BERLIN — Ukraine’s backers will use windfall profits on frozen Russian assets to finance arms purchases for Kyiv, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said following a meeting with his French and Polish counterparts aimed at showing unity after weeks of friction. 

At a joint news conference in Berlin, Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reaffirmed their support for Ukraine, whose ammunition-starved troops face their toughest battles since the early days of Russia’s invasion two years ago. 

European support has become increasingly key as U.S. President Joe Biden has been unable to get a big Ukraine aid package through Congress and much of his foreign policy energy is focused on the war in Gaza. 

Scholz said the leaders had agreed on the need to procure more weapons for Ukraine on the global market and to boost the production of military gear, including through cooperation with partners in Ukraine. 

“We will use windfall profits from Russian assets frozen in Europe to financially support the purchase of weapons for Ukraine,” Scholz said as he listed European Union efforts to increase support for Ukraine. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called last month for the EU to consider using such profits to “jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine.” 

The Commission is expected to make a concrete proposal in the coming days. 

Some EU member countries such as Hungary have signaled reservations about the idea, according to diplomats in Brussels. But Scholz’s comments suggested he is confident that EU countries will ultimately approve the proposal. 

Scholz said the leaders also agreed on the need for the Ukraine Defense Contact group — a U.S.-led group of some 50 countries that provide military support to Ukraine — to set up a coalition to provide long-distance artillery to Kyiv. 

A proposal to set up a long-range missile coalition had already been agreed to in Paris on February 26. It was unclear whether Scholz’s comments referred to this or how Germany, which has opposed sending its long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, would participate. 

Defense ministers from the contact group are set to meet early next week at the Ramstein U.S. Air Base in Germany. 

Macron reiterated his warning that it was not just Ukrainian but European security at stake. 

“We will do everything as necessary for as long as needed so that Russia cannot win this war,” Macron said. “This determination is steadfast and implies our unity.” 

He added that the three leaders had agreed on the need to reinforce support for Moldova, which says Russia is trying to destabilize it through a “hybrid war.” 

He said the three leaders had agreed to never initiate an escalation with Russia, a possible way to downplay talk of sending Western ground troops to Ukraine, which has irked Germany. 

The meeting of the so-called Weimar triangle — Germany, France and Poland — came after weeks of tensions, in particular between Scholz and Macron, that had alarmed officials in Kyiv and across the continent. 

A hastily arranged summit in Paris last month had aimed to give fresh impetus to stagnating Western efforts to help Ukraine repel a full-scale Russian invasion that has entered its third year. 

Instead, Macron’s refusal to rule out deploying Western troops to Ukraine triggered a dressing down from Scholz. 

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told Reuters that “indecision and uncoordinated action” among Kyiv’s allies was leading to “grave consequences.” 

“Russia starts to get cocky and begins to believe that it can quantitatively squeeze Ukraine,” he said. “Ukraine, in turn, is experiencing a severe shortage of specific resources, primarily shells, and is partially losing the initiative.” 

Tusk said the meeting on Friday showed “that some malicious rumors that there are differences between European capitals are very exaggerated.” 

Tusk, who is seeking to revitalize the Weimar Triangle after eight years of nationalist rule in Warsaw, said Macron and Scholz had accepted his invitation to meet again in early summer to present their next joint plans. 
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Russia has rebranded its Wagner paramilitary group as an “expeditionary corps” now controlled by Moscow’s military intelligence arm, and the force is offering a “regime survival package” to autocratic regimes in Africa, Britain’s Royal United Services Institute says. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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london — Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied he is seeking to oust Western influence in Africa, as new analysis suggests the Kremlin’s military intelligence arm has taken over activities of the disbanded Wagner Russian paramilitary group on the continent.

In a television interview broadcast in Russia on March 13, Putin dismissed claims that Moscow is seeking to displace France as the major partner of countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

“We have not ousted anyone. It’s just that the African leaders of certain countries made agreements with Russian economic operators, wanted to work with them and did not want to work in certain areas with the French. It wasn’t even our initiative, it was an initiative of our African friends,” Putin said.

“We are not instigating anyone and do not seek to turn anyone against France. To be honest, overall, we do not have national tasks at the Russian state level there. We’re just being friends with them, that’s all,” the Russian president added.

‘Regime survival package’

In the past decade, analysts say Moscow has sought to extend its influence in Africa through the deployment of Russian forces — often under the guise of paramilitary fighters — and arms deals with African governments, in return for access to resources.

