Month: April 2018

European Union countries backed a proposal Friday to extend a partial ban on the use of insecticides known as neonicotinoids that studies have shown are harmful to bees.

The full outdoor ban will be on the use of three active substances: imidacloprid, developed by Bayer CropScience; clothianidin, developed by Takeda Chemical Industries and Bayer CropScience; as well as Syngenta’s thiamethoxam.

“All outdoor uses will be banned and the neonicotinoids in question will only be allowed in permanent greenhouses where exposure of bees is not expected,” the European Commission said in a statement.\
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to the NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Brussels Friday, a day after the U.S. Senate approved his appointment. Russia will top the agenda, as will Western accusations that Moscow poisoned a former spy in Britain. Tensions further increased following Syria’s alleged chemical weapons attack and the Western air strikes that followed. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Ukraine is pushing hard to build closer relations in line with its ambition of joining NATO.
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Outraged Spaniards filled the streets across the country Thursday to march against what many considered to be the light punishment for five men charged with raping a teenage girl in 2016.

The three-judge court in Pamplona sentenced the defendants to nine years in prison for the crime of sexual abuse, instead of the 22 years they could have gotten if convicted of rape.

Protests against the verdict erupted in Pamplona and soon spread to other major cities, including Madrid and Barcelona.

Marchers banged on pots and chanted “No means no” and “It’s not abuse — it’s rape.”

“I am asking myself what is happening with the justice system in Spain and in the world,” a female student from Madrid told reporters. “It is mind-blowing, what is happening here. This is a clear example that the masculine laws rule.”

The five defendants, who had dubbed themselves “The Pack,” were accused of dragging the 18-year-old victim into a building in Pamplona, raping her and capturing their crime on smartphones. They were also accused of stealing the young woman’s cellphone to stop her from calling for help.

Under the Spanish criminal code, rape is classified as a violent crime, while sexual abuse means there was no violence.

The defense argued the sex was consensual; prosecutors said it was not.

In addition to prison time, the judges ordered the five men to pay the victim $61,000. Their lawyers can appeal.
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Russia and Syria presented several unharmed people from Gouta, Syria, at the premises of the Organization for the Prohibition for Chemical Weapons on Thursday to support claims that there was no chemical attack in the city earlier this month.

Britain dismissed the move as a stunt, and said allied powers including France and the United States had boycotted the closed-door briefing.

“The OPCW is not a theater,” said Peter Wilson, Britain’s envoy to the watchdog in a statement. “Russia’s decision to misuse it is yet another Russian attempt to undermine the OPCW’s work, and in particular the work of its Fact Finding Mission investigating chemical weapons use in Syria.”

Russia and Syria intend to hold a news conference near the OPCW premises in the Hague later. An invitation said the event would include “participation of witnesses from Syria who were used in staged videos of the ‘chemical attack’ in Douma.”

OPCW investigators are looking into whether chemical weapons were used in Gouta in the April 7 attack that killed dozens of people. They visited a second site in Gouta, an enclave outside of the Syrian capital, on Wednesday to take samples.

The attack led to air strikes by the United States, France and Britain against sites in Syria. They accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons, possibly a nerve agent. Syria and its ally Russia have denied the accusation and said rebel forces staged the attacks.

France’s Ambassador to the OPCW Philippe Lalliot called the display of Syrians in The Hague “obscene.”

“This … does not come as a surprise from the Syrian government, which has massacred and gassed its own people for the last 7 years,” he told Reuters.

He said it was more surprising coming from Russia.

“One cannot but wonder if the weaker [Syria] is not taking the stronger [Russia] on a path beyond its interests, if not its values.”
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In Paris, authorities are probing allegations that the holding company of tycoon Vincent Bollore used favors to win lucrative port contracts in West Africa. Bollore presides over a massive media, logistics and transportation empire on the continent, even as France’s clout in Africa is waning.

French investigators are probing allegations that Vincent Bollore’s holding company was given lucrative port concessions in Togo and Guinea in exchange for undercharging the current leaders of both countries for advertising work during their election campaigns.

The Bollore Group has denied all wrongdoing, and said the inquiry will give 66-year-old Bollore a chance to answer what it describes as “unfounded accusations.”

France continues to be a major economic and political player in West Africa, especially in its former colonies. But its influence has declined in the face of more recent competitors like China and Turkey.

Even so, the Bollore Group remains a formidable player. Its interests include logistical operations, railways, ports, and media interests that turn over billions of dollars a year.

