rights violations, including sexual and gender-based violence, the persecution of civil society, human rights defenders and journalists, attacks on the civilian population, targeting also children and persons belonging to ethnic and religious minorities across the country, and recent deadly air strikes on civilian targets, including on schools and hospitals, by the Myanmar armed forces.”

VOA’s Burmese Service contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.  
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The BBC said Monday it has uncovered evidence of sexual exploitation on Kenyan tea plantations that supply some of Britain’s most popular brands.

In a video posted on the BBC World website, a supervisor on a Kenyan tea farm is seen with an undercover reporter and he asks her to touch him and undress.

He did not know he was being taped and a BBC crew was nearby for the reporter’s protection.

More than 70 women told the BBC that that they had been sexually exploited by their supervisors on farms owned by Unilever, Lipton and James Finlay & Co. The companies supply some of Britain’s most popular brands, including PG Tips and Lipton.

Some women told the BBC that work is scarce and they felt that they did not have any options.

On another plantation, the same undercover reporter attended an induction day for new recruits where a manager gave a speech saying the company had a zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy.

Afterwards, the manager invited her to meet him in a hotel bar that evening and suggested later that they go to his compound, the BBC reports.

Finley told the BBC that it has decided to investigate to determine if their Kenyan operation has “an endemic issue with sexual violence.”

Lipton, which bought one of the plantations from Unilever while the BBC investigation was underway, has also launched an investigation.
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Antiwar German movie “All Quiet on the Western Front” won seven prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, building the somber drama’s momentum as awards season rolls toward its climax at next month’s Oscars. 

Irish tragicomedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” and rock biopic “Elvis” took four prizes each. 

“All Quiet,” a visceral depiction of life and death in the World War I trenches, based on Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel, won Edward Berger the best director award. Its other trophies included adapted screenplay, cinematography, best score, best sound and best film not in English. 

Austin Butler was a surprise best actor winner for “Elvis.” Baz Lurhmann’s flamboyant musical also won for casting, costume design and hair and makeup. Cate Blanchett won the best actress prize for orchestral drama “Tár.” 

Martin McDonagh’s “Banshees,” the bleakly comic story of a friendship gone sour, was named best British film. 

“Best what award?” joked McDonagh of the film, which was shot in Ireland with a largely Irish cast and crew. It has British funding, and McDonagh was born in Britain to Irish parents. 

“Banshees” also won for McDonagh’s original screenplay, and awards for Kerry Condon as best supporting actress and Barry Keoghan for best supporting actor. 

The prizes — officially the EE BAFTA Film Awards — are Britain’s equivalent of Hollywood’s Academy Awards and are watched closely for hints of who may win at the Oscars on March 12. 

Madcap metaverse romp “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the Academy Awards front-runner, was the night’s big loser, winning just one prize from its 10 BAFTA nominations, for editing. 

Actor Richard E. Grant was a suave and self-deprecating host — with support from TV presenter Alison Hammond — for the ceremony at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where the U.K.’s movie academy heralded its strides to become more diverse but said there was more to be done. 

Grant joked in his opening monologue about the infamous altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars. 

“Nobody on my watch gets slapped tonight,” he said. “Except on the back.” 

Guests and presenters walking the red carpet on the south bank of the River Thames included Colin Farrell, Ana de Armas, Eddie Redmayne, Brian Cox, Florence Pugh, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cynthia Erivo, Julianne Moore and Lily James. 

Heir to the throne Prince William, who is president of Britain’s film and television academy, was in the audience alongside his wife, Kate.  

Helen Mirren paid tribute to William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September. Mirren, who portrayed the late monarch onscreen in “The Queen” and onstage in “The Audience,” called Elizabeth “the nation’s leading lady.” 

Britain’s film academy introduced changes to increase the awards’ diversity in 2020, when no women were nominated as best director for the seventh year running and all 20 nominees in the lead and supporting performer categories were white. 

This year there were 11 female directors up for awards across all categories, including documentary and animated films. But just one of the main best-director nominees was female: Gina Prince-Bythewood for “The Woman King.” 

BAFTA chair Krishnendu Majumdar said the “vital work of levelling the playing field” would continue. 

