Iraqi gov't assumes control after Kurds leave disputed areas

October 18, 2017

BAGHDAD (AP) — Kurdish fighters pulled out of disputed areas across northern and eastern Iraq on Tuesday, one day after giving up the vital oil city of Kirkuk — a dramatic redeployment of forces that opened the way for government troops to move into energy-rich and other strategically important territories.

The vastly outnumbered Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, appeared to have bowed to demands from the central government that they hand over areas outside the Kurds' autonomous region, including territory seized from the Islamic State group in recent years.

The evacuations exposed a Kurdish leadership in turmoil in the wake of last month's vote for independence as Iraq's central government shores up its hand for negotiations over resource-sharing with the country's self-ruling minority.

Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi acknowledged the power shift, saying Iraqi forces took over the disputed areas from the Kurds with barely a shot fired. "I call on our citizens to celebrate this day, because we have been united," al-Abadi said, calling the independence vote "a thing of the past" as he offered to begin talks with the Kurdish regional government.

The developments followed weeks of political crisis precipitated by the Kurdish leadership's decision to hold the referendum for independence in territories beyond the boundaries of its autonomous region in northeast Iraq.

The Iraqi government, as well as Turkey and Iran, which border the land-locked Kurdish region, rejected the vote. The U.S. also opposed the vote, saying it was a distraction on the war against IS. If the mood in Baghdad was triumphant, it was acrimonious in the Kurdish capital of Irbil, reflecting the sense among many Kurds that they had been betrayed — and by their own leaders.

"Kirkuk was sold out, everyone ran away," said Amir Aydn, a 28-year-old Kirkuk resident as he returned to the city after fleeing the day before. A hospital in the nearby Kurdish city of Suleimaniyah said it had received the bodies of 25 peshmerga fighters killed in clashes over Kirkuk. The claim could not be independently verified.

Kurdish President Masoud Barzani said the evacuation of Kirkuk was forced by "certain people in a certain party," a swipe at his political opponents in the Patriotic Union of Kuridstan, known as the PUK. Barzani heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP.

The General Command of the peshmerga, nominally in Barzani's hands, went even further, accusing PUK officials of "a great and historic treason against Kurdistan." Their accusations were grounded in reports that peshmerga divisions loyal to the PUK had abandoned their positions as the Iraqi government forces advanced, though the KDP-aligned divisions also withdrew, in Kirkuk and in other parts of the country.

The KDP leadership also condemned the PUK for meeting with Qassem Soleimani, a commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards who advises Iraq's predominantly Shiite Popular Mobilization Front militias, in the buildup to this week's territorial withdrawal. The Shiite militias are an integral part of Iraq's military apparatus but are viewed with considerable distrust by the Kurds, who consider them a symbol of Tehran's influence in Iraq.

Peshmerga commander Wista Rasoul, who led a PUK-aligned division in Kirkuk, denied fractures in the Kurdish military ranks and said the pullout was a response to the central government's vastly superior firepower.

Ala Talabani, a leading PUK official, also defended her meeting with Soleimani on Saturday when he came to pay his respects over the death of her uncle, the late Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. She said Soleimani's counsel was wise and praised Iran's role in Iraq.

"Soleimani advised us ... that Kirkuk should return to the law and the constitution, so let us come to an understanding," she told the Arabic language TV station al-Hadath. Barzani insisted he would not give up his campaign for independence, though such hopes seem more distant than ever in the dismal fallout from the referendum. Kirkuk was a vital source of oil revenues for the Kurdish regional government.

Vahal Ali, a senior adviser to Barzani, told The Associated Press the peshmerga would have to withdraw to the areas it held in 2014, before it deployed across northern Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State group — territory that accounts for much of the land the central government wants back. The Kurdish leadership has been quick to point out that it secured Kirkuk and its oil bounty against the Islamic State after regular Iraqi forces fled that year.

Analysts saw a return to the opportunism that characterized Kurdish party politics before the independence vote allowed them to paper over their differences, if only briefly. The PUK did not want to appear opposed to Kurdish independence even though it expressed misgivings over the referendum called by Barzani.

Both parties have an eye on Kurdish regional elections slated for November, said Ahmed Rishdi, an adviser to Iraqi Parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri. "I think the PUK and the KDP distributed roles," he said "The KDP are the dream makers and the PUK are the peacemakers, so now they are going to divide the Parliament between them," and squeeze out other minor parties.