A recent analysis by Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) suggests that Russia has rebranded the former Wagner paramilitary group as an expeditionary corps which is now under the control of Moscow’s military intelligence arm — known as the GRU — and is offering what it calls a “regime survival package” to autocratic governments in Africa.

“At a time when many Western states were trying to economically isolate Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin saw the development of economic ties with Africa and the Middle East as a means to sanction-proof Russia, and he had a pitch for the leaders of these states,” the report said.

“It centered on the proposition that the ‘international rules-based order’ advocated for by the West structurally favored Western interests, whereas Russia’s emphasis on sovereignty would offer a mutually beneficial partnership. The reality — as Russian officials acknowledged internally — was a renewed Russian colonialism,” the RUSI report added.

Wagner rebranded

Wagner fighters have been deployed in several African countries, including Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. They have frequently been accused of committing widespread human rights abuses.

In June 2023, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was struggling to make progress, Wagner’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led a failed mutiny against Moscow, accusing the defense ministry of depriving his fighters of ammunition. Wagner was disbanded shortly afterward. Two months later, Prigozhin died in a suspicious plane crash.

That left a dilemma for the Kremlin: What to do about Wagner’s operations in Africa?

“After that so-called mutiny, the decision was made that it would be better to have it more in-house rather than outsourced,” said Oleksandr Danylyuk, an associate fellow at RUSI and a co-author of the report.

The analysis shows that Moscow has rebranded the Wagner group as the expeditionary corps of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, with a target of recruiting a further 40,000 troops to serve in the force. Its aim is to secure Russian interests overseas — including access to resources such as oil, gas and minerals — while also reducing Moscow’s vulnerability to Western sanctions.

Russia colonialism

“What they’re doing is just expanding colonialism in the Global South countries. And right now they are very much focused on African countries, but they have plans for Latin America as well, some Asian countries. They will also have political technologists, media experts, intelligence officers who are specialized in political warfare, economic operations. So, pretty much everything to be able not only to infiltrate those Global South countries, but also to establish pro-Russian regimes there,” Danylyuk told VOA.

The RUSI report says Russia helped to foment military coups in parts of Africa and is now seeking to displace Western influence.

Mali

France and other European nations sent troops to Mali in 2013 to help fight an Islamist insurgency. They were withdrawn in 2022 after successive military coups and a breakdown in relations between Paris and Bamako. A 12,000-person United Nations peacekeeping force also pulled out last year at the request of the junta government.

Several hundred Russian-backed fighters are now in Mali supporting the military junta under interim President Colonel Assimi Goita. Moscow also has backed military governments in Niger and Burkina Faso, and is supporting General Khalifa Haftar in Libya against the unity government under Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh.

‘Plausible deniability’

The pretense that Wagner was a private army separate from the Kremlin allowed Russia to deny involvement in its Africa operations. “Many of the operations being conducted were either at the expense of other states or violated U.N. Security Council resolutions,” according to the RUSI report.

“The problem for the Expeditionary Corps is that it risks the removal of this plausible deniability… It appears that Russia has finally decided to explicitly challenge the international system rather than pretend to comply with it.”

Western challenge

The authors of the report warn that Russia’s expansion of operations in Africa could have serious consequences for Europe and the West.

“Through persistent instability, Russia can push migration into Europe, creating the conditions… to pursue political destabilization,” the report warns. “Leverage over natural resources is also expanding. Perhaps most problematic, however, is how the pitch for values is giving Russia access to communities that interface with a range of extremist beliefs.”
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Barcelona, Spain — Spain’s Parliament approved on Thursday a controversial amnesty bill aimed at forgiving crimes — both proven and alleged — committed by Catalan separatists during a chaotic attempt to hold an independence referendum in the region six years ago. 

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has promoted the amnesty as a way to move past the 2017 secession attempt by the then-leaders of Catalonia, a northeastern region centered around Barcelona where many speak the local Catalan language as well as Spanish. 

However, the bill has also met opposition from millions of Spaniards who believe that the people who provoked one of Spain’s biggest political crises should face charges including embezzlement and promoting public disorder. 

Sanchez has already pardoned nine jailed Catalan independence leaders, a move that helped heal wounds at little political cost. But the amnesty is proving to be much more divisive. 

The bill was passed by 178-172 votes in favor in the 350-seat lower house of Parliament. 

The secession crisis erupted in 2017, when a regional administration led by Carles Puigdemont staged a referendum on independence, defying orders from the national government and a ruling from Spain’s top court that doing so violated the constitution. Madrid sent in police in an attempt to stop the referendum, which were opposed by protests that turned violent. 

The Catalan Parliament declared independence on Oct. 27 that year but it failed to garner any international support. Puigdemont and several other senior officials later fled Spain. 

