Ex-soccer player becomes Georgia’s president in blow to EU aspirations

TBILISI, GEORGIA — Former soccer player Mikheil Kavelashvili became president of Georgia on Saturday, as the ruling party tightened its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia.

Kavelashvili, 53, easily won the vote given the Georgian Dream party’s control of a 300-seat electoral college that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017.

Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the South Caucasus nation in an October 26 election that the opposition alleges was rigged with Moscow’s help. Georgia’s outgoing president and main pro-Western parties have since boycotted parliamentary sessions and demanded a rerun of the ballot.

Georgian Dream has vowed to continue pushing toward EU accession but also wants to “reset” ties with Russia.

In 2008 Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which led to Moscow’s recognition of two breakaway regions as independent and an increase in the Russian military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Critics have accused Georgian Dream — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow, accusations the ruling party has denied. The party recently pushed through laws like those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.

Pro-Western Salome Zourabichvili has been president since 2018 and has vowed to stay on after her six-year term ends Monday, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held.

Georgian Dream’s decision last month to suspend talks on their country’s bid to join the European Union added to the opposition’s outrage and galvanized protests.

 

Who is the outgoing president?

Zourabichvili, 72, was born in France to parents with Georgian roots and had a successful career with the French Foreign Ministry before President Mikheil Saakashvili named her Georgia’s top diplomat in 2004.

Constitutional changes made the president’s job largely ceremonial before Zourabichvili was elected by popular vote with Georgian Dream’s support in 2018. She became sharply critical of the ruling party, accusing it of pro-Russia policies, and Georgian Dream unsuccessfully tried to impeach her.

“I remain your president — there is no legitimate Parliament and thus no legitimate election or inauguration,” she has declared on the social network X. “My mandate continues.”

Speaking to The Associated Press, Zourabichvili rejected government claims that the opposition was fomenting violence.

“We are not demanding a revolution,” Zourabichvili said. “We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again.

“Georgia has been always resisting Russian influence and will not accept having its vote stolen and its destiny stolen,” she said.

Zourabichvili called Saturday’s vote a “provocation” and “a parody” while a leader of one of Georgia’s main opposition parties said it was unconstitutional.

Giorgi Vashadze of the Unity National Movement Coalition said Zourabichvili is “the only legitimate source of power.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that Kavelashvili’s election “will make a significant contribution to strengthening Georgia’s statehood and our sovereignty, as well as reducing radicalism and so-called polarization.”

“The main mission of the presidential institution is to care for the unity of the nation and society,” said Kobakhidze, a former university professor and later chairperson of Georgian Dream.

Who is Kavelashvili?

Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili — mocked by the opposition for lacking higher education. He was a striker in the Premier League for Manchester City and in several clubs in the Swiss Super League. He was elected to parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket, and in 2022 co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which was allied with Georgian Dream and become known for its strong anti-Western rhetoric.

Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.

The European Union, which granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc’s recommendations, put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June following approval of the “foreign influence” law.

 

How did opposition protests unfold?

Thousands of demonstrators converged on the parliament building every night after the government announced the suspension of EU accession talks on November 28.

Riot police used water cannons and tear gas almost daily to disperse and beat scores of protesters, some of whom threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the capital’s central boulevard.

Hundreds were detained and over 100 treated for injuries.

Several journalists were beaten by police, and media workers accused authorities of using thugs to deter people from attending antigovernment rallies, which Georgian Dream denies.

The crackdown has drawn strong condemnation from the United States and EU officials.

“[Kavelashvili] is not elected by us. He is controlled by a puppet government, by Bidzina Ivanishvili, by Putin,” protester Sandro Samkharadze said.

Another protester waved a sign saying “We are children of Europe.”

Demonstrators vowed the rallies would continue. “If [the government] wants to go to Russia, they can go to Russia, because we are not going anywhere. We are staying here,” said protester Kato Kalatozishvili.

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President Macron names centrist ally Bayrou as France’s next prime minister

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday named centrist ally François Bayrou as prime minister in an effort to address the country’s deep political crisis, after a historic parliamentary vote ousted the previous government last week.

Bayrou, 73, a crucial partner in Macron’s centrist alliance, has been a well-known figure in French politics for decades. His political experience is seen as key in efforts to restore stability as no single party holds a majority at the National Assembly.

Macron’s office said in a statement that Bayrou “has been charged with forming a new government.”

Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier resigned last week following a no-confidence vote prompted by budget disputes in the National Assembly, leaving France without a functioning government. Macron in an address to the nation vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027.

Bayrou vows to seek ‘needed reconciliation’

During the handover ceremony, Bayrou said that “no one knows the difficulty of the situation better” than he does.

“I’ve taken reckless risks all along my political life to raise the issue of debt and deficits in the most important elections,” he said.

France is under pressure from the European Union’s executive body and financial markets to reduce its colossal debt, estimated to reach 6% of its gross domestic product this year.

“I know that the risks of difficulties are much greater than the chances of success,” Bayrou said, adding that he hopes to lead the country towards a “needed reconciliation.”

“I think this is the only possible path to success,” he said.

Bayrou is expected to hold talks with political leaders from various parties in the coming days in order to choose new ministers.

Difficult political challenge

The task before him is challenging as Macron’s centrist alliance does not have a majority in parliament and Bayrou’s Cabinet will need to rely on moderate lawmakers from both the left and right to be able to stay in power.

Some conservatives are expected to be part of the new government.

Macron’s strategy aims at preventing far-right leader Marine Le Pen from holding “make or break” power over the government. Le Pen helped oust Barnier by joining her National Rally party’s forces to the left to pass the no-confidence motion last week.

Le Pen said on Friday that her party will adopt a wait-and-see approach for now and called on Bayrou to “hear” her voters’ demands, including preserving their purchasing power.

Bayrou’s appointment comes also in line with Macron’s efforts to build a non-aggression pact with the Socialists so that they wouldn’t support any future move to topple the new government.

The Socialists said Friday they would not take part in the new Cabinet but did not rule out possible “compromises” regarding policies. They asked Bayrou for a commitment not to use a special constitutional power to pass a law without a vote at parliament.

“We expect you to provide the guarantees needed to avoid another no-confidence vote,” the party wrote in a letter to Bayrou.

Weighty partner

Bayrou leads the centrist Democratic Movement, known as MoDem, which he founded in 2007.

In 2017, he supported Macron’s first presidential bid and became a weighty partner in the French president’s centrist alliance.

At the time, he was appointed justice minister, but he quickly resigned from the government amid an investigation into the MoDem’s alleged embezzlement of European Parliament funds.

He this year was cleared in the case by a Paris court, which found eight other party officials guilty and sentenced the party to pay a fine.

