Month: July 2017

Authorities in Madrid asked Spain’s anti-trust watchdog on Saturday to investigate whether Uber’s new low-cost airport transfer service constitutes unfair competition.

The city council’s request follows the ride-hailing app’s return to the Spanish capital last year after the CNMC competition regulator called for the government to lift a ban on the U.S. company.

The firm’s recently launched Uber Airport service offers a tariff of 15-29 euros for a ride between Madrid’s Barajas international airport and the city center. Standard taxi fares for the trip are fixed at 30 euros.

“(Uber Airport) could violate several articles of the Law of Unfair Competition and consumer rights, if it is proven that the service is being operated at prices below operational costs and with the sole intention of gaining customers through unfair competition,” Madrid City Council said in statement.

No one at Uber could immediately be reached to comment.

European regulations

Uber, which expanded into Europe six years ago, has come under attack from established taxi companies and some EU countries because it is not bound by strict local licensing and safety rules that apply to some of its competitors.

Spanish taxi drivers have held three strikes so far this year, arguing that ride-hailing apps, which are regulated in Spain under VTC licenses typically used for private, chauffeur-driven vehicles, constitute unfair competition because they do not meet current regulations and pay less tax.

In May, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) dealt a blow to the company by ruling that it should be considered a transport service and not an app.
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Germany has warned Russia that breaches of sanctions including the relocation to Crimea of four gas turbines delivered to Russia by Siemens are straining political relations between the two countries, Bild am Sonntag reported Sunday.

The newspaper quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying the German government had on several occasions brought to Moscow’s attention looming breaches of existing sanctions and unlawful behaviors by Russian companies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had assured Sigmar Gabriel, then German economy minister, at the time of delivery that the turbines were not for Crimea, the spokesman told the mass circulation paper. Gabriel is now Germany’s foreign minister.

“The government has reminded Russia of these assurances again and pointed out that such a massive violation of sanctions would place new burdens on German-Russian relations,” the spokesman told Bild am Sonntag.

Siemens is trying to distance itself from the scandal, halting deliveries of power equipment to Russian state-controlled customers and reviewing supply deals.

Crimea is subject to EU sanctions on energy equipment after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.
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Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s controversial ambassador to Washington, on Saturday departed from the United States as he ended his nine-year term as Moscow’s chief diplomat to its main global rival.

The Russian Embassy said his departure was part of a scheduled reassignment for the 66-year-old ambassador.

Russian state-run Interfax news agency quoted a source as saying Kislyak’s next move could be to become a member of Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council.

A replacement has not been announced. The embassy said that Denis Goncha, listed as the minister-counselor and deputy chief of mission, would serve as charge d’affaires until a successor is appointed.

Kislyak has become embroiled in allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

His many meetings with the campaign and transition team of now-President Donald Trump is the subject of several congressional, Justice Department, and FBI investigations.

Kislyak also served as Moscow’s ambassador to NATO and to Belgium and was Russia’s deputy foreign minister from 2003-08.
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Two former top U.S. intelligence officials harshly criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for not standing up to Russia for meddling in the presidential election, one of them wondering aloud whether the president’s real aim is to make “Russia great again.”

 

Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan didn’t hold back their anger about Trump’s past disparaging comments about the intelligence agencies and their assessment that Moscow deliberately interfered in the election and tried to sow discord in the United States.

 

Asked if he thinks Trump takes the threat from Russia seriously enough, Clapper said he wonders sometimes if the White House agenda is about “making Russia great again.” The comment played off Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

 

In a wide-ranging discussion at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Clapper and Brennan said that Trump advisers should have been more wary of meeting with a Russian lawyer and others. In June, in the heat of the campaign, the president’s son, his campaign manager and his son-in-law met a group at Trump Tower in New York that included a Russian lawyer and Russian lobbyist. Emails about the meeting showed that Donald Trump Jr., attended on the premise of obtaining damaging material the Russian government had on Hillary Clinton

 

“It would have been a really good idea to have vetted whomever they were meeting with. I think the Russian objective here was to explore to see if there was interest in having such a discussion on offering up dirt on Hillary Clinton,” Clapper said. He said the meeting reminds him of standard Russian spy craft.

 

Brennan called the meeting “profoundly baffling” and wondered why Trump advisers would “jump at the opportunity” to meet with individuals about getting information on Clinton. “The Russians operate in a very cunning manner and they will take and exploit any opportunity they get,” he said.

Clapper also suggested that the security clearance held by Jared Kushner, a Trump adviser and the president’s son-in-law, should at least be suspended until it can be determined why he failed to disclose all the meetings he’s had with Russians.