Hundreds or thousands of people in Catalonia face the threat of prosecutions related to the referendum or protests, and Puigdemont and other leaders remain abroad. 

Recent court probes have accused the former regional president of terrorism for allegedly masterminding massive protests that clashed violently with police and closed roads, train lines and the Barcelona airport in 2019. 

Sanchez agreed to the amnesty to secure the backing of two Catalan separatist parties, after an inconclusive national election last July turned them into kingmakers. 

The conservative opposition accuses Sanchez of selling out the rule of law in exchange for another term in the Moncloa Palace and has organized major street protests during recent months. 

Socialist party parliamentary spokesman Patxi Lopez defended the bill Thursday as a move to seek a page-turning “reconciliation” with Catalonia. 

The opposition Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo hit back saying that “this is not reconciliation but submission.” 

It was not clear whether the deal will add stability to Sanchez’s minority government: Junts, a separatist party led by Puigdemont, has said they would vote for Sanchez to form a government in return for the amnesty, and nothing more. 

The bill still faces a number of procedural hurdles. The Senate, which has a conservative majority is expected to reject it, which would mean that Parliament’s lower house will have to vote for it a second time to push it through. 

Sanchez’s party has had a very hard time crafting a bill that satisfies the separatists and which will surely be highly scrutinized by the courts. Parliament rejected an earlier version of the bill in late January when Junts said it didn’t do enough to protect Puigdemont. The bill then went back to a parliamentary committee, where it was tweaked to suit Junts’ needs. 

Puigdemont now lives in Belgium, where he has become a European Parliament member. A fugitive from Spanish justice, he calls himself a political exile. 

Thursday’s vote comes a day after Catalonia’s regional leader called early elections. That decision added more uncertainty to Spanish politics and led to Sanchez canceling plans for a 2024 budget because of the difficulty he would have had trying to get the support of the two separatist parties during election time. 

Spain granted a sweeping amnesty during its transition back to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. But legal experts are divided over the constitutionality of an amnesty for the Catalan separatists. Its legal critics say that it violates the principle of equality among Spaniards by favoring those of one region. 

The government says the amnesty could help hundreds of people, while the pro-independence Catalan organization Omnium Cultural says it should benefit some 4,400 people, mostly minor officials and ordinary citizens who either helped to organize the referendum or participated in protests. 

The application of the amnesty will be decided by the courts on a case-by-case basis.
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london — Britain’s government outlined plans on Wednesday to stop foreign states from owning newspapers, potentially giving ministers the power to block Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI’s bid to buy The Daily Telegraph. 

The battle over one of Britain’s most famous newspapers has raised questions about the independence of the media and the role of foreign investors acquiring ownership of politically influential assets. 

The Telegraph has close connections with Britain’s governing Conservative Party and the political struggle for ownership of the 168-year-old newspaper is as much about power and influence as it is about money.  

Stephen Parkinson, the culture minister in the House of Lords, said the government would make changes through an amendment to legislation going through parliament to prevent foreign states from having ownership of British newspapers. 

“We will amend the media merger regime explicitly to rule out newspaper and periodical news magazine mergers involving ownership, influence or control by foreign states,” Parkinson told the Lords. 

The proposed changes to the law would in effect block the Telegraph’s takeover bid by RedBird IMI as currently structured, one government official said. 

RedBird IMI — run by former CNN boss Jeff Zucker but which has the majority of its funding from Abu Dhabi — declined to comment.  

The deal is already under a separate investigation based on existing laws, but the new plan is more explicitly targeted at preventing foreign state control. 

The right-leaning Telegraph is nicknamed the “Torygraph” for its long-standing support for the Conservative — or Tory — Party. Former Conservative prime ministers such as Winston Churchill and Boris Johnson have written for it. 

The contest for ownership of the Telegraph is playing out against the backdrop of an unpopular Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, that is set to lose the next election expected later this year, according to polls. 

Pressure had been building on the government after Tina Stowell, a former Conservative leader in the Lords, proposed an amendment to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill that would give parliament a veto on foreign governments taking over British media organizations. 

Her amendment had won the support of more than 100 members of parliament who cited concerns including the possibility of editorial interference and censorship. 

Having forced the government to come up with their own plan, Stowell withdrew her amendment.  

The new ban on foreign control is expected to be put to a vote in the House of Lords in the next few weeks. It would have to be passed there and in the lower House of Commons before the new rules would come into force. 

Parkinson said the new measures would create a new obligation for the government to refer any relevant media merger to the Competition and Markets Authority watchdog.  