But voters may not want to cast their ballots for either party. "Nobody is looking especially good at the moment," said Fanar Haddad, a senior Middle East research fellow at the National University of Singapore.

If there is a silver lining for the PUK, it is that it may now be in a position to undermine Barzani for calling the ill-fated referendum, he said. And while its coziness with Baghdad and Iran exposes the party to accusations of treason, which ring strongly in Kurdish national politics, the PUK may find itself in a position to attract Iranian or Iraqi largesse.

"If the PUK is able to pay salaries and spread some wealth then their treason just might be put aside" by some, Haddad said.

Szlanko contributed from Kirkuk, Iraq.

Iraq: After losing Kirkuk, Kurdish forces pull out of Sinjar

October 17, 2017

KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — Kurdish forces lost more territory in Iraq on Tuesday, withdrawing from the town of Sinjar a day after Iraqi forces pushed them out of the disputed city of Kirkuk. Meanwhile, thousands of civilians were seen streaming back to Kirkuk, driving along a main highway to the city's east. The Kurdish forces had built an earthen berm along the highway, reinforced by armored vehicles, but were allowing civilians to return to the city.

Many returnees were seen with their children and belongings packed tight in their cars. The Iraqi forces' retaking of Kirkuk came only two weeks after they had fought together with the Kurdish fighters to neutralize the Islamic State group in Iraq, their common enemy.

As Kirkuk's Arab and Turkmen residents on Monday evening celebrated the change of power, thousands of Kurdish residents, fearful of federal and Shiite militia rule, packed the roads north to Irbil, the capital of the northern autonomous Kurdish region.

On Tuesday, they were going back. When Iraq's armed forces crumbled in the face of an advance by Islamic State group in 2014, Kurdish forces moved into Kirkuk to secure the city and its surrounding oil wells though it was 32 kilometers (20 miles) outside the Kurds' autonomous region in northeast Iraq.

Baghdad has since insisted Kirkuk and its province be returned to the central government, but matters came to a head when the Kurdish authorities expanded their referendum last month to include Kirkuk. To the Iraqi central government, that looked like Kurdish expansionism.

The city of more than 1 million is home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, as well as Christians and Sunni and Shiite Muslims. By midday Monday, federal forces had moved into several major oil fields north of the city, as well as the Kirkuk airport and an important military base, according to Iraqi commanders. Kurdish party headquarters inside Kirkuk had been abandoned.

In the predominantly Yazidi town of Sinjar, Masloum Shingali, commander of the local Yazidi militia, said Kurdish forces had left before dawn on Tuesday, allowing Iraqi Shiite militiamen to move in. The Yazidis were massacred by the Islamic State group when the jihadis seized the town in 2014. More than 2,000 were killed, and thousands of women and children were taken into slavery. Kurdish forces, supported by U.S. airstrikes, liberated the town in 2015.

Town Mayor Mahma Khalil said the Iranian-supported Popular Mobilization militia forces were securing Sinjar. The militias are recognized by Iraq's government as a part of its armed forces but are viewed with deep suspicion by the country's Kurdish authorities, which see them as an instrument of Tehran.

The Kurdish forces "left immediately, they didn't want to fight," Shingali said. The Shiite militia had supported Iraqi forces' to oust Kurdish troops out of Kirkuk. The Kurdish forces withdrew to their autonomous region in the northeast.

Iraq's Kurds beef up, move back defense line around oil-rich Kirkuk

OCTOBER 13, 2017

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kurdish authorities said on Friday they had sent thousands more troops to Kirkuk to confront “threats” of Iraqi military attack, but also slightly pulled back defense lines around the disputed oil-producing area to ease tensions.

The Baghdad central government has taken a series of steps to isolate the autonomous Kurdish region since its overwhelming vote for independence in a Sept. 25 referendum, including banning international flights from going there.

Baghdad’s tough line, ruling out talks sought by the Kurds unless they renounce the breakaway move, is backed by neighbors Turkey and Iran - both with their own sizable Kurdish minorities, and in Turkey’s case, a long-running Kurdish insurgency.

Tens of thousands of Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers have been stationed in and around Kirkuk for some time and another 6,000 have arrived since Thursday, Kosrat Rasul, vice president in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday the situation had the full attention of the United States, which was working to ensure it does not escalate.