Writer-director Charlotte Wells won the prize for best British debut for the affecting father-daughter drama “Aftersun.” Three-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell became the first costume designer to be awarded the academy’s top honor, the BAFTA fellowship. 

The harsh world outside showbiz intruded on the awards when Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev, who works for investigative website Bellingcat, said he was not allowed to attend the awards because of a risk to public security. He features in “Navalny,” a film about jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny that won the best documentary BAFTA. 

“Navalny” producer Odessa Rae dedicated the award to Grozev, “our Bulgarian nerd with a laptop, who could not be with us tonight because his life is under threat by the Russian government and Vladimir Putin.” 
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The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern Sunday that China may be contemplating sending lethal assistance to support Russia’s war in Ukraine. He made the comments before landing in Turkey, where he toured the damage caused by the recent earthquakes. U.S.-China tensions have spiked after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. Ezel Sahinkaya of VOA’s Turkish Service contributed.
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Russia is not happy with the comments the French president made in a newspaper interview.

Emmanuel Macron told Le Journal du Dimanche that France wanted to see Russia defeated in Ukraine, but not crushed.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the French leader’s comments were “priceless” and showed that the West was talking about regime change in Russia.

Macron also told the newspaper that he did not see an alternative to Russia’s current leader.

“All the options other than Vladimir Putin in the current system seem worse to me,” the French leader told the newspaper.

Russia, led by Putin, invaded Ukraine a year ago.
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Ukraine shot down at least six balloons over Kyiv on Wednesday, according to the British Defense Ministry’s daily intelligence update on Ukraine posted on Twitter.

The report said the Ukrainian armed forces spotted the balloons with radar reflectors suspended from them over Kyiv.

On Feb. 12, Ukraine’s air force said it spotted balloons over eastern Dnipropetrovsk, according to the report.

“It is likely that the balloons were Russian,” the ministry said, adding that the aircraft “likely represent” a new Russian information-gathering tactic to gain information about Ukrainian air defense systems that could “compel the Ukrainians to expend valuable stocks of surface to air missiles and ammunition.”

The British Defense Ministry said Moldovan airspace was closed Tuesday for several hours because of a balloon-shaped object. “There is a realistic possibility that this was a Russian balloon that had drifted from Ukrainian airspace,” the ministry said.

The Defense Ministry did not say whether the balloons resembled the balloons recently spotted and shot down over North America.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday that almost all of Ukraine ended the day with power which he said was “another confirmation of our resilience.”
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On the deserted edge of a town near the front line in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian soldier kneels in a firing position, a gloved finger on the trigger of his high-powered rifle.

“The Russians want to control this road,” says his commander, who goes by the call sign “Virus,” looking up and down a snow-covered residential street.

Dogs bark behind the garden walls and beyond as small-arms fire crackles in the near distance, in between the muffled sound of artillery shelling.

As the anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches Friday, expectations are high that the fighting will intensify in Ukraine.

But for Virus and his “Witcher” unit, who have been deployed across the disputed eastern region of Donetsk, there has been no letup in Russian attacks for the last 12 months.

Up and down the front line, particularly in the city of Bakhmut, Russian forces have put Ukrainian troops under constant pressure, he said.

He insists that the Ukrainian line is holding — and that they are ready if the conflict escalates.

“If you ask me, for our unit the situation hasn’t changed,” he said before heading out into a blizzard, hoping to take advantage of the cover of gray skies and snow drifts to scout out positions.

“Some people can talk about a new offensive, but the Russians attack every day,” he told AFP.

‘Meat grinder’

The latest Western battle tanks are on their way to Ukraine, after weeks of hesitation by its allies for fear of escalating the conflict into a direct fight between NATO and Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s shopping list of urgently needed materiel now includes fighter jets, which has again given the alliance pause.

Virus, with a helmet-mounted camera, AR-15 assault rifle and warm, waterproof camouflage clothing to keep out the stinging cold, certainly does not appear to lack the latest kit.

But he agrees that on the ground, “aviation technology” would help defend against Russian airstrikes in his sector and stem the flow of attacks from waves of enemy troops.

Russian tactics, particularly the use of the Wagner mercenary group in Bakhmut, bolstered by inexperienced convicts, have come under scrutiny.

The heavy losses and monthslong war of attrition for control of the city has seen it dubbed graphically as “the meat grinder.”