If the CMA determined that the merger “has resulted, or would result, in foreign state ownership, influence or control over a newspaper enterprise,” then the government would be legally required to order the merger be blocked or unwound. 
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amsterdam — Dutch politician Geert Wilders said on Wednesday he was ready to forgo the job of prime minister in an effort to facilitate the formation of a new right-wing government, nearly four months after an election in which his party won the most votes. 

Wilders has been in talks with potential allies since the November 22 election – more than 100 days – but they have borne no fruit. A negotiator appointed to assist in the process is scheduled to report his findings to parliament on Thursday. 

“I can only become the prime minister if ALL the parties in the coalition supported it. That was not the case,” Wilders said on social media platform X. 

“I really want a right-[wing] cabinet. Less asylum and immigration. … Love for my country and the voters is big and more important than my own position.” 

Dutch national broadcaster NOS had earlier reported that Wilders was prepared to give up his hope of becoming prime minister as he struggled to form a viable government. 

Citing political sources in The Hague, NOS said Wilders’ Freedom Party and three other conservative parties attempting to form a right-wing coalition were weighing a scenario in which the party leaders would remain in parliament and not join the new government. 

In that scenario, known as an extraparliamentary cabinet, politicians and experts not considered closely allied to any of the parties would be appointed to top government posts and work closely with parliament. 

Wilders said February 14 that he was willing to consider “all options” to form a government, a minority government or an extraparliamentary government, rather than call new elections. 
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Russia has relaunched its spy operations against the West since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to analysts. Henry Ridgwell has more from London.
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Turkey’s new naval agreement with Somalia places the Turkish navy in a strategically vital region, underlining Ankara’s growing naval ambitions. However, analysts warn that the agreement threatens to escalate current tensions with Somalia’s neighbor Ethiopia. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The trial began Tuesday in Norway for a man accused of aggravated terrorism for the deadly shooting at an LGBTQ+ festival in Oslo’s nightlife district. 

Two people were killed and nine seriously wounded in the shooting at three locations, chiefly outside the London Pub, a popular gay bar, on June 25, 2022. 

Prosecutor Sturla Henriksbo said Zaniar Matapour, 44, allegedly fired 10 rounds with a machine gun and eight shots with a handgun into a crowd. Matapour, a Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group, Henriksbo said. 

Matapour was detained by bystanders. Following the attack, a Pride parade was canceled, with police saying they couldn’t guarantee security. 

Matapour has refused to speak to investigators. If found guilty, he faces 30 years in prison. 

In Oslo District Court, Matapour asked the judge why the trial was held during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Judge Eirik Aass replied, “I have not perceived that there is a conflict in carrying out the case even though it is Ramadan.” 

Henriksbo said that Matapour was born in Iran of parents of Kurdish background. The family fled to Norway when he was 12. 

The shooting shocked Norway, which has a relatively low crime rate but has experienced so-called lone wolf attacks in recent decades, including one of the worst mass shootings in Europe. In 2011, a right-wing extremist killed 69 people on the island of Utoya after setting off a bomb in Oslo that left eight dead. 
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Bucharest, Romania — Internet personality Andrew Tate was arrested for 24 hours in Romania on a British warrant, his PR representative said on Tuesday, and the Bucharest Court of Appeals was set to decide on whether to extradite him.

Tate and his brother Tristan were detained on allegations of sexual aggression dating back to 2012-15, which they “categorically” deny, his PR team said. The warrant was issued by Westminster Magistrates Court.

“Brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were forcibly detained for 24 hours and handed a European arrest warrant by UK authorities. The charges, dating back to 2012-2015, include allegations of sexual aggression,” Andrew Tate’s PR representative said in a statement. “The Bucharest Court of Appeal is slated to make a pivotal decision today on whether to execute the mandate.”

The court had yet to decide when it will convene to address the warrant. It was not immediately available for comment. 

Tate, who gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle, was indicted in June in Romania along with his brother and two Romanian women for human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. They have denied the charges.

The case has since been with the Bucharest court’s preliminary chamber, which needs to decide whether the trial can start. A decision has yet to be made, with Romanian courts backlogged.

The Bucharest Court was also set to rule on Friday whether to maintain a seizure of Tate’s assets enforced by Romanian prosecutors at the start of 2023.

The Tate brothers were held in police custody pending the criminal investigation from late December 2022 until April, to prevent them from fleeing the country or tampering with evidence. They were placed under house arrest until August.

They have since been under judicial control, a lighter preventative measure meaning they have regular check-ins with the police but can move around freely except for leaving the country.
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