 

Both said they didn’t think the Trump administration should return compounds in Maryland and New York to the Russians. President Barack Obama closed them in response to the Russian interference in the election. Clapper called the compound on the Eastern Shore a Russian “intelligence collection facility.” The Russians have said the estates were used for recreational escapes by Russian diplomats and their families.

 

Both expressed their annoyance at Trump’s negative statements about the intelligence agencies’ assessments of Russia and the presidential election.

 

“It’s interesting that Mr. Trump and others will point to U.S. intelligence when it comes to North Korea, or Iran or Syria … but when it’s inconsistent with what I think are preconceived notions as well as maybe preferences about what the truth would be, then the intelligence community assessments, the work force and the profession are disparaged. That’s when my and Jim Clapper’s blood boils,” Brennan said.

 

Brennan also said he was upset when Trump leaned over to Russian President Vladimir Putin before their recent meeting in Europe to say it was a “great honor” to meet him.

 

“This is Mr. Putin, who assaulted one of the foundational pillars of our democracy – our election system – invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, that has suppressed or repressed political opponents in Russia and caused the deaths of many of them,” he said. “I thought it was a very, very bad negotiating tactic.”

 

Both also said they were concerned about a second discussion the two leaders had in Europe with only a Russian interpreter. Clapper said Trump should have had his own translator to record the conversation and avoid any misinterpretations. Brennan said he has never heard of any other instance where a U.S. president has had a meeting with a Russian head of state without a U.S. translator.

 

“To have this one-off and rely on a Russian translator … It again raises concerns about what else may be going on between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin that is being held behind closed doors or outside the public view,” he said.
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Lyudmila Alekeyeva, a renowned human rights activist who has challenged the Soviet regime and Russian authorities since the 1950s, tells VOA that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent surprise visit to her flat left her with an improved perception of the man.

Putin visited Alekeyeva on Thursday, her 90th birthday, reaching out to the prominent and respected critic months before a March 2018 election in which he is expected to run for a fourth Kremlin term.

According to the Kremlin website, Alekeyeva offered him a glass of champagne and a bite to eat shortly after a presidential security official quickly inspected her Moscow apartment for explosives.

“I got a call from Sergey V. Kiriyenko,” the head of Putin’s cabinet, she said. “He at first said that Putin would congratulate me by phone. Then they called back and said the president would make a personal visit. Well, is it even possible to organize for the unexpected arrival of the first person? They cordoned off the whole quarter, then a man came to see me — whether I have any bombs in the room, and so on.”

​Soviet-era dissident

Alekeyeva, a Soviet-era dissident who was among the founders of the human rights movement in the 1960s, has been a vocal opponent of what she has described as a dramatic backsliding on human rights and democracy since Putin came to power in 2000.

Putin was full of praise for Alekeyeva, who helped found the Moscow Helsinki Group in the 1970s to monitor the Soviet Union’s compliance with international rights conventions and has headed it since 1996.

“I am grateful to you for everything that you’ve done over many, many years for a huge number of people in our country who love you very much and are thankful to you for the life you have lived for the sake of people,” the Kremlin quoted him as saying.

But his birthday gift may have been chosen to make a geopolitical point: In addition to a bouquet, Putin gave Alekeyeva an engraving of her native town of Yevpatoria in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia occupied and seized from Ukraine in 2014.

In Russia today, stating that Crimea is not part of Russia can lead to prosecution on charges of separatism.

In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Russian Service, Alekeyeva said her latest visit with Putin left her with a positive impression.

“I always have good impressions from talking with him,” she told VOA. “I do not know how to explain this, but he treats me with respect and sympathy. Therefore, I try not to violate this. The fates of so many people are in his hands. If I’m impolite, I can’t help them.

“My grandmother, who raised me from childhood, always taught that if you are treated politely, then you must respond in kind,” she added. “What you got into your head as a child, that’s forever. Even if I was questioned by nasty investigators, if they spoke politely, I could not be rude or silent. But I’m always polite with everyone — with cleaners who clean our porch. With the president, I’m equally polite,” she said.

Upcoming election

Putin, 64, has not announced his candidacy, but he is widely expected to seek and secure a new six-year term in the election whose date is likely to be shifted by a week to March 18, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s takeover of Crimea.

Alekeyeva said that she asked Putin to pardon Igor Izmestyev, a former lawmaker in the upper parliament house who was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 after being convicted of funding a criminal gang authorities say killed 14 people from 1992-2004.

“I told the president: This is not a gift, this is a request — do this good deed,” Alekeyeva, who is frail, told a meeting of the presidential human rights council by video-link after the meeting Thursday.