Bayrou became well known to the French public when he was education minister from 1993-97 in a conservative government.

Three-time presidential candidate

Bayrou was three times a candidate for president, in 2002, 2007 and 2012, which made him a familiar face in French politics.

His name had repeatedly surfaced as a potential prime minister in the past, but he was repeatedly passed over.

He is widely considered having helped lay the groundwork for Macron’s rise to power in 2017. Long before the French president upended the country’s politics by crushing the traditional right and left, Bayrou tapped into voter frustration with entrenched conservative and Socialist camps.

A father of six and a practicing Catholic, Bayrou has played up his rural farming roots in the Pyrenees mountains, showing off his knowledge of tractors and cattle-raising — even while spending most of his time in the corridors of political power in Paris. 

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Moody’s hands France surprise downgrade over deteriorating finances

PARIS — Credit ratings agency Moody’s unexpectedly downgraded France’s rating on Friday, adding pressure on the country’s new prime minister to corral divided lawmakers into backing his efforts to rein in the strained public finances.

The downgrade, which came outside of Moody’s regular review schedule for France, brings its rating to “Aa3” from “Aa2” with a stable outlook for future moves and puts it in line with those from rival agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.

It comes hours after President Emmanuel Macron named on Friday veteran centrist politician and early ally Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister this year.

His predecessor, Michel Barnier, failed to pass a 2025 budget and was toppled earlier this month by left-wing and far-right lawmakers opposed to his $63 billion (60 billion euro) belt-tightening push that he had hoped would rein in France’s spiraling fiscal deficit.

The political crisis forced the outgoing government to propose emergency legislation this week to temporarily roll over 2024 spending limits and tax thresholds into next year until a more permanent 2025 budget can be passed.

“Looking ahead, there is now very low probability that the next government will sustainably reduce the size of fiscal deficits beyond next year,” Moody’s said in a statement.

“As a result, we forecast that France’s public finances will be materially weaker over the next three years compared to our October 2024 baseline scenario,” it added.

Barnier had intended to cut the budget deficit next year to 5% of economic output from 6.1% this year with a $63 billion (60 billion euro) package of spending cuts and tax hikes.

But left-wing and far-right lawmakers were opposed to much of the belt-tightening drive and voted a no confidence measure against Barnier’s government, bringing it down.

Bayrou, who has long warned about France’s weak public finances, said on Friday shortly after taking office that he faced a “Himalaya” of a challenge reining in the deficit.

Outgoing Finance Minister Antoine Armand said he took note of Moody’s decision, adding there was a will to reduce the deficit as indicated by the nomination of Bayrou.

The political crisis put French stocks and debt under pressure, pushing the risk premium on French government bonds at one point to their highest level over 12 years.

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VOA Russian: Sister of American jailed in Russia says she doesn’t know where he is

Patricia Hubbard Fox, the sister of the 72-year-old U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard sentenced to jail in Russia for almost seven years on charges of “being a mercenary” for his alleged participation in fighting in Ukraine, says in an exclusive VOA Russian interview that she is still unsuccessfully trying to find out the location of his prison in Russia. She refuted the charges against her brother, saying that he would not be able to fight alongside the Ukrainian army and that he was an English language teacher in a small Ukrainian town.

Click her for the full story in Russian.

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Russian troops moving close to key Ukrainian city, local reports say

Ukrainian news outlets say Russian troops are closing in on Pokrovsk, an eastern city that is considered a key logistical hub for the Ukrainian military.

The Kyiv Post and Kyiv Independent newspapers reported Friday that Russian troops control areas 5 kilometers or less from Pokrovsk, a city of about 60,000 in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

On the positive side for Ukraine, the Independent, citing the DeepState monitoring group that tracks the Russia-Ukraine war, reports that Ukrainian forces have resisted Russian assaults on several other Donetsk locales in recent days.

Earlier Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched one of the largest assaults to date on his nation’s energy infrastructure, sending 93 missiles and nearly 200 attack drones against the nation.

In a report from his X social media account, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s air defenses managed to shoot down 81 of the missiles, including 11 cruise missiles shot down by Ukraine’s F-16 fighter aircraft. The Ukrainian president said there was at least one North Korean missile used in the attack.

In his comments, Zelenskyy lashed out at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying of the attack, “This is Putin’s ‘peaceful’ plan — to destroy everything. This is how he wants ‘negotiations’ — terrorizing millions of people.” Zelenskyy also called for a strong reaction from world leaders: “a massive strike — a massive reaction. This is the only way to stop terror,” he said.

Zelensky said if world leaders hesitate to react, “Putin takes it as permission to continue. Patriots are needed to shoot down these missiles and prove that terror will not achieve its goal.” He also called for stronger sanctions against Russia to hamper missile production.

The Ukrainian president said he discussed the attack later Friday in a telephone call with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

He said Stubb expressed his readiness to help enhance Ukraine’s air defenses as well as Finland’s strong support for “Ukraine’s sovereign right to choose its own future without external interference, including our choice to join the EU and NATO.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.

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Moldova declares a state of emergency over energy as fears of Russian gas shortage loom 

CHISINAU — Moldova’s parliament on Friday voted in favor of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over fears that Russia could leave the European Union candidate country without sufficient natural gas supplies this winter. 

A majority in Moldova’s 101-seat legislature voted to pass the state of emergency, which will start on Dec. 16 and last 60 days. A special commission will urgently adopt measures to manage “imminent risks” if Moscow fails to supply gas to the Kuciurgan power plant, the country’s largest, which is situated in the separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region. 

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said his country faces an “exceptional situation” in which Moscow could deliberately weaponize energy flows to destabilize the country, and potentially leave people “in the middle of winter without heat and electricity.” 

Russian energy giant Gazprom supplies the gas-operated Kuciurgan plant, which generates electricity that powers a significant portion of Moldova proper. The plant was privatized in 2004 by Transnistrian officials and later sold to a Russian state-owned company. Moldova doesn’t recognize the privatization. 

In late 2022, Moldova suffered major power outages following Russian strikes on neighboring Ukraine, which is interconnected to the Kuciurgan plant. 

“This must be the last winter in the country’s history in which we can still be threatened with energy,” Recean said. “It is clear that these crises are deliberately provoked, and their goal is to create panic and chaos.” 

He added that a cessation of natural gas could trigger economic and humanitarian crises, but vowed that nobody in Moldova would be left “in the cold and dark.” 

Transnistria, which broke away after a short war in 1992 and is not recognized by most countries, also declared its own state of emergency this week in case the region does not receive gas supplies. 

When Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.5 million people, was entirely dependent on Moscow for natural gas but has since pushed to diversify and expand its energy sources. 