Interviewed on French TV, journalist Nicolas Vescovacci, who wrote a book about Bollore, describes the Bollore Group’s Africa interests as an “empire” that spans 46 countries and employs 25,000 people. Vescovacci says the businessman controls what enters into the African ports his group controls, and at least part of local economies in countries like Guinea, Togo and Ivory Coast.

Bollore also has forged ties with powerful figures in both France and in Africa. He is friends with former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is now being probed over alleged Libyan campaign funding for his 2007 election.

Journalist Vescovacci says Bollore has a network of relationships that range from former spies and policemen to politicians — from the left, as well as from the right.

Now Bollore’s relationship with two of them, Guinean President Alpha Conde and Togolese leader Faure Gnassingbe, is under scrutiny. French investigators are probing accusations Bollore’s advertising company Havas, now run by one of his sons, provided discounted services to both men during their election runs in exchange for port contracts.

In France, Bollore is a controversial figure. Over the years, he has launched a number of defamation suits against media investigating his group’s various business activities.

 

 
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Armenia’s acting prime minister has said the country will hold new elections if all parties agree to it, prompting celebrations Wednesday on the streets of the capital, Yerevan.

Protests have been building for the last two weeks over an alleged power grab by former prime minister Serzh Sargsyan, who resigned Monday.

His acting replacement, the former deputy prime minister, Karen Karapetyan, said Wednesday all parties should negotiate new elections.

“If they decide that there is a necessity for a snap election, if they set a timeline so that they have enough time to prepare so that everyone is under the same game rules — if they decide so, we will move forward based on that,” Karapetyan told reporters.

Opponents had accused Sargsyan of clinging to power by manipulating the constitution, allowing him to move from the position of president to prime minister.

On the surface, the show of people power in this former Soviet state has striking similarities to the ouster of pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine in 2014, or Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia in 2003. There are differences, however, argues Moscow-based political analyst Karine Gevorgyan.

“In Armenia, in particular, this situation is not linked with being oriented either to the West or to the East, like it was in Ukraine, but with being tired of inefficient, counterproductive power in government,” Gevorgyan told VOA in an interview.

No Moscow puppet

Anahit Shirinyan of the policy institute Chatham House agrees and says Sargsyan was not Moscow’s puppet.

“He was also very much acceptable for the West up until recently because he was thought to have tried to diversify Armenia’s foreign policy. He made this rather bold move toward Turkey back in 2008, with this rapprochement with Turkey, he tried to sign the Association Agreement, a cooperation treaty, with the EU back in 2013,” said Shirinyan.

Under pressure from Moscow, that EU Association Agreement failed and Armenia instead joined the Russia-focused Eurasian Economic Union. But Moscow has failed to build influence in Armenia, argues analyst Gevorgyan.

“I think it has happened because Russia itself has abandoned this political space in Armenia. Meanwhile, other countries, including the United States, as well as other Western countries, acted quite diligently and subtly to fill that space,” said Gevorgyan.

Now Armenia finds itself at a geopolitical crossroads, adds Shirinyan of Chatham House.

“It has an opportunity to get closer to the West, to the EU, because I think that particularly the EU’s support will be crucial in the next stage of reforming the country,” said Shirinyan.

Russia has offered little official response. Moscow has a military base in the country, along with historic and economic ties. Analysts say the strength of the protests likely will prompt a cautious response from all sides.

 
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U.S President Donald Trump Tuesday praised the strength of America’s partnership with France — and the personal friendship he has developed with his French counterpart. President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Washington will be closely followed by the arrival of German Chancellor Angela Merkel later this week. And, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the two European leaders are lobbying hard for Trump to shift his position on trade tariffs and the Iran nuclear deal.
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Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov is today one of the most renowned figures of the Russian opposition and was the organizer of the recently concluded Free Russia Forum in Vilnius. In an exclusive interview with Voice of America’s Russian service about the latest dramatic events in Yerevan, he said that the will of the people in Armenia for change was a key factor in the development of the situation in that country.

“History is not over, but there is one very important lesson we can learn from there: When people are lied to, they get tired of it; when they are ready to defend their freedom and their right to choose who will lead them, power retreats,” said Kasparov, who is half-Armenian. “The main lesson is that it’s a demonstration of the unity of the nation. When we see students, workers, priests, some in the military [participating in the protest], it makes it impossible for the authorities to suppress it by force.”

Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned unexpectedly Monday after days of protests against him by opposition supporters who claimed he was clinging to power after serving the maximum 10 years as president.

Armenia’s turmoil deepened Wednesday as tens of thousands of people took to the streets after the opposition accused the ruling Republican Party of refusing to cede power following Sargsyan’s departure. Later in the day, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Republican Party governing partner, announced that it had quit Armenia’s ruling coalition, calling for the election of a prime minister with “the people’s confidence.”