But Virus says Russia is using similar tactics elsewhere on the eastern front, sending five groups of 10 men in quick succession to attack Ukrainian positions.

Ukrainian troops pick off the initial waves, he said.

But he added: “By the time we get to the fifth, they capture the trench because we don’t have time to reload our weapons, just because we have no time to kill them.”

“They don’t care about their soldiers’ lives.”

House for headquarters

The men from Witcher, fueled by dried noodles, biscuits, sweets and sugary tea, busy themselves at their base in a small, abandoned house that appears to have belonged to an elderly resident.

Open ammunition boxes lie on the floor, with semiautomatic weapons propped up against a living room cabinet of crockery and china ornaments, in a floral flock wallpapered room.

Nearly a year into the conflict, and with little sign of an end in sight, Virus and his men said high morale and a sense of common purpose had sustained the Ukrainian resistance.

One member of the unit, radio operator “Spider,” said he is prepared to turn his hand to anything to push Russia out of Ukraine to secure peace.

“If I’m needed to shoot a machine gun, I’ll do it,” he said. “If I’m needed to operate an anti-tank system, I’ll do that too.”
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A group of exiled Iranians will increase support for opposition movements in the country so they can continue to pressure the authorities there amid a crackdown on protests, the last heir to the Iranian monarchy said Saturday.

Iran has been rocked by unrest since the death in police custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in September after she was detained for flouting a strict Islamic dress code. The protests are among the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the revolution.

‘Maximum pressure’ and ‘maximum support’

Eight Iranian exiled dissidents, including Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the toppled Shah, discussed ways of uniting a fragmented opposition earlier this month amid pro-government events marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution inside the country.

“We have to have a component of domestic pressure on the regime because external pressure by sanctions weakens the system, but it is not enough to do the job,” Pahlavi told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

“We are looking at means on how we can support the movement back home,” Pahlavi said. “There is a lot of discussion on maximum pressure and more sanctions, but parallel to maximum pressure there needs to be maximum support.”

The Washington-based Pahlavi said the immediate focus would be to ensure Iranians had access to the internet, help finance labor strikes through a fund, and find ways to ease money transfers to Iran.

‘The good, bad and ugly’

Unlike in previous years, the Iranian government was not invited to Munich this year as a result of its crackdown, but also due to its support of Russia in the war in Ukraine.

Instead, opponents to the Iranian governments were invited, while anti-government rallies took place in Munich.

Pahlavi has lived in exile for nearly four decades, since his father, the U.S.-backed shah, was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Opposition to Iran’s clerical government is atomized, with no clear recognized leader. Pahlavi said the priority now was for unity, and in the end, a democratic system decided by Iranians.

It remains unclear how much support Pahlavi has on the ground, but there have been some pro- and anti-slogans in demonstrations. Many Iranians remember the Shah’s secret police, Savak, and Pahlavi said he condemned what had happened then.

“We have to look at the good, bad and ugly, and that’s the only way we can progress in [the] future,” he said, adding that Iran’s young population was savvy and knew that any future political system would need strong institutions to ensure the past was not repeated.

Western powers have been reluctant to speak to opponents to the ruling authorities, fearing a rupture in ties would harm efforts to release dozens of Western nationals held in Iran, but also kill any chance of reviving a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. However, that has begun to change.

French President Emmanuel Macron was filmed in Munich Friday with U.S.-based women’s rights advocate Masih Alinejad.

“I would be very happy to meet you all together because this message of unity is very important,” Macron said.
…

“There is no alternative to Ukrainian victory,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said via video link Friday to the Munich Security Conference. “We have to liberate Ukraine – and Europe. Because when the Russian weapon shoots at us, it is already pointed at our neighbors.”

Also attending the gathering was a delegation of about 50 U.S. lawmakers to affirm bipartisan support for U.S. aid to Ukraine. Four delegations of Democratic and Republican leaders and members of the Senate and House joined hundreds of politicians, military officers, and diplomats from around the world at the event.

The U.S. delegation is one of the largest since the creation of the conference in 1963, U.S. officials said. The Russian invasion on Ukraine has fortified the NATO alliance and the European Union, and it has unified members of the U.S. Congress.