Sebastian Burduja, Romania’s energy minister, said late Thursday that Romania has the resources to support Moldova “if the situation demands it,” saying it would be “a duty … in the face of the aggressions coming from the east.” 

In October, Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu won a second term in office, and a referendum voted in favor of securing the country’s path toward the EU, in two votes overshadowed by ongoing claims of Russian interference to derail the country’s westward shift in recent years. Russia denies it is meddling in Moldova. 

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Georgia crisis deepens as government set to name far-right president 

Tbilisi — Georgia’s political crisis deepened Friday after new pro-Europe protests were announced ahead of the controversial nomination of a far-right government loyalist as president.

The Black Sea nation has been in turmoil since the governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in contested October parliamentary elections, with its decision last month to delay EU accession talks igniting a fresh wave of mass rallies.

More unrest is expected on Saturday when Georgian Dream will appoint far-right former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili as president in a controversial election process.

The pro-Western incumbent, President Salome Zurabishvili, has refused to step down and is demanding new parliamentary elections, paving the way for a constitutional showdown.

Opposition groups accuse Georgian Dream of rigging the parliamentary vote, democratic backsliding in office and moving Tbilisi closer to Russia — all at the expensive of the Caucasus nation’s bid for EU membership.

A forceful police crackdown on the protestors has also triggered outrage at home and condemnation abroad.

Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Georgian officials overnight, barring visas for around 20 people accused of “undermining democracy in Georgia,” including sitting ministers and parliamentarians, the U.S. State Department said.

Police have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the rallies, arresting more than 400 demonstrators, and the country’s rights ombudsman has accused security forces of “torturing” those detained.

‘Unprecedented constitutional crisis’

Pro-EU demonstrators have staged daily rallies across Georgia for the last two weeks, with more to take place across Tbilisi on Friday.

On Saturday, an electoral college controlled by Georgian Dream is expected to elect Kavelashvili as the country’s new figurehead president, in an indirect vote boycotted by the opposition.

Kavelashvili, 53, is known for his vehement anti-West diatribes and opposition to LGBTQ rights.

Georgian Dream scrapped direct presidential elections in 2017.

With Zurabishvili refusing to leave office, opposition lawmakers boycotting Parliament and protests showing no signs of abating, critics are questioning Kavelashvili’s legitimacy before he even takes up the role.

One author of Georgia’s constitution, Vakhtang Khmaladze, has argued that all decisions by the new Parliament are void because the body started work before awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit brought by Zurabishvili.

“Georgia is facing an unprecedented constitutional crisis,” Khmaladze told AFP.

It remains unclear how the government will react to Zurabishvili’s refusal to step down after her successor is inaugurated on December 29.

A former French diplomat, Zurabishvili is a hugely popular figure among protesters who view her as a beacon of Georgia’s European aspirations.

“Let them try to kick Salome out of the presidential palace — we will all stand up to defend her,” Otar Turnava, a 23-year-old protester, told AFP at a rally outside Parliament on Thursday.

“She is the only legitimate leader we have had since Georgian Dream stole the election, and she will lead us into the EU.”

‘Brutal violence’

In power for more than a decade, Georgian Dream has pushed increasingly conservative policies in recent years, including measures targeting civil society, independent media, opposition parties and the LGBTQ community.

Critics say the moves mirror repressive Russian-style legislation and Brussels has called them “incompatible” with EU membership.

Amid the latest crisis, police have raided the offices of opposition parties and the prime minister has repeatedly pledged to “eradicate liberal fascism.”

Announcing the latest visa bans on top Georgian figures, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “The United States strongly condemns the Georgian Dream party’s ongoing, brutal, and unjustified violence against Georgian citizens, including protesters, members of the media, human rights activists, and opposition figures.”

Georgia’s Parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili called the move “incomprehensible and meaningless,” accusing the outgoing U.S. administration of “deliberately worsening relations with Georgia.”

He struck back at critics of Kavelashvili, saying “it is vital to have a president who does not fall under the influence of a foreign power, as is the case with Ms. Salome Zurabishvili.”

French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the ongoing repressions in a phone call to Georgian Dream’s honorary chairman and founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The secretive billionaire, widely assumed to be Georgia’s real power broker, raged against the West on the campaign trail earlier this year.

 

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Russia launches massive aerial attack on Ukrainian infrastructure

KYIV, UKRAINE — Russia launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine on Friday, firing 93 missiles and almost 200 drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, describing it as one of the heaviest bombardments of the country’s energy sector since Russia’s full-scale invasion almost three years ago.

Ukrainian defenses shot down 81 missiles, including 11 cruise missiles that were intercepted by F-16 warplanes provided by Western allies earlier this year, Zelenskyy said.

Russia is “terrorizing millions of people” with such assaults, he said on his Telegram channel, renewing his plea for international unity against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“A strong reaction from the world is needed: a massive strike – a massive reaction. This is the only way to stop terror,” Zelenskyy said.

But uncertainty surrounds how the war might unfold next year. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, has vowed to end the war and has thrown into doubt whether vital U.S. military support for Kyiv will continue.

In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said the Russian military used long-range precision missiles and drones on “critically important fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine that ensure the functioning of the military industrial complex.”

The strike was in retaliation for Wednesday’s Ukrainian attack using U.S.-supplied the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, on a Russian air base, it said.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said Friday’s attack also targeted transport networks and other key facilities.

Ukraine’s biggest private energy company, DTEK, said the attack “seriously damaged” its thermal power plants.

Russia has repeatedly attempted to cripple Ukraine’s electricity system in an effort to break the will of civilians left in the dark with no running water or heating and to disrupt Ukrainian defense manufacturing.

Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said energy workers were doing everything necessary to “minimize negative consequences for the energy system,” promising to release more details on damages once the security situation allowed it.

Ukraine’s air force reported multiple strike drones launched at Ukraine overnight followed by swarms of cruise missiles in the country’s air space. It said Russia also used air-launched ballistic Kinzhal missiles against Ukraine’s western regions.

A similar massive attack on November 28 involved about 200 missiles and drones and left more than a million households without power until emergency teams restored supplies.

Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia is stockpiling cruise and ballistic missiles for more attacks.

On November 21, Russia for the first time used an intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile to strike an industrial plant in the city of Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine. Putin described the attack with the Oreshnik missile as retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with longer-range Western weapons.

He declared that more attacks with the new weapon could follow, and U.S. officials warned Wednesday that the Oreshnik could be used again in coming days. There was no immediate sign one was launched in Friday’s attack.

Around half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed during the war, and rolling electricity blackouts are common and widespread.