​Domestic focus, honest elections

In a region dominated by “strongman” politics, the grass-roots demonstrations, which protest leaders have been careful not to paint as pro-Western or anti-Russian, are focused on a domestic agenda led by honest elections.

Armenia, which seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991, has, like neighboring Caucasus nations, struggled to overcome the legacy of central planning and remains dependent on Russia for aid and investment.

But Kasparov believes that prevailing conditions in Armenia are nonetheless specific to that country.

“It is a special situation there: a practically monoethnic state, three decades of war — one day sluggish, another day turning into a more acute phase,” he said. “There is the Karabakh clan [Karabakh military], and there is the Yerevan party — that is, there are many specific factors that do not apply to Russia.”

The opposition figure also noted that Russia’s powerful influence on the situation in Armenia continued. Russia, which maintains a military base in the country, has said that it is “very attentively observing what is happening in Armenia,” but ultimately considers the unrest a domestic issue.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on political forces in Armenia to engage in dialogue and act within the law to resolve the situation. They also dismissed any parallels to events that inspired Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution.

The United States responded to developments by thanking Sargsyan for his many years of service and called for a transparent democratic process to determine his successor.

Russian influence

“Armenia is effectively under the all-powerful influence of [President Vladimir] Putin’s Russia, and it is clear that the majority of enterprises are one way or another controlled by Russian oligarchs. These ties were formed over a very long time, including military ties,” Kasparov said. “Armenia, unlike Ukraine, has no borders with the West. It is trapped between Azerbaijan, Turkey; Iran, Georgia are also there; you can’t go too far [without reaching] either Turkey or Russia, if we talk about the border.”

Nevertheless, according to Kasparov, Sargsyan’s resignation is a bellwether for Russia.

“Today, the whole world is in motion. Revolutionary changes are taking place everywhere,” he said. “Many of them are negative and destructive, but it is clear that we have entered a period of change. Armenia, I think, is a bellwether, showing that attempts to preserve the situation in Russia, attempts to return to the past … all the same end with a revolutionary explosion. Armenia is simply this bellwether indicating that change is inevitable. And the question is how peaceful and nonviolent these changes will be.

“Armenia has avoided, largely due to its national peculiarity, bloodshed and violent confrontation/ The extent to which this is possible in Russia is difficult for me to say. I fear that we missed the possibility for such a peaceful, nonviolent transition in 2011-2012, and that the changes in Russia will, of course, be more volatile.”

Thus, he said, it is necessary to prepare for such changes.

“It is necessary now, it seems to me, to think about what will happen in Russia when the day comes that patience completely runs out,” Kasparov said. “Why will that happen? There are landfills that make it impossible to breathe, corruption is monstrous, a sharp deterioration in living standards, banking collapses. There are many examples in history when such a combination of factors produced this explosive combination. And what needs to be done, I think, is what we talked about at the last Free Russia Forum in Vilnius: We need to prepare for this moment in order to propose a plan of action.”

​Darker outlook for Russia

While former Soviet republics such as Armenia may see long-term political changes emerge from this week’s protests, Kasparov believes that the situation in which changes could arrive in Russia is less favorable than the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“We cannot again, as in 1991, be caught by surprise. That will be unforgivable,” he said. “Because if at that time it was unexpected — and any change then seemed good — then today Russia has no such window of opportunity. There is no such upside. There was still economic and industrial potential then, but today the situation is different. It is much worse. Russia is mired in corruption, industrial devastation and wars. And its international reputation is actually much worse than it was 27 years ago. And society does not have the potential for change, the desire to make the country better, the desire to become part of the civilized world.”

“The most important task now is to talk seriously about constitutional reform, about what Russia should look like, what will be the path of this transition,” Kasparov said. “We have our own economic, political, social and foreign policy factors, and we need to take them all into account in order to have a sufficiently well-articulated program of action that can be proposed. The person that offers a program of action — even if it is, as articulated, radical in the opinion of many — is usually the one that inspires the people to follow.”

This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel will pay a one-day working visit to the White House on Friday following a three-day state visit by French President Emmanuel Macon.

The back-to-back visits are seen a tag-team effort to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump not to abandon the Iran nuclear deal and to grant permanent exemption of the steel and aluminum tariffs to EU member countries.

While Trump and Macron’s ‘bromance’ was on full display during the French president’s visit, Trump’s relationship with Merkel is unquestionably cooler. It is widely reported that during their inaugural meeting in March 2017, Trump appeared to withhold a handshake with Merkel, and the two leaders did not speak for five months until a phone call on March 1.