“We can’t turn on each other right now. We don’t want this to go to a shooting situation,” Mattis said. “These are issues that are longstanding in some cases ... We’re going to have to recalibrate and move these back to a way (in which) we solve them politically and work them out with compromised solutions.”

The KRG’s Security Council expressed alarm late on Thursday at what it called a significant Iraqi military buildup south of Kirkuk, ”including tanks, artillery, Humvees and mortars.”“These forces are approximately 3 km (1.9 miles) from Peshmerga forces. Intelligence shows intentions to take over nearby oilfields, airport and military base,” it said in a statement.

Kurdish security sources later said that the Peshmerga had shifted their defense lines by 3 km (1.9 miles) to 10 km south of Kirkuk to reduce the risk of clashes with Iraqi forces, which then moved into some of the vacated positions without incident.

The area from which the Peshmerga withdrew is populated mainly by Shi‘ite Muslim Turkmen, many of whom are loyal to the Shi‘ite led-government in Baghdad and affiliated with Iranian-backed political parties and paramilitary groups.

An Iraqi military spokesman said military movements near Kirkuk aimed only to “inspect and secure” the nearby region of Hawija recaptured from Islamic State militants a week ago.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has repeatedly denied any plans to go further and actually attack the territory.

Kirkuk, a city of more than one million people, lies just outside KRG territory but Peshmerga forces deployed there in 2014 when Iraqi security forces collapsed in the face of an Islamic State onslaught. The Peshmerga deployment prevented Kirkuk’s oilfields from falling into jihadist hands.

KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani urged the United States, the European Union and the U.N. Security Council “to rapidly intervene to prevent a new war.”

Germany, which traditionally has good relations with both Baghdad and the KRG, called for measures to defuse tensions.

“We would like to ask them to meet those responsibilities and not to escalate the conflict,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said on Thursday Ankara would gradually close border crossings with northern Iraq in coordination with the central Iraqi government and Iran.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is expected in Baghdad on Sunday for talks with Abadi.

Additional reporting by Michael Nienaber; editing by Mark Heinrich and G Crosse

Source: Reuters.
Link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-kurds-referendum-kirku/iraqs-kurds-beef-up-move-back-defense-line-around-oil-rich-kirkuk-idUSKBN1CI0UV.

Iraq unleashes legal barrage against Kurds after vote

2017-10-09

BAGHDAD - Iraq's central government on Monday unleashed a legal barrage against Kurdish officials and sought to seize key businesses in a fresh bid to tighten the screws over a disputed independence referendum.

The latest moves come exactly two weeks after an overwhelming majority of voters in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region backed independence in a non-binding ballot slammed as illegal by Baghdad.

The central authorities have already severed ties between Kurdistan and the outside world by cutting international air links to the region, while neighboring Turkey and Iran have threatened to close their borders to oil exports.

Now, in a new round of attempts to ratchet up pressure, Baghdad's National Security Council announced that a probe has been launched into Kurdistan's lucrative oil revenues and officials in the region who might have illegally monopolized the market.

"The corrupt will be exposed and the funds recovered," said a statement from the council, headed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The council also said that "a list of names" of Kurdish officials who helped organised the referendum had been compiled and "judicial measures have been taken against them", without giving more details.

The central government -- which has already demanded to take over Kurdistan's airports and borders -- is also looking to reclaim control over mobile phone companies in the region, including two of the largest providers in Iraq, the statement said.

Baghdad also once again called on Ankara and Tehran -- which both opposed the referendum over fears of fueling demands from their own Kurdish communities -- to close their border posts with Kurdistan and "stop all trade" with the region.

The angry dispute over the referendum -- also rejected by the US -- is the latest twist in the decades-long movement by Iraq's Kurds to break away from Baghdad.

The referendum spat comes as Kurdish fighters and central government forces have continued to work together in offensives to push back the Islamic State group, with Washington warning the poll could "increase instability" in the region.

The defense committee in Iraq's parliament demanded Kurdish security forces hand over IS fighters captured in a recent battle to retake the jihadist bastion of Hawija.

The US-led coalition backing up the operations against IS has estimated that some 1,000 jihadists surrendered, mostly to the Kurdish peshmerga forces, during the seizure of the town.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=85289.