Kyiv’s Western allies have provided Ukraine with air defense systems to help it protect critical infrastructure, but Russia has sought to overwhelm the air defenses with combined strikes involving large numbers of missiles and drones called “swarms.”

Russia has held the initiative this year as its military has steadily rammed through Ukrainian defenses in the east in a series of slow but steady offensives.

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Far-right support rose in Europe in 2024

LONDON — Support for far-right parties in Europe continued to grow in 2024 amid voter concerns over immigration, inflation and the war in Ukraine.

Far-right parties gained nearly a quarter of votes from across the bloc in June’s European Union parliamentary elections, although centrist parties continue to hold the balance of power at the EU institutions in Brussels.

In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally Party won the highest share of French votes in the EU parliament election, with 31%.

French President Emmanuel Macron — whose Renaissance Party won 15% of the vote — made the shock decision to dissolve parliament and call a general election.

National Rally saw a path to government for the first time.

“We are ready to be in power if the French people give us their support in the forthcoming legislative elections,” Le Pen told supporters. “We are ready to turn the country around, ready to defend the interests of the French people, ready to put an end to mass immigration.”

Left and centrist parties, however, formed an alliance to block National Rally from power.

Macron appointed a new government under Prime Minister Michel Barnier, but France was plunged into turmoil again in early December after National Rally withdrew its support for government, forcing a no-confidence vote and prompting Barnier’s resignation.

Macron is struggling to appoint a new prime minister amid calls for his resignation.

Meanwhile, Le Pen faces troubles of her own, as an ongoing corruption trial could derail her political ambitions. A verdict is due in March.

German elections

In Germany, Europe’s biggest economic power, the far-right Alternative for Germany Party finished second in the EU parliament elections, putting the Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz in third place.

Scholz appealed to voters to reject the right-wing party.

“We have to worry about the vote for right-wing populist parties here and in other European countries. We must never get used to this, and it must always be our mission to push them back,” Scholz said in the wake of the results.

His call went unheeded. In September, Alternative for Germany won a state election for the first time in Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony.

Immigration

Concerns over immigration were central to the far right’s success, said Guntram Wolff, senior fellow at the Bruegel economic think tank in Brussels.

“How do you respond to that dissatisfaction that relates to migration? I mean, perhaps also the topic of inflation and increases in prices in the last years play a role. But I think the migration topic really is sort of at the center of the dissatisfaction,” Wolff said.

Germany’s three-party ruling coalition under Scholz collapsed in November. The country is due to hold a general election in February.

Aid to Ukraine

Alternative for Germany, which is currently polling in second place behind the center-right Christian Democrats, is campaigning on a platform of slashing immigration and ending military support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders. Germany is Kyiv’s second-biggest donor, after the United States.

“We want peace in Ukraine. We don’t want any weapons deliveries. We don’t want any tanks. We don’t want any missiles,” AfD leader Alice Weidel said at a press conference on December 7.

In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party topped the vote in September’s election with more than 28%. However, all other parties ruled out forming a coalition with it, so the party has been excluded from power.

In 2025, analysts say, all eyes will be on the political turbulence in France and Germany as Europe prepares for the return of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency in January.

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Far-right support rose in Europe in 2024

Support for far-right parties in Europe continued to grow in 2024. Analysts say the trend was driven by concerns over immigration, inflation and the war in Ukraine. Henry Ridgwell has more.

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France’s Macron expected to name new PM

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he cut short a visit to Poland Thursday to return home to name a new prime minister eight days after French lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a no-confidence vote.

Barnier, who had been prime minister for just three months, angered members of parliament on both the right and the left last week when he pushed through the 2025 budget without parliamentary approval, something Barnier said he did to maintain “stability” amid France’s deep political divisions.

Macron asked Barnier to stay on in a caretaker capacity until the president names a successor.

Following a meeting with Macron at his Elysee Palace office Tuesday, party leaders said the president had promised to name a replacement to lead the government within 48 hours.

The meeting did not include the far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen or the far-left France Unbowed party of Jean-Luc Melenchon. The Associated Press reports Macron said he would only speak with more moderate political forces.

Following last week’s no-confidence vote, Macron, in a nationally televised speech, vowed to stay in office until the end of his term in 2027. He also promised to appoint a prime minister who would form a government “in the general interest, representing all the political parties who can participate in it, or at least who agree not to bring it down.”

A spokeswoman for Barnier’s caretaker government, Maud Bregeon, told reporters Wednesday Macron would either seek to bring parties from the center-left into his center/center-right coalition or make a deal with them not hold any no confidence votes against them.

Analysts suggest top candidates to be prime minister include centrist Democratic Movement party leader François Bayrou, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and center-left ex-Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

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ETA terrorists jailed in Spain for attempted murder of journalists

Four former members of Basque separatist organization ETA were each sentenced Thursday in Spain to nearly 75 years in prison, more than 20 years after they attempted to murder two journalists and their infant son by placing a flowerpot filled with explosives outside the family’s home.

Aurora Intxausti, a journalist for El Pais newspaper; her husband, Juan Palomo, a reporter for Antena 3 television; and their then-18-month-old son, Inigo, were targeted in 2000 as ETA broadened its terror campaign across Basque society.

In previous years, the organization had targeted only police and soldiers but began killing and threatening journalists, judges, local politicians, women and children in a campaign it called the “socialization of suffering.”

In 2018, ETA announced its full and formal dissolution, but the Spanish judiciary is still pursuing members of the organization for past crimes.

The Spanish branch of watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said attacks on journalists should be punished even if it takes judicial authorities two decades to catch up with the perpetrators.

“It is important that justice is done,” Alfonso Bauluz, president of RSF, told VOA.

“ETA represented a permanent threat to the freedom of expression, and its disappearance represents a strengthening of the freedom of the media and the security of Spanish journalists,” he said.

The bomb attack failed because as the family was leaving their home on November 10, 2000, Palomo heard something that sounded like a firecracker going off.  He noticed a plant pot on the front doorstep that had not been there and told his family to get as far away from the door as possible.

The bomb contained 2.5 kilograms of dynamite and shrapnel. It failed to go off because Palomo opened the door briskly, causing the connection between the detonator and the explosives to fail.

Four ETA members admitted to attempted murder on Thursday in Madrid at the Audiencia Nacional, Spain’s top criminal court, and were sentenced to nearly 75 years each in prison.

Asier Garcia, Patxi Xabier Makazaga, Jon Zubiaurre and Imanol Miner received sentences of 19 years and 10 months for each of the three counts of attempted murder and a further 14 years and 10 months each for terrorist offenses.

In their closing remarks, the judges said the bomb had been planted “with the sole intention of causing the deaths of the couple and their child.”