The Kremlin transcript of Alekeyeva’s meeting with Putin indicates she told him she believes that Izmestyev is not guilty.

But she said that his guilt or innocence was not the point because “a pardon is not an act of justice but an act of mercy.”

Alekeyeva said that Putin promised to pardon Izmestyev, but his remarks in the Kremlin transcript do not include a clear promise to do so.

Alekeyeva and her husband fled the Soviet Union under government pressure in 1977, but she continued her rights campaigning from abroad and returned in 1990 following Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms.

She has participated in numerous protests during Putin’s long period in power, including a series of monthly demonstrations accusing the Kremlin of systematically violating the right to free assembly.

In an interview in 2012, shortly after Putin returned to the presidency following a four-year stint as prime minister, Alekeyeva told Reuters that when she first met Putin in 2002, she was impressed by his humility and willingness to listen to activists like herself.

But when they met again in 2006, Putin was “a different man” who had come “to believe that everyone wants him to stay in power,” she said. “He doesn’t understand. It’s a terrible thing to have power. … Very few people can handle it properly.”

With reporting by Current Time TV, RBK and Reuters. VOA’s Russian Service contributed original reporting.
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Hundreds of people on the eastern Greek island of Kos have spent the night sleeping outdoors after a powerful earthquake killed two tourists and injured nearly 500 others across the Aegean Sea region in Greece and Turkey. 

 

Residents and tourists were too afraid to return to their homes and hotels, camping out instead in parks and olive groves, or slumbering in their cars or on lounge chairs.

 

The most seriously injured in Greece were airlifted to hospitals on the mainland and the southern island of Crete, and at least two were listed in critical condition Saturday. 

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake, which struck early Friday, as being of magnitude 6.7, with Greek and Turkish estimates a fraction lower. Two men, one from Turkey and one from Sweden, were killed when a collapsing wall smashed into a popular a bar on Kos.

​Aftershocks shake Kos

Panagiotis Bekali, a 30-year-old who has lived on Kos for several years, spent the night sleeping in an olive grove with his entire family. His 5-year-old son and 16-year-old nephew slept in the family car.

 

“There were cracks in the house (from the earthquake) so we went straight out,” he said. “We were afraid to stay indoors so the whole family slept outside.”

 

Dozens of aftershocks have shaken the island, further rattling residents and tourists. 

 

John Grant, a 60-year-old tourist from Britain, said he felt safer sleeping outside.

 

“I think coming from somewhere that doesn’t have earthquakes, you don’t understand,” he said from his makeshift bed set up on a lounge chair. “So to me it was very frightening being in the building, but being outside I know I’m safe.”

Hundreds hurt in Turkey

About 350 of the injuries occurred in Turkey, in Bodrum and other beach resorts, as people fled buildings and as the sea swell flung cars off the road and pushed boats ashore. Seismologists said the shallow depth of the undersea quake was to blame for the damage.

 

In Kos, the quake damaged the island’s main port, leading to ferry services being suspended briefly. Churches, an old mosque, the port’s 14th-century castle and old buildings in the town also suffered, and archaeologists and experts from Greece’s Culture Ministry were on the island Saturday to examine the damage.

 

Ferry services to Kos were being restored Saturday, with ships diverted to the smaller port of Kefalos on the island’s southwestern coast.
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As Vice President Mike Pence prepares to visit Montenegro for talks with Western Balkan leaders, a senior State Department official says U.S. engagement in the region remains strong.

The comments by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Hoyt Brian Yee, come amid concerns that deep cuts in the proposed State Department budget could diminish Washington’s role in fragile democracies exposed to Russian interference.

On issues where U.S. and Russian interests align in the region, such as counterterrorism, Yee said the United States will try to work closely with Russia.

“But where Russia and the United States do not see eye to eye, where we are perhaps working along different lines, the United States, as Secretary [Rex] Tillerson has said, as Vice President Pence has said, the United States will defend the interests and the values of the United States and its allies very firmly, and that’s what we are doing.”

Russian influence

The Western Balkans are one example of where, Yee says, the United States thinks it is important remain vigilant without exaggerating the seriousness and magnitude of Russian election meddling and influence campaigns.

“We are taking steps where we can to strengthen countries of the Western Balkans against malign influence—whether it’s from Russia or other sources, other countries, other factors—to be sure that it is not going to be as easy for Russia, or any other actor, to influence through malign means the foreign policy or domestic policy of countries in the Balkans,” he told VOA.

One case that should be worrisome to every democracy in Europe, he says, is Russia’s interference in Montenegro.