Iraqi VP warns of 'civil war' over Kurdish-held Kirkuk

October 09, 2017

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi warned on Monday there could be a "civil war" over the Kurdish-administered city of Kirkuk if talks over Kurdish independence are left unresolved. Allawi, in an interview with The Associated Press, urged Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, as well as Iraq's central government and its Iranian-backed militia forces, to show restraint and resolve their disputes over the oil-rich city.

The head of the Asaib al-Haq militia Qais Khazali warned worshipers in a sermon Sunday that Iraq's Kurds were planning to claim much of north Iraq, including Kirkuk, for an independent state, after Iraq's Kurds voted for independence in a controversial but non-binding referendum two weeks ago.

He said it would be tantamount to a "foreign occupation," according to remarks reported by the Afaq TV channel, which is close to the state-sanctioned militia. Allawi, a former prime minister, said any move by the country's Popular Mobilization Front militias, which include the Asaib al-Haq, to enter Kirkuk would "damage all possibilities for unifying Iraq" and open the door to "violent conflict."

"The government claims they control the Popular Mobilization Forces. If they do they should restrain them, rather than go into a kind of civil war. And there should be a restraint on Masoud Barzani and the Peshmerga not to take aggressive measures to control these lands," said Allawi.

Kirkuk was included in the September referendum even though it falls outside the autonomous Kurdish region in the country's northeast. The ethnically-mixed city has been administered by Kurdish forces since 2014, when government forces fled from the advancing Islamic State group.

Barzani held the referendum over the strong objections of Baghdad, Ankara, and Tehran, enraging leaders in the regional capitals. Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi demanded the Kurdish self-government annul the results and called for joint administration over Kirkuk. Baghdad closed the airspace over the Kurdish region to international flights.

Turkey and Iran also threatened punitive measures against the Kurdish region, fearing Kurds in their own countries would renew their campaigns for self-rule. "Iraqis should be left alone to discuss their own problems without interference," said Allawi. "Kirkuk has become a flashpoint."

Barzani has not declared independence for any part of northern Iraq.

Speaker's visit to Kurds divides Iraqi parliament

October 08, 2017

BAGHDAD (AP) — A leading Iraqi parliamentarian upbraided the legislative body's leader for meeting with Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Sunday as Baghdad's politicians voiced their differences over how best to respond to a controversial Kurdish referendum for independence.

Iraqi member of Parliament Humam Hamoudi called Parliament Speaker Salim Jabouri's meeting with Barzani "disappointing" and "unfortunate" and said Jabouri went to Barzani in a personal capacity, not as Parliament's representative.

Two days of high level visits by Baghdad politicians to Irbil, the seat of the Kurdish regional government, have failed to resolve the impasse between Baghdad and its Kurdish region, which voted for independence in a non-binding referendum two weeks ago.

Jabouri's visit, intended to break the deadlock, instead underscored the divisions within the capital over how to respond to the Kurdish vote. Few if any of Iraq's national politicians want to see an independent Kurdistan, but there is little consensus beyond that.

Shiite politicians, especially those close to Iran, have urged a hard line against the Kurdish region. They see an opportunity to clip Barzani's wings, which they see as the biggest obstacle to expanded Iranian influence in north Iraq, said Hadi Meraie, a political analyst and head of the Iraq Observatory for Press Freedoms.

"The Shiite groups consider that Barzani has crossed a red line to threaten Iraq's unity and by extension Iran's influence over the region," said Meraie. The war on the Islamic State group has drawn the country's Shiite-dominated Popular Mobilization Front militias, a main vessel of Iranian influence, deep into Sunni-majority northern Iraq, raising tensions with Kurdish Peshmerga militias also invested in the fight.

Sunnis, including Parliament Speaker Jabouri, and some Shiite politicians prefer to see Iran's influence contained. Hamoudi is a leading member of the Iran-backed National Iraqi Alliance block, which controls the majority of seats in Parliament.

Last month's referendum opened the door for Baghdad to reclaim oil-rich Kirkuk, an ethnically-mixed city outside the Kurdish zone that is currently under Peshmerga administration. The militia was able to claim the city after national forces fled from an IS advance in 2014.