Despite the sentences, under Spanish law, most criminals can serve a maximum of only 30 years in prison.

The case had been shelved through lack of evidence, but in 2020, police made a breakthrough when French authorities passed files on the case to the Spanish.

Intxausti said her family was forced to leave Basque country after the attempt on their lives, which left many other journalists fearing for their own lives.

Intxausti said the jailing of the four ETA bombers has given her family closure.

“It is proven that they went to kill without caring that my child was with us,” Intxausti told El Pais.

“It puts an end to a tragic event that occurred in 2000,” she said. “I have to thank the Civil Guard, who discovered who the people who wanted to kill us were, and to the court for issuing a fair sentence.”

ETA, which killed 858 people during its four-decade armed campaign, renounced its use of arms in 2011.

The organization also kidnapped 77 people, threatened 42,000 others and carried out 9,000 assaults, according to a 2013 study by the University of Seville. It said 326 journalists had been threatened by the separatist organization, according to data from the Spanish police.

Another report, by the Committee to Protect Journalists, from 2001 found ETA’s attacks on reporters threatened press freedom.

“Press freedom is generally respected in Spain, and the CPJ does not routinely monitor conditions in the country; however, a series of attacks on journalists by ETA, including the murder of a prominent columnist from El Mundo [newspaper] greatly alarmed journalists during 2000, forcing many to leave the Basque region and others to hire full-time bodyguards,” the report said.

“ETA is using the same kind of terror tactics used by [late Spanish dictator General Francisco] Franco,” it said.

In 2018, ETA issued an apology for its actions and accepted that it bore “direct responsibility” for years of bloodshed.

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As tourists discover Finland’s Santa Claus Village, some locals call for rules to control the masses

Rovaniemi, Finland — Shuffling across icy ground on a cold December afternoon, lots of tourist groups poured into Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle.

They frolic in the snow, take a reindeer sleigh ride, sip a cocktail in an ice bar or even meet Saint Nick himself in the capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi, which happily calls itself the “official hometown of Santa Claus.”

The Santa Claus Village theme park, which attracts more than 600,000 people annually, is especially popular during the holiday season.

“This is like my dream came true,” beamed Polish visitor Elzbieta Nazaruk. “I’m really excited to be here.”

Tourism is booming in Rovaniemi — which has hotel and restaurant owners, as well as city officials, excited as it brings lots of money to the town. However, not everyone is happy about the onslaught of visitors, 10 times the town’s population, each year at Christmas time.

“We are worried about the overgrowth of tourism. Tourism has grown so rapidly, it’s not anymore in control,” said 43-year-old Antti Pakkanen, a photographer and member of a housing network that in September organized a rally through the city’s streets.

It’s a feeling that has been echoed in other popular European travel destinations, including Barcelona, Amsterdam, Malaga and Florence.

Across the continent, locals have protested against “over-tourism” — which generally describes the tipping point at which visitors and their cash stop benefiting residents and instead cause harm by degrading historic sites, overwhelming infrastructure and making life markedly more difficult for those who live there.

Now, it seems to have spread north, all the way to the edges of the Arctic Circle.

Rovaniemi counted a record 1.2 million overnight visitors in 2023, almost 30 percent growth on 2022, after rebounding from pandemic travel disruptions.

“Nordic is a trend,” Visit Rovaniemi CEO Sanna Karkkainen, said as she stood in an ice restaurant, where snow carvers were working nearby.

“People want to travel to cool countries to see the snow, to see the Northern Lights, and, of course, to see Santa Claus,” she added.

Thirteen new flight routes to Rovaniemi Airport opened this year, bringing passengers from Geneva, Berlin, Bordeaux and more. Most tourists come from European countries like France, Germany and the UK, but Rovaniemi’s appeal has also spread further.

Hotel availability is scarce this winter, and Tiina Maatta, general manager of the 159-room Original Sokos Hotel, expects 2024 to break more records.

Local critics of mass tourism say many apartment buildings in Rovaniemi’s city center are also used for accommodation services during peak season and are thus no longer available for residential use. They say the proliferation of short-term rentals has driven up prices, squeezed out long-term residents, and turned its city center into a “transient space for tourists.”

Finnish law prohibits professional accommodation services in buildings intended for residential use, so campaigners are calling on authorities to act.

“The rules must be enforced better,” said Pakkanen.

Not everyone agrees. Mayor Ulla-Kirsikka Vainio notes some make “good money” on short-term rentals.

Either way, stricter regulations likely won’t be in place to impact this winter season, and despite the unease expressed by locals, mass tourism to Rovaniemi is probably only going to grow in 2025 — as visitors want to experience the unique atmosphere up north, especially during the holiday season.

“It’s Christmas time and we would love to see the Northern Lights,” says Joy, a visitor from Bangkok. “Rovaniemi seems to be a good place.”

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Rights group accuses Russian mercenaries of abuses against civilians in Mali

DAKAR, SENEGAL — Mali’s armed forces, supported by Russian mercenaries, committed abuses against civilians since the withdrawal of a U.N. peacekeeping mission late last year, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday.

Malian armed forces and the Russia-backed Wagner Group deliberately killed at least 32 civilians, including seven in a drone strike, kidnapped four others, and burned at least 100 homes in towns and villages in central and northern Mali since May, the rights group said.

Human Rights Watch also accused jihadi groups in the region of having summarily executed at least 47 civilians and displaced thousands of people since June. It said the groups burned thousands of houses and looted livestock, which is vital to the survival of the nomadic communities in the region.

“The Malian army with the Wagner Group and Islamist armed groups have been targeting civilians and their property in violation of the laws of war,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.

Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by jihadi groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance.

Wagner has been present in Mali since late 2021 following a military coup, replacing French troops and international peacekeepers to help fight the militants. At the same time, the mercenary group has been accused of helping to carry out raids and drone strikes that have killed civilians.

In December last year, the United Nations ended its decade long peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, following the government’s request that alleged the force was inadequate to respond to the insurgency.

“Since MINUSMA left Mali a year ago, it has been extremely difficult to get comprehensive information on abuses, and we are deeply concerned that the situation is even worse than reported,” Allegrozzi said.

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Ukrainian drones hit Russia’s Chechnya region

The head of Russia’s Chechnya region said Thursday a Ukrainian drone attack hit a police barracks, injuring at least four people.

Ramzan Kadyrov said on Telegram the drone damaged the building’s roof and windows and also caused a small fire.

The attack was the second to hit a police facility in the region this month, according to Kadyrov.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it shot down a drone over Chechnya, as well as four drones over Kursk, three over North Ossetia and eight over Russia-occupied Crimea.