“Where Emmanuel Macron is much more successful at charming President Trump, Angela Merkel doesn’t really make the charm offensive a priority and works instead on the basis of principle, common values, and shared interests,” said Eric Jones, Director of European and Eurasian Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Nile Gardiner, Director of Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at Heritage Foundation told VOA he expected Merkel to take a more confrontational and adversarial approach towards the Trump administration than her French counterpart.

“The Germans have been a lot more critical of Trump’s foreign and economic policies,” he said. “And I think Angela Merkel is likely to be adopting a harder line than Macron on certain issues, but she’ll also be keen to make an effort to save the Iran nuclear deal,” he said.

Gardiner added that “it would be interesting to see the degree to which Merkel and Macron put forth the same proposals with regard to strengthening the Iran nuclear deal.”

Indeed, Center for Strategic and International Studies Europe Program Director Heather Conley told reporters the visits by two European leaders this week will be dubbed “the save the Iran nuclear agreement trip.”

During his visit, Macron repeatedly urged Trump and U.S. Congress not to walk away from the 2015 deal the six major powers — the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China — made with Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions that hobbled its economy.

Trump has called the agreement crafted under the Obama administration “the worst deal ever negotiated.” He contends Iran would quickly achieve nuclear capability at the end of the 10-year agreement and often assails its current military adventures in Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon.

Trump again called the deal as “insane” and “ridiculous” during Macron’s visit, but gave no indication as to whether he will pull the U.S. out of the existing nuclear deal with Tehran.

Trans-Atlantic trade

Trans-Atlantic trade will be another crucial issue during Merkel’s visit. Jeff Rathke, Deputy Director of Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies emphasized that this issue is particularly crucial for Germany.

“Germany is the largest EU economy. It is a trade-driven economy,” he said. “I would highlight that the European Union is poised to retaliate if the United States does not extend the exemption on aluminum and steel tariffs, so there is a bit of a threat there of reaction.”

Rathke pointed out Germany has the same concerns as the United States regarding China’s trade practices and its economic role.

“The question is whether they can put aside the relatively less important trans-Atlantic trade disagreements and focus on addressing those much larger and longer-term issues ” he noted.

NATO, Syria

Other issues expected to be discussed during the bilateral meeting include the importance of the NATO alliance and the way forward in Syria.

Johns Hopkins University professor Erik Jones said he doesn’t think the Europeans have high expectations of changing Trump’s mind on these issues at the end of Merkel’s visit.

“If they get an extension of the waiver on US sanctions, that’s a big deliverable; if they were to get a formal commitment to extend the exemptions on steel tariffs, that would be a deliverable; if they were to get a firm commitment on a potential to restart Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks; that would be a deliverable as well,” he said.

But Jones said he doubts the Europeans “are bringing a big bag to carry these things home with.” He said they are going to bring “a very small folder and hope they’ve got at least something in it when they leave at the end of the day.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to look for common ground with his French counterpart in dealing with Iran but made no commitment to stick with the nuclear agreement he described as “insane” and “ridiculous.”

Alongside visiting French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump repeated his criticism of the agreement to freeze Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, saying it does not address Iran’s missile program or attempts to stir up unrest in the region.

Macron, who will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday before returning home, has tried to persuade Trump not to withdraw from the 2015 agreement struck between Iran and a group that includes the United States, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany.

The French leader said he discussed with Trump the desire for “a new deal with Iran” that would also address the country’s ballistic missile program and include a political solution to constrain Iran’s activities in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.

Trump gave no indication Tuesday as to whether he will pull the U.S. out of the existing nuclear deal with Tehran, but he issued a warning to Iran.

“If they restart their nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than they have ever had before,” Trump said during a meeting with Macron in the Oval Office. “You can mark it down.”

Iran likely would regard the re-imposition of sanctions as killing the JCPOA, and that country’s president, Hassan Rouhani, warned on Tuesday of severe consequences if the United States withdraws from the agreement.

Such a move could create major discord between key trans-Atlantic partners and throw the Middle East into even deeper turmoil. 

“Macron essentially dangled the prospect of a grand bargain with four pillars — the JCPOA, a promise by Iran to never develop nuclear weapons, preventing Iran from further expanding its ballistic missile technology, and addressing Iran’s broader role in the Middle East — in order to try and keep Trump on board and to stop him from withdrawing from the JCPOA on May 12,” American University School of International Service Professional Lecturer Garret Martin tells VOA. “It remains to be seen whether that will be enough to sway Trump, and if other major powers and regional players, including Iran, would even be open to a grand bargain.”

Macron also wants Trump to keep American forces in northern Syria to avoid the risk of giving up the country to the Assad regime and Iran.