“We are here to send a clear message to this conference and everyone around the world: the U.S. is on a bipartisan basis totally behind the effort of help Ukraine,” Mitch McConnell, the Democratic-controlled Senate’s Republican minority leader, told Reuters after meeting with conservative German politicians.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pressing President Joe Biden directly to send F-16 warplanes to Ukraine. Five House members argued in a letter sent Thursday to Biden and obtained by Politico that modern jets that Kyiv has sought, but the administration has so far not agreed to, “could prove decisive for control of Ukrainian airspace this year.”

“The provision of such aircraft is necessary to help Ukraine protect its airspace, particularly in light of renewed Russian offensives and considering the expected increase in large-scale combat operations,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter was composed by Maine Democrat Jared Golden. Also signing on were Democrats Jason Crow of Colorado and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Republicans Tony Gonzales of Texas and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin.

The lawmakers contend that either the Lockheed Martin-manufactured F-16 or something similar would give Ukrainian forces greater capability than ground-based artillery provided by the U.S. and other nations.

Ukrainian air force spokesperson Colonel Yuriy Ignat told VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze that “modern multipurpose fighter jets are urgently needed to obtain advantages in the air and land fire support of Ukraine’s troops.

“Given that the F-16 is one of the most common multirole aircraft in the world, which can engage both ground and air targets with a wide range of weapons, this aircraft is the most likely candidate for the progressive rearmament of the air force of Ukraine to this type of fighter,” he said.

Ignat added that these aircraft would become part of Ukraine’s air defense, as they are capable of effectively destroying enemy cruise missiles and Iranian attack drones.

“We have dozens of pilots with the appropriate level of training and knowledge of the English language,” he said.

Bakhmut offensive

Ukrainian soldiers are pleading for more weapons as they fight to hold off a Russian offensive on the small eastern city of Bakhmut. Russian rockets and artillery pummeled a residential district in the city on Thursday, killing three men and two women and wounding nine, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said, adding it was being investigated as a war crime.

Nearly one year into the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are intensifying assaults in the east. The Ukrainian government has urged all remaining residents in the city to leave, as heavy fighting is expected to continue.

Russian troops have been trying to take Bakhmut for months, and the city, which once had 70,000 inhabitants, is under virtually constant shelling.

“If you are rational, law-abiding and patriotic citizens, you should leave the city immediately,” said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. She made the appeal via the Telegram messaging app Friday, to what is believed to be about 6,000 people still in the city, in the Donetsk region.

Vereshchuk said those who stay would endanger themselves and their families, but also hinder the work of those who are trying to help them, such as defense and security forces or volunteers.

The British Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily intelligence update about Ukraine that it has become “increasingly difficult” for the Kremlin to insulate the Russian population from the war in Ukraine.

“A December 2022 Russian poll reported that 52% had either a friend or relative who had served in the so-called Special Military Operation,” the ministry said.  
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A Belarusian blogger arrested after Minsk diverted the commercial flight he was on in 2021 went on trial in the country’s capital Thursday.

Raman Pratasevich, who ran the news channel Nexta, is facing charges including organizing mass unrest and plotting to overthrow the government.

One of Nexta’s founders, Stsiapan Putsila, and a site administrator, Yan Rudzik — both of whom no longer live in Belarus — are being in tried in absentia.

The Nexta channel, which ran via a messaging app, gained popularity as a way to share news and information in 2020 during the contested reelection of President Alexander Lukashenko and the mass protests that followed.

Authorities in November 2020 issued an arrest warrant for Pratasevich and Putsila, both of whom were already living outside the country.

Pratasevich was arrested in May 2021 when a bomb hoax was used to divert the Ryanair passenger jet he was traveling on from Greece to Lithuania.

The U.S. and the European Union denounced the move as a hijacking and imposed sanctions against Lukashenko’s government.

A U.N. investigation into the diverted flight determined in 2022 that the purported threat used to divert the plane was “deliberately false and endangered its safety.”

The report by the International Civil Aviation Organization concluded that Belarus committed “an act of unlawful interference,” in diverting the flight.

The U.N. agency oversees rules on civil air space but has no power to impose sanctions, AFP reported.

Since his arrest, Pratasevich has appeared on state television in what analysts have described as forced confessions. The blogger has been held under house arrest while awaiting trial.