In Ukraine, the governor of the Kherson region said Russian drones attacked Thursday, with one injuring a man in the city of Kherson.

Missile warfare

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia would respond to Ukraine’s use of U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles, which Russian defense officials said were used in a Wednesday strike on a Russian airfield in the city of Taganrog.

“The response will follow in a manner deemed appropriate. But it will definitely follow,” Peskov said.

A U.S. official said Wednesday that a U.S. intelligence assessment has concluded Russia could launch another of its experimental hypersonic ballistic missiles against Ukraine in the coming days, although Washington does not consider it to be decisive in the nearly three-year war.

Russia first fired the Oreshnik missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on November 21, in what President Vladimir Putin characterized as a response to Ukraine’s first use of long-range U.S. and British missiles to strike more deeply into Russian territory with Western permission. 

“We assess that the Oreshnik is not a game-changer on the battlefield, but rather just another attempt by Russia to terrorize Ukraine, which will fail,” the U.S. official told reporters. There was no immediate response from Russia.

Putin had said that Russia might fire the Oreshnik missile again, possibly to target “decision-making centers” in Kyiv, if Ukraine keeps attacking Russia with long-range Western weapons.

The Russian leader has claimed that the Oreshnik is impossible to intercept and that it has destructive power comparable to that of a nuclear weapon, even when fitted with a conventional warhead.

Some Western experts have said the novel feature of the Oreshnik is that it carries multiple warheads that can simultaneously strike different targets — a capability usually associated with longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Nonetheless, the U.S. official downplayed the usefulness of the missiles, calling them “experimental” in nature and saying that “Russia likely possesses only a handful” of them. The official also said the weapon has a smaller warhead than other missiles Russia has deployed in Ukraine. 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 

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Democracy tested in Eastern Europe amid accusations of Russian meddling

LONDON — This year saw a battle for influence in eastern Europe between the West and Russia as elections were held in several states that were once under Soviet rule. Moscow is widely accused of meddling in European democracy amid tensions that have run high since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

Georgia 

In April, tens of thousands of Georgians staged demonstrations in Tbilisi against the government’s so-called “foreign agent” law, which requires all organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register and submit to detailed investigations.  

The legislation was dubbed the “Russian law” by its opponents, after similar laws long used by President Vladimir Putin’s government to silence political opposition and free media.  

The protests evolved into a battle for Georgia’s future: to be aligned with the West or with Russia. It is a fight that continues to this day on the streets of Tbilisi. 

Georgia’s opposition parties pinned their hopes on ousting the government in the October general election; however, the ruling Georgian Dream party won with more than 53% of the vote.  

Election monitors accused Georgian Dream of overseeing widespread vote rigging, including “ballot box stuffing, physical assault on observers attempting to report on violations, observer and media removal from polling stations, tearing up of observers’ complaints, intimidation of voters inside and outside polling stations,” according to the head of the European Parliament monitoring delegation, Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White. 

Georgian Dream insisted it won a fair election. The government suspended accession talks with the European Union. The United States in turn suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia.  

Many Georgians fear their hopes of a future tied to the West are being lost. Protesters returned to the streets in November, demanding another vote. 

“I just want us to look towards Europe and not back to the hole where we just got out,” said student Salome Bakhtadze. 

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze was unrepentant. “We are absolutely committed to fully neutralizing the radical opposition,” he said at a press conference on December 6. 

Moldova 

Moldova, another former Soviet republic, held a bitterly fought presidential election in October. 

Despite widespread evidence of meddling by Moscow, which it denied, pro-European incumbent Maia Sandu won the November second-round vote after Moldovans voted by a thin margin to embed the desire for EU membership in the nation’s constitution.  

“Today, dear Moldovans, you have given a lesson in democracy,” she said after her victory. 

Romania 

In neighboring Romania, far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, who opposes Western aid for Ukraine, scored a shock first-round win in November’s presidential election with 23% of the vote. Polls taken ahead of the vote suggested support for Georgescu was in the single digits.   

Romania’s top court annulled the result after security services uncovered an alleged disinformation campaign to promote Georgescu on social media, which was widely blamed on Russia. Moscow again denied meddling in the vote. 

“This candidate’s campaign was supported by a state foreign to Romania’s interests,” Romania’s incumbent president, Klaus Iohannis, said in a televised address on December 6. The country has yet to choose a new date for an election rerun. 

Election interference 

Russia is conducting a campaign of interference in European democracy — but the picture is complex, argues Costin Ciobanu, a political analyst at Aarhus University in Denmark. 

“There is evidence that Russia tried to use its tools to favor Georgescu, but we don’t know yet whether there was a direct coordination between the Georgescu campaign and Russia,” Ciobanu told VOA. 

“Russia is exploiting vulnerabilities within our democracies. They are leveraging the way in which social networks function in today’s democracies. But I would not say that all that is happening within our societies, that all the grievances and fury that we see is a result of Russia leveraging its hybrid warfare techniques.” 

“I would always emphasize the local vulnerabilities, the fact that sometimes you have this kind of gap between the elite and the population. And sometimes Russia is just trying to make those gaps wider,” Ciobanu said.

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Democracy tested in Eastern Europe amid accusations of Russian meddling

Western nations and Russia engaged in a battle for influence in Eastern Europe in 2024, as elections were held in several states that had once been under Soviet rule. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Moscow has been widely accused of meddling in European democracy following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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VOA Russian: How Moscow’s propaganda narrative on Syria changed after Assad’s fall

VOA Russian speaks with Ksenia Kirillova, an analyst with Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and The Jamestown Foundation, on how Syria is being portrayed by Russian propaganda. Russian pro-government botnets have already started pushing the narrative that “Syria is of no benefit for Russia” following the fall of Moscow’s ally Bashar al-Assad. 

Click here for the full story in Russian. 

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Azerbaijani rights defender receives US human rights award in absentia

Rufat Safarov, a prominent human rights defender from Azerbaijan, was one of the recipients of the U.S. secretary of state’s 2024 Human Rights Defender Award. He did not attend Tuesday’s ceremony in Washington, because he’d been arrested December 3, hours after visiting the U.S. Embassy in Baku to receive his visa to travel to the United States.

During the ceremony, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, pointing to the empty chair reserved for Safarov, called for his immediate release.

“Now, one chair, as you will have noted, is empty on this stage. … It belongs to Rufat Safarov, the Azerbaijani human rights defender that I spoke of just a few moments ago,” he said. “The government of Azerbaijan should release Rufat — and release him immediately — as well as all the other journalists, human rights defenders, political opponents and others that are unjustly detained.”