The PMF, already distributed near the city, would be the big winners of a re-nationalized Kirkuk. "The crisis is at still in its formative stages, not in its resolution," cautioned Meraie. Iraq's Kurdish region voted for independence in a symbolic but controversial referendum two weeks ago. Baghdad responded by banning international flights out of the region and threatening to suspend Kurdish representatives from the national parliament. The vote was largely opposed by the region's Arabs and other minorities.

Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi demanded the Kurdish self-government annul the results and called for joint administration over Kirkuk. Turkey and Iran also threatened punitive measures against the Kurdish region, fearing Kurds in their own countries would renew their campaigns for self-rule.

Jabouri's meeting with Barzani came a day after Parliament adjourned itself to allow more time to resolve the crisis. "We met to stop the deterioration of relations between the center and the region," said Jabouri in a statement after the meeting. He said the two leaders discussed Kirkuk.

Last week's passing of former President Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader regarded as a unifying figure in post-invasion Iraq, failed to reconcile the two sides. Abadi skipped the funeral Thursday, held in the Kurdish city of Suleimaniyah. Talabani's casket was draped in a Kurdish flag.

Barzani's office said he and two of Iraq's three vice presidents agreed Saturday to restore relations with Baghdad after a meeting in Irbil. The vice presidents' offices denied any resolution. Iraq's landlocked Kurdish region produces up to a quarter of Iraq's petroleum output.

Thousands of Indonesians again protest Trump's Jerusalem move

December 10, 2017

Thousands protested outside the US Embassy in the Indonesian capital on Sunday against US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, many waving banners saying “Palestine is in our hearts”.

Leaders in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, have joined a global chorus of condemnation of Trump’s announcement, including Western allies who say it is a blow to peace efforts and risks sparking more violence.

Thousands of protesters in Muslim-majority countries in Asia have rallied in recent days to condemn the US move.

Israel maintains that all of Jerusalem is its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state and say Trump’s move has left them completely sidelined.

Palestinian people were among the first to recognize Indonesia’s independence in 1945, Sohibul Iman, president of the opposition Prosperous Justice Party which organised the rally, told protesters.

Indonesia should be more proactive in “urging the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) member states and UN Security Council and the international community to respond immediately with more decisive and concrete political and diplomatic actions in saving the Palestinians from the Israeli occupation and its collaborator, the United States of America,” Iman said.

“Indonesia as the world’s largest Muslim country has the largest responsibility toward the independence of Palestine and the management of Jerusalem,” he told reporters, adding that he hoped Indonesia would take a leading role within the OIC on the matter.

“Trump has disrupted world peace. It’s terrible,” one protester, Yusri, told Reuters.

The decision was “a major disaster for the Palestinian people, while the Palestinian’s own rights have been taken away for a long time,” said Septi, a student at the rally.

Indonesia’s foreign minister left for Jordan on Sunday to meet the Palestinian and Jordanian foreign ministers “to convey Indonesia’s full support for Palestine”.

Most countries consider East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in a 1967 war, to be occupied territory, and say the status of the city should be left to be decided at future Israeli-Palestinian talks.

While the international community has almost unanimously disagreed with Donald Trump’s announcement, reports suggest that the announcement was done with the pre-agreement of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with the Saudi Arabia going as far as, allegedly, stating to the Palestinian President to accept a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem as the alternative Palestinian capital.

Since the announcement, Saudi Arabia’s royal court has sent notices to the nation’s media outlets to limit the airtime given to protests against Trump’s announcement.

Emboldened by Trump’s announcement, Israeli housing Minister Yoav Galant decided on Friday to promote a plan to build 14,000 new settlement units in the occupied Jerusalem.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171210-thousands-of-indonesians-again-protest-trumps-jerusalem-move/.

Ukraine's anti-corruption agency faces strong resistance

December 11, 2017

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — An anti-corruption agency established in Ukraine two years ago was expected to be the driving force that would uproot the endemic graft that depleted the nation's resources and worried its Western allies.

But the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine instead has come under fire from allies of President Petro Poroshenko who are trying to curtail its operations and authority. NABU chief Artem Sytnik told The Associated Press in a weekend interview that fear is behind the recent attempts by political and business elites to weaken the agency that was supposed to be a visible symbol of reform in Ukraine.