“If Russia is willing, as the evidence overwhelmingly indicates, to not only interfere in elections, but to topple the government of a democratically elected state, of a state which just became a member of NATO, then other countries in the Balkans need to be very cautious,” Yee said. He was referring to Podgorica’s trial of Russian-funded coup plotters who allegedly planned to kill Prime Minister Milo Ðukanovic in order to derail the small Balkan nation’s bid to join the Western alliance.

That thwarted coup plot, which would have been carried out on Montenegro’s election day in 2016, was followed by its June 2017 accession to NATO.

Moscow had strongly opposed not only Montenegro’s NATO bid, but has actively sought to deter other Balkan countries from getting closer to Euro-Atlantic institutions, including the European Union, and to expand its presence in the region. Russia has reportedly been meddling in Macedonian internal affairs for nearly a decade, and has tried to use its traditional ties with Serbia to maintain its clout.

The United States recently expressed concern about (( a disaster relief center Russia is operating in Serbia https://www.voanews.com/a/united-states-sees-russia-humanitarian-center-serbia-spy-outpost/3902402.html )), which some Western groups and military analysts see as a subtly disguised military base set up by the Kremlin to spy on U.S. interests in the Balkans.

Vucic meeting

Pence’s upcoming Balkans trip comes on the heels of a White House meeting with newly inaugurated Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

According to analyst James Hooper, a former senior State Department official on the Balkans, Vucic used the meeting to prove to Serbian people that he’s trying to strike a diplomatic balance between East and West.

“Serbia has a very close relationship with Russia, and … I think there was some criticism, some concern that they were getting a little too distant from the West, from the United States,” Hooper said. “After all, Serbia wants a future within the EU.”

Because a non-alignment policy may not be sustainable in a globalized world, Serbia, Hooper added, should align its foreign policy with the goal of EU integration.

Pence and Vucic also discussed the need to normalize relations with Kosovo, whose independence is not recognized by Serbia or Russia.

Yee also says the recent White House meetings and Pence’s upcoming Balkans trip only affirms the new administration’s commitment to the region.

EU, NATO integration

Although Yee believes Balkan-wide EU and NATO integration will continue to square with U.S. interests—as it has across numerous administrations and party lines—Daniel Serwer, professor of conflict management at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, says it may be too soon to say.

“Like the previous administration, they have a lot of issues on their plate; like the previous administration, they have delegated the Balkans to the Vice President, which is not all bad, but it is not all good either,” he said. “It seems to me that it is doubtful that there will be a great deal more attention, but I don’t think we know yet.”

What may compound the situation in the Western Balkans is the fragility of its democracies. Reform benchmarks required for NATO and EU accession have so far been mixed.

“They need our support and we realize that,” said Yee. “We intend fully to provide that support, but we need on the other side the political will, the resistance to corruption, the commitment to focus on solutions rather than political games. If there is this genuine partnership between both sides, than I believe we can be successful.”

Yee also said Balkan leaders who are resolved to see through the reforms that enable European integration will make their countries more resilient in the face of outside influences and be better positioned to determine their own national fate.

Although Serwer would like to see a more robust engagement in the Balkans, he agrees with Yee.

“We didn’t do what we did in the Balkans in order to control the Balkans,” he said of prevailing U.S. policies. “We did what we did in the Balkans so [those] people … could control their own destiny.”

This story originated in VOA’s Albanian Service. 

Jela DeFranceschi, Jovana Djurovic contributed to this report.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan starts a two-day tour of Gulf states Sunday in an effort to resolve a crisis involving Qatar, and four Arab states accusing the small peninsular nation of supporting terrorism.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have severed relations with Qatar. They are enforcing a land and sea embargo, accusing the oil-rich nation of supporting extremist groups and destabilizing the region, allegations Qatar has denied.

“Turkey is trying to contribute to efforts to facilitate toward peace and stability,” said Mithat Rende, a retired Turkish ambassador to Qatar. “Erdogan will try to bring people together if possible or communicate messages from one side to another.”

Erdogan starts his trip in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, where he will meet  with King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Turkish president will then travel to Kuwait for meetings with Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, before heading to Qatar to see Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

 

Some observers have voiced skepticism about Erdogan’s tour. Atilla Yesilada, a political consultant with Global Partners expressed doubt that Turkey can achieve anything, given its negotiating skills.

“Turkey does not pull any weight in the Arab world,” he said. “[Ahmet] Davutoglu [the former Turkish prime minister] might have made a difference, or [Abdullah] Gul, [former Turkish president], but Erdogan won’t.”

Analysts say any effort by Erdogan to position himself as a facilitator will likely be handicapped by Ankara’s strong backing of Doha in the diplomatic crisis. Turkey has been in the forefront of breaking the blockade of Qatar, airlifting large amounts of food and even sending milk cows.