At the end of the ceremony, Blinken presented awards to human rights defenders from Bolivia, Colombia, Eswatini, Ghana, Kuwait, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan, and he posed for a photo with them. Later, Blinken approached the empty seat reserved for Safarov and took a commemorative photo with his award.

Blinken issued another statement Wednesday calling on the Azerbaijani government to release Safarov, as well as others unjustly detained for their work in the field of human rights.

“The United States is deeply concerned not only by these detentions, but by the increasing crackdown on civil society and media in Azerbaijan,” the statement read.

Safarov, a former prosecutor who heads the Defense Line human rights organization, issued a statement expressing his gratitude for the award.

“Unfortunately, Baku arrested me in order to prevent me from personally receiving that award and to punish me for my human rights advocacy,” he said in the statement sent to VOA from prison.

Safarov said he was proud of his work defending universal values as a human rights activist “despite all the slander and pressure” from the government.

“In fact, I have accepted my arrest as a reward from the government for human rights advocacy. Human rights are not an internal affair of any country. İt is a universal concept.

“Without human rights, not only the state, but even the society cannot exist. I call on everyone to stand in solidarity in the defense of human rights,” the statement read.

Last week, Safarov was charged with fraud and hooliganism and put on four months of pretrial detention.

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs told VOA that Safarov’s detention was related to a conflict between him and an individual over a land purchase, an allegation he denied.

Safarov was previously sentenced to jail for bribery in 2016 and served three years before being pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev.

His arrest coincides with a new crackdown in Azerbaijan following a recent climate change conference held November 11-22 in Baku. The arrests prompted Western concerns about the state of human rights in the country.

In his statement Wednesday, Blinken called on Azerbaijani authorities to end the crackdown on civil society and the media.

“We urge the government of Azerbaijan to release those unjustly detained for their advocacy on behalf of human rights, cease its crackdown on civil society, respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all, and fulfill the commitments it made when it joined the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” Blinken said.

This story originated in VOA’s Azerbaijani Service.

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Hundreds of arrests and mysterious beatings as Georgia cracks down on pro-EU protests

TBILISI, Georgia — Seventy-five-year-old Marina Terishvili’s teenage son Mamuka was shot dead at a nationalist rally in Georgia in 1992. Now her other son, Giorgi, has been arrested for his role in protests against perceived Russian influence in their homeland.

Seven police cars pulled up at her house in the capital Tbilisi on Friday and took Giorgi, a 52-year-old taxi driver, into custody, she said.

He was placed in pre-trial detention for two months for “participating in group violence” according to a rights group and local media, and faces up to six years in prison if convicted, part of a broad crackdown on demonstrators who have clashed nightly with police for almost two weeks.

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association rights group said he had not yet entered a plea and Marina Terishvili said she did not know why he had been detained.

“I can’t deny that he went to the rallies, because he has a brother who died on Feb. 2, 1992, and he went there in honor of his soul,” Marina said, adding that Giorgi could not tolerate the idea that his younger brother had died in vain.

Mamuka was 17 when he was killed during the brief civil war that followed Georgia’s 1991 exit from the Soviet Union, which ended 200 years of rule by Russia.

Giorgi is among more than 400 people who authorities and rights groups say have been arrested during protests against government moves to delay the South Caucasus country’s longstanding bid to join the European Union.

Around 30 face criminal charges, mostly relating to allegations of “group violence” aimed at overthrowing the government. Among those jailed are two leaders of the country’s pro-EU opposition.

Rights groups say the crackdown is without recent precedent in Georgia, a country that had been seen as among the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union’s successor states.

Fireworks

Some protesters have thrown fireworks and other projectiles at police, arguing that they are defending themselves against tear-gas and baton attacks. The interior ministry said on Monday that more than 150 police officers have been injured.

The Georgian Dream party, which officials say won elections in October the opposition says were tainted by fraud, provoked widespread anger in the country of 3.7 million when it announced last month that it was suspending EU accession talks until 2028.

Georgian Dream says it favors a pragmatic policy with Russia, which backs two regions which split from Georgia after it left the Soviet Union. The party says its aim is to safeguard peace amid the war in Ukraine, which has been shattered by Russian invading forces since early 2022.

Western countries have condemned the crackdown, and the EU’s ambassador to Georgia said on Monday that it merits sanctions.

Georgia’s ombudsman Levan Ioseliani, an ex-opposition politician appointed by Georgian Dream, said on Tuesday that his office has visited 327 detainees, of whom 225 said they were mistreated and 157 had visible injuries.

Police reported finding fireworks and items for making petrol bombs at two opposition party headquarters. Both parties said the items had been planted.

At a briefing on Monday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the parties’ premises a “hotbed of violence” and said their attempt to seize power had failed.

Masked men in black

Gangs of masked men in black have begun attacking opposition politicians, activists and some journalists in recent days.

Opposition supporters refer to the gangs as “titushky,” a Ukrainian word for thugs who attacked opponents of a pro-Russian government before that country’s 2014 Maidan revolution which drove the president to flee to Moscow.

Two journalists from a pro-opposition television channel suffered visible head injuries in an attack on Dec. 7 captured in their live broadcast from a protest.

The same day, Koba Khabazi, a prominent member of the Coalition for Change opposition party, was left with extensive head injuries after being attacked inside the building that houses his party’s headquarters.

CCTV footage obtained by Reuters shows around 15 black-clad men entering the building and confronting Khabazi, who they push down a staircase, before punching and kicking him in the head as he lies on the ground, motionless.

Speaking to Reuters two days later, Khabazi, a 57-year-old former lawmaker, blamed the Georgian government for the attack.

“Of course, the government is behind this,” said Khabazi, his head still swathed in bandages. “This government is built on violence.”

Georgian authorities have said they are not involved in the attacks, and condemn them. Ruling party officials have suggested they are carried out by the opposition to frame Georgian Dream.

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Human trafficking rises sharply after dropping during pandemic, UN says

VIENNA — Human trafficking has risen sharply due to conflicts, climate-induced disasters and global crises, according to a United Nations report published on Wednesday.

In 2022, the latest year for which data is widely available, the number of known victims worldwide rose to 25% above 2019’s pre-pandemic levels, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons said. A sharp fall in 2020 had largely disappeared by the following year.

“Criminals are increasingly trafficking people into forced labor, including to coerce them into running sophisticated online scams and cyberfraud, while women and girls face the risk of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence,” the report said, adding that organized crime was mainly responsible.

Children accounted for 38% of detected victims, compared to 35% for figures for 2020 which formed the basis of the previous report.

The latest report showed adult women remain the largest group of victims, representing 39% of cases, followed by men at 23%, girls at 22% and boys at 16%.