Trump told reporters that “I’d love to get out” of Syria, where the United States has 2,000 U.S. troops seeking to eradicate the Islamic State terror group. 

“We want to come home. We’ll be coming home,” predicted Trump. “But we want to leave a strong and lasting footprint.” 

The U.S. president also criticized other countries in the region for not doing enough with their own forces to fight terrorism and to counter the Iranian threat. 

Trump said the United States had spent seven trillion dollars in the Middle East over an 18-year period and has “less than nothing” to show for it.

Some wealthy countries there “wouldn’t last a week” without the United States ensuring their security, according to Trump who declared — without naming any particular states — that they would have to step up and pay and put soldiers on the ground. 

“President Trump agreed that he didn’t want to give Iran a free hand in Syria, but his solution was to have regional states — presumably Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries — fund the reconstruction and humanitarian expenses and to provide their own troops to stabilize the country,” said Jeffrey Rathke, the deputy director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

Rathke, a former U.S. diplomat, tells VOA that Trump’s idea “has currency in some Washington quarters at the moment, but is unlikely to gain traction in the region.”

A 21-gun salute echoed across the South Lawn on Tuesday morning while nearly 500 service members from the five branches of the U.S. military stood at attention to officially welcome Macron to the White House. 

Tuesday night, Trump hosted Macron and his wife Brigette for the first state dinner of his administration. The dinner came 15 months after Trump’s inauguration, relatively late compared to previous administrations which typically hosted elaborate ceremonial sitdowns by the end of their first year in office. Tuesday’s dinner was a relatively low-key affair, with few celebrities and big Washington names on the guest list.

VOA’s Victor Beattie contributed to this story.
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Incessant attacks on the media by populist politicians are posing a threat to major democracies, two international watchdogs said on Wednesday. 

In their annual reports on the state of press freedom around the world, Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House harshly criticized Western populist leaders for discrediting the media, berating journalists, and threatening to impose restrictions. 

“As recently as five years ago, global pressure on the media did not appear to affect the United States or the established democracies of Europe in any significant way,” Freedom House said in its report, “State of Global Press Freedom, 2017-2018.” “Today, populist leaders constitute a major threat to free expression in these open societies.”

Reporters Without Borders offered a strikingly similar assessment, warning that “more and more, democratically-elected leaders no longer see the media as part of democracy’s essential underpinning, but as an adversary to which they openly display their aversion.”

President Donald Trump came in for harsh criticism from both organizations. Reporters without Borders called him “a media bashing enthusiast,” while Freedom House warned that Trump’s characterization of the media as “the enemy of the American people” and his disparagement of journalists and media organizations have “‘undermined public trust in fact based journalism.”

​The White House could not be immediately reached to respond to the criticism. 

Reporters Without Borders’ annual Press Freedom Index evaluates press freedom in 180 countries on a scale of 1 to 180, with 1 being the freest and 180 the least free.

In this year’s index, Norway stole the top spot from Finland while North Korea remained at the bottom at No. 180. 

The U.S. ranked 45th , down two places, continuing a trend that started under the administration of former President Barack Obama but accelerated under Trump.The ranking puts the United States in the same camp as Belize, Italy, Romania, and South Korea.

Europe, which historically has had the freest press in the world and had eight of the freest press sectors in the world, notched the largest decline in its regional indicator. 

In France, a journalist was hustled out of a press conference last May when he asked a politician about involvement in a scandal. 

In Poland, regulators fined a leading TV station for “promoting illegal activities” through its coverage of antigovernment protests, Freedom House said. 

And in Hungary, the free press has all but vanished as businessmen associated with the ruling party have “acquired most of the last bastions of independent media,” according to Freedom House. 

“That’s what we mean when we talk about hatred of journalists coming from political leaders in non authoritarian regimes which is really concerning,” said Margaux Ewen, North America director for Reporters Without Borders.

​The “Trump Effect” rippled into countries such as Turkey, which remains the world’s biggest jailer of journalists and the Philippines where President Rodrigo Duterte has openly threatened journalists. 

In Cambodia, which fell ten places in the RSF index, the government has used Trump’s criticism to justify a major crackdown on independent media.

Sarah Repucci of Freedom House said the comparison is misleading. While the Cambodian press is highly restricted, she said, the U.S. media has vigorously pushed back against Trump’s attacks.

While every region of the world saw declines in press freedom, there were some bright spots in parts of Africa where several authoritarian leaders have left office. 

Among them: Gambia, where a new president has promised a less restrictive press law and the inclusion of freedom of expression in the country’s constitution, jumped 21 places, Africa’s biggest leap forward, according to Reporters Without Borders.
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