Last year, a court convicted his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who was also on the diverted flight, for inciting social hatred. She was sentenced to six years in prison.

The Belarus Embassy in Washington did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

‘Crackdown on free speech’

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Belarus to drop the charges against Pratasevich and his absent co-defendants.

In a statement, Gulnoza Said of CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program said the charges are “a cynical display of the vindictive nature of the Belarusian government, which is determined to retaliate against those who covered the 2020 protests.”

In an email Friday, Said told VOA, “My observation is that the authorities stopped even pretending that it’s not a crackdown on free speech and free media. The masks are off. Lukashenko doesn’t seem to bother with his image in the West anymore.”

Belarus is one of the worst jailers of journalists globally, after mass arrests of media workers who covered the protest movement, according to the CPJ and other rights organizations.

More than 30 journalists are behind bars, either awaiting trial or serving sentences, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists. Two of those detained contributed to VOA sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Speaking about the mass arrests, Volha Khvoin, who is on the board of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, told VOA last month, “This is their sacrifice for freedom of speech.”

Said told VOA that the CPJ is concerned about the plight of journalists in Belarus, adding that “lengthy prison sentences have also become a norm.”

“The trials are mostly held behind closed doors. Lawyers are forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement so [they] cannot reveal any information,” she said. “The authorities seem to want to teach a lesson to the Lukashenko regime’s critics by showing that anybody voicing dissent will face a very harsh punishment.”

Belarus has a poor record for media freedom. The watchdog group Reporters Without Borders describes it as “Europe’s most dangerous country for journalists until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

The country ranks 153rd out of 180 countries on the RSF Press Freedom Index, where No. 1 signals the best environment for media.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Kosovo feted 15 years of independence with a parade of soldiers and police cheered by thousands in Pristina on Friday with an eye to a normalization deal with Serbia, key to stability in a region still scarred from ethnic wars in the 1990s.

Crowds waving Kosovo and Albanian flags lined a main street in the capital as police and troops marched past, but there were no celebrations in the country’s north where minority Serbs have long resisted Pristina’s authority.

“Our independence was achieved through struggle and sacrifice, but our independence will only grow through work,” Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said ahead of the parade.

Tensions with Serbia linger as Belgrade continues to support the refusal of 50,000 minority Serbs in north Kosovo to accept the country’s independence, declared almost a decade after an uprising against repressive Serbian rule.

Serbia, whose forces were driven out of ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo by NATO bombing to stop a brutal security crackdown by Belgrade, still deems its former southern province an integral part of its territory.

U.S. and European Union envoys are pressing the countries to approve a peace plan presented in mid-2022 under which Belgrade would stop lobbying against Kosovo having a seat in international organizations including the United Nations.

The office of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that Kurti would meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels on February 27 to discuss the 11-point plan.

Under it, Kosovo would commit to forming a semi-autonomous association of Serb-majority municipalities in the north, where nationalist Serbs have clashed repeatedly with police trying to apply the Pristina government’s writ.

Belgrade and Pristina have both accepted the EU plan in principle, though they have said further negotiations would be needed.

Resolving their volatile standoff is a major condition for Serbia and Kosovo to progress toward EU membership.

“We welcome your endorsement of the EU proposal on normalization, with the eventual goal of mutual recognition which would help secure a more peaceful and prosperous future for the people of both Kosovo and Serbia,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a letter to Kosovo counterpart Vjosa Osmani on Thursday evening.

Ali Reshani, 73, among thousands of Kosovars gathering in Pristina’s streets for the February 17 independence anniversary, told Reuters: “Thanks to God we have our own police, we also have our own army. I expect better days.”

He added: “I hope God will give good things to the Americans for helping us.”

The anniversary was ignored in the Serb-majority town of North Mitrovica in north Kosovo.

Local Serb taxi driver Lazar Kostic, 58, said he had ethnic Albanian friends but was in touch only by phone. “[Kosovo] doesn’t mean anything to me personally. It is not a state and for me it never will be,” he told Reuters.

Alluding to the former federal, multinational Yugoslavia torn apart by ethnic wars in the 1990s, he said: “We grew up during times when it was not important who or what you were or what your name was. Those were the happy times. But, when politics got involved in our lives, it became another story.”
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