The most common reason by far for women and girls being trafficked was sexual exploitation at 60% or more, followed by forced labor. For men, it was forced labor and for boys, it was forced labor and “other purposes” in roughly equal measure.

Those other purposes include forced criminality and forced begging. The report said the growing number of boys identified as victims of trafficking could be linked to rising numbers of unaccompanied minors arriving in Europe and North America.

The region of origin that accounted for the largest number of victims was sub-Saharan Africa with 26%, though there are many different trafficking routes.

While improved detection could account for the growing numbers, the report said it was likely a combination of that and more trafficking in general.

The biggest increases in cases detected were in sub-Saharan Africa, North America and the ‘western and southern Europe’ region, according to the report, with migration influxes being a significant factor in the latter two.

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As climate change intensifies, vulnerable states seek legal redress against polluters

At a landmark hearing Tuesday on climate change law at the United Nation’s top court in The Hague, Britain argued that only existing climate treaties should have any bearing on a state’s obligations to address the crisis, echoing calls from other big economies.

Small island states have told the court that global warming poses an existential risk, arguing that international human rights laws must apply, in addition to any negotiated climate agreements. Such an outcome could pave the way for compensation claims against big polluting nations.

The hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is one of several legal cases that has the potential to reframe global climate change negotiations.

Some 99 countries are participating in the two-week hearing at the ICJ, making it the largest case in the court’s history. It has pitted small island nations against big polluters and fossil fuel producers.

At the heart of the case is whether international law obliges nation states to prevent climate change and pay for the damage caused by their greenhouse gas emissions.

Britain argued that the only legal obligations are derived from existing climate treaties such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, which set a target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

“The climate crisis can only be met by states working together,” British Attorney General Richard Hermer told the court on Tuesday. “The most constructive, the most concrete, and thus the most legally effective way is through the legally binding agreements setting out states’ obligations to tackle the challenges of climate change. … At the heart of the global response to climate change is the landmark Paris Agreement.”

‘Escape accountability’

Critics accused Britain of trying to avoid legal responsibilities.

“The United Kingdom laid out contemptuous arguments in front of the International Court of Justice with one key goal: escape accountability and responsibilities for decades of climate harms,” Sébastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law, said in a statement sent to VOA.

“By claiming that the Paris Agreement contains the sum total of States’ legal obligations on climate change, the U.K. effectively asked the Court to ignore both science and history: decades of fossil-fueled emissions, and the ample evidence that they knew far too well that such conduct would push the world to the brink of a catastrophe,” Duyck added.

Island states

Small island and coastal states, led by Vanuatu, have argued that rising sea levels caused by global warming threaten their existence — and therefore international human rights laws must be relevant, in addition to the binding agreements made in negotiated climate treaties.

“The conduct responsible for this existential harm cannot, I repeat, cannot be lawful under international law,” Vanuatu Attorney General Arnold Kiel Loughman told the court last week.

The 15 judges will offer an advisory opinion that has the potential to reframe climate change negotiations, according to analyst Elena Kosolapova of the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

“The expectation is for the court’s advisory opinion to provide a clear legal benchmark and remove any ambiguity around countries’ obligations under international law. And U.N. negotiations would certainly benefit from legal clarity,” Kosolapova told VOA.

Global hearings

Scientists say climate change is driving extreme weather events around the world. That has put the spotlight on the rights of the communities affected.

The ICJ hearing is one of three international courts asked to provide legal clarity on climate change.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights held hearings in Brazil and Barbados earlier this year and is expected to give its opinion on nation states’ legal obligations in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, judges at the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled in May that greenhouse gas emissions are subject to international law, and that all states are obliged to limit global warming and protect marine environments.

“If a state fails to comply with this obligation, international [legal] responsibility would be engaged for that state,” Judge Albert Hoffmann explained at the time of the ruling.

Small island states praised that advisory opinion, claiming it gave teeth to climate change laws.

The hearing at the ICJ is due to finish on Friday. The judges are expected to take several more weeks to issue their opinion.

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US Treasury transfers $20 billion in Ukraine loan funds to World Bank

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday said it transferred the $20 billion U.S. portion of a $50 billion G7 loan for Ukraine to a World Bank intermediary fund for economic and financial aid.

The Treasury Department said the disbursement makes good on its October commitment to match the European Union’s commitment to provide $20 billion in aid backed by frozen Russian sovereign assets alongside smaller loans from Britain, Canada and Japan to help the Eastern European nation fight Russia’s invasion.

The disbursement prior to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January is aimed at protecting the funds from being clawed back by his administration. Trump has complained that the United States is providing too much aid to Ukraine and said he will end the war quickly, without specifying how.

The $50 billion in credit for 30 years will be serviced with the interest proceeds from some $300 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets that have been immobilized since Russia invaded in February 2022. The Group of Seven democracies have been discussing the plan for months and agreed on terms in October, prior to Trump’s election.

President Joe Biden’s administration initially sought to split the $20 billion loan in half, with $10 billion to be used for military aid and $10 billion for economic aid, but the military portion would have required approval by Congress, a task made more difficult by Republicans’ sweeping election victory. With Tuesday’s transfer, the full amount will be devoted to nonmilitary purposes.

The Treasury said the funds were transferred to a new World Bank fund called the Facilitation of Resources to Invest in Strengthening Ukraine Financial Intermediary Fund. The global lender’s board approved the creation of the fund in October with only one country, Russia, objecting.

The bank, whose charter prevents it from handling any military aid, has run a similar humanitarian and economic intermediary fund for Afghanistan.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen personally oversaw staff executing the wire transfer of the $20 billion to the World Bank fund, a department official said.

“These funds — paid for by the windfall proceeds earned from Russia’s own immobilized assets — will provide Ukraine a critical infusion of support as it defends its country against an unprovoked war of aggression,” Yellen said in a statement.

“The $50 billion collectively being provided by the G7 through this initiative will help ensure Ukraine has the resources it needs to sustain emergency services, hospitals and other foundations of its brave resistance,” she said.

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VOA Russian: Chechen wars and the formation of the political model of the Russian state

December 11th will mark 30 years since the beginning of the First Chechen war. The initial Russian assault on Chechnya signaled not just the start of a merciless conflict that killed tens of thousands of civilians in Chechnya, but also the end of Russia’s liberal dream. 

As Russia’s first war after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the First Chechen war served as a prologue to other conflicts unleashed by the Kremlin, including the war in Ukraine. The bloody campaign continued with varying success until the end of August 1996, followed by Second Chechen war, which cemented Russian President Vladimir Putin’s power.  

Experts spoke to VOA Russian on the lessons of the Chechen wars and their tragic consequences for Russian democracy. 

See full story here. 

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