In the middle of the crisis, Ankara opened a military base in Qatar as part of an agreement dating back to 2014. Turkish deployments of equipment, like tanks, to the base, have been steadily rising. The Saudi-led group had come up with a list of 13 demands on Qatar, including closing the Turkish base; but that demand was withdrawn, a move for which Ankara took credit.

“Turkey has always made constructive calls to parties. These have already yielded consequences,” said Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, speaking at press conference Wednesday. “Reducing the number of demands from 13 to six and the removal of a demand to shut the Turkish base are positive developments.”

Ankara argues its military base in Qatar should not be viewed as being partisan. “We are also contributing to United Arab Emirates,” said Rende. “Turkey has been training F-16 [fighter jet] pilots from the UAE and also … other military planes. All these took place in Turkey so we are interested in maintaining good relations with all.”

Under Erdogan’s rule, Turkish foreign policy has been re-balanced with more of a focus on the Gulf region. Ankara has been courting Arab investment and is seeking to project its influence. But, some analysts are warning Turkey could be the ultimate loser in the crisis over Qatar.

“If Qatar wins and maintains its policy course that’s so widely criticized by the rest of the Arabs, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE will never trust Turkey,” warned Yesilada. “Any hopes of building a military alliance over Syria or against Iran or substantial foreign investments from those countries is an illusion.”

Alternatively, he added, “in the more likely scenario, if the Qataris lose, one of the conditions will be the sheikhdom should not invest in Turkey in a large magnitude. Whoever wins, Turkey has lost. Given Turkey’s history of colonialism in Arab countries, it wasn’t smart to get involved in these countries in the first place.”

The Turkish Ottoman empire once stretched across the Arab world. Erdogan maintains there is little historical resentment over past colonial rule, arguing Turkey shares a common Muslim identity. But Rende said Erdogan’s two-day trip could be as much about protecting Turkish interests as resolving the ongoing regional crisis.

 

“The Turkish president, while visiting the region, will probably tell the interlocutors that this [crisis] is not in the interest of anyone,” said the former ambassador. “… Turkey as a country is interested in maintaining good relations not only with Qatar but with all parties.”
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U.S. allies in eastern Europe and Ukraine are worried that Russia’s planned war games in September could be a “Trojan horse” aimed at leaving behind military equipment brought into Belarus, the U.S. Army’s top general in Europe said on Thursday.

Russia has sought to reassure NATO that the military exercises will respect international limits on size, but NATO and U.S. official remain wary about their scale and scope.

U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who heads U.S. Army forces in Europe, told Reuters in an interview that allied officials would keep a close eye on military equipment brought into Belarus for the Zapad-2017 exercise, and whether it was removed later.

“People are worried, this is a Trojan horse. They say, ‘We’re just doing an exercise,’ and then all of a sudden they’ve moved all these people and capabilities somewhere,” he said.

Hodges said he had no indications that Russia had any such plans, but said greater openness by Moscow about the extent of its war games would help reassure countries in eastern Europe.

‘Artificial buffoonery’

A senior Russian diplomat strongly rejected allegations that Moscow could leave military equipment in Belarus.

“This artificial buffoonery over the routine Zapad-2017 exercises is aimed at justifying the sharp intensification of the NATO bloc (activities) along the perimeter of Russian territory,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told the Interfax news agency on Friday.

NATO allies are nervous because previous large-scale Russian exercises employed special forces training, longer-range missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. Such tactics were later used in Russia’s annexation of

Crimea in 2014, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and in its intervention in Syria, NATO diplomats say.

Hodges said the United States and its allies had been very open about a number of military exercises taking place across eastern Europe this summer involving up to 40,000 troops, but it remained unclear if Moscow would adhere to a Cold War-era treaty known as the Vienna document, which requires observers for large-scale exercises involving more than 13,000 troops.

Some NATO allies believe the Russian exercise could number more than 100,000 troops and involve nuclear weapons training, the biggest such exercise since 2013. Russia has said it would invite observers if the exercise exceeded 13,000 forces.

Hodges said NATO would maintain normal rotations during the Russian war game, while carrying out previously scheduled exercises in Sweden, Poland and Ukraine.

The only additional action planned during that period was a six-week deployment of three companies of 120 paratroopers each to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for “low-level” exercises, Hodges said. “We want to avoid anything that looks like a provocation.

This is not going to be the ‘Sharks’ and the ‘Jets’ out on the streets,” Hodges said in a reference to the gang fights shown in the 1961 film “West Side Story” set in New York City.
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