"The old and new elites are quite scared" after realizing "there are no untouchables anymore," Sytnik said. Last month, the Security Service of Ukraine and the prosecutor general's office derailed a sting operation by undercover NABU agents to catch a State Migration Service official suspected of issuing passports and residence permits for bribes. The agencies accused NABU of illegal eavesdropping and released the names of its agents, blowing their covers.

Poroshenko's faction and its allies in parliament also have submitted a bill that would allow lawmakers to fire the anti-corruption agency's director with a simple majority vote. Under current law, NABU's chief can only be fired for a criminal conviction, a provision that was intended to ensure independence.

"Those attacks are directly linked to the fact that we investigate an increasing number of criminal cases involving people who are in control of the media, material or administrative resources, which they turn against us," Sytnik said.

Since its creation in 2015, NABU has investigated 461 cases involving business executives, government officials and judges accused of involvement in corrupt schemes. Sytnik thinks the current campaign against his agency results from a probe that targeted the son of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov for alleged involvement in a scheme to embezzle 14 million hryvnias (about $520,000) allocated for purchasing police rucksacks.

Avakov has insisted his son was innocent and alleged that NABU of falling under political influence. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde expressed concern about the recent developments "that could roll back progress that has been made in setting up independent institutions to tackle high-level corruption, including the National Anti-Corruption Bureau."

"Fighting corruption is a key demand of the Ukrainian society, is crucial to achieving stronger and equitable growth, and is part of the government's commitment under the program with the IMF," Lagarde said in a statement last week.

She urged the Ukrainian government and parliament to safeguard NABU's independence and to move quickly to set up an independent anti-corruption court "to credibly adjudicate high-level corruption cases."

IMF made the establishment of a court where corruption cases could be prosecuted a condition for releasing further installments of a $17.5-billion aid package as Ukraine grapples with the separatist conflict in the east.

In what was seen as another attempt to block anti-corruption efforts, lawmakers from Poroshenko's faction and their allies voted Thursday to dismiss the chairman of the anti-corruption committee in parliament.

"The former and present corrupt elite have colluded," the ousted committee head, Yegor Sobolev, said. "Their plan is to break the independence of anti-corruption bodies, replace them with fake ones and stop the process of cleaning the government," he added.

Popular anger over corruption was a factor in months of protests that drove Ukraine's former Russia-leaning president from office in February 2014. Poroshenko's failure to oversee progress has caused growing impatience and triggered calls for his impeachment led by Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgia president turned Ukrainian opposition leader.

After leading several rallies in Kiev, Saakashvili was arrested Friday on allegations that he colluded with Ukrainian businessmen tied to Russia to topple the president. Saakashvili scoffed at the charges, alleging they resulted from longtime hostility between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The detention of Saakashvili shows how far Poroshenko is ready to go to muzzle his opponents and those who expose corruption," Sobolev said. Thousands of Saakashvili's supporters marched across the Ukrainian capital Sunday, demanding his release and calling for Poroshenko to be impeached.

"Poroshenko is continuing the worst traditions of the old nomenklatura," said Vitaly Shabunin, the head of watchdog group the Center for Fighting Corruption. "The same old elites, the same people have taken different political slogans, but their way of thinking and their goals have remained the same."

Saakashvili refuses to give himself up in Ukraine

December 06, 2017

MOSCOW (AP) — Georgia's former president, who has become Ukraine's top opposition politician, said Wednesday that he wouldn't give himself up to authorities after the prosecutors issued an ultimatum. Authorities tried to arrest Mikheil Saakashvili at his home in the capital, Kiev, on Tuesday but he escaped with help from supporters. Saakashvili and his backers camped out outside parliament, demanding the resignation of the Ukrainian president. Prosecutors gave him 24 hours to turn himself in.

Saakashvili addressed the crowd outside parliament, called the Supreme Rada, on Wednesday, saying that prosecutors are welcome to see him there but he won't turn himself in. Police officers and prosecutors went to the tent camp early in the morning to look for Saakashvili but were met with resistance from protesters, the Kiev police said in a statement Wednesday. Two protesters and 11 police officers were injured in a scuffle, the police said.

There were about 100 protesters outside the Supreme Rada late Wednesday morning. The detention of Saakashvili, now an anti-corruption crusader in his adopted home and arguably the country's most popular opposition politician, has raised fears that Ukraine could be facing its most acute political crisis since the 2014 revolution.

Saakashvili has won broad popularity in Ukraine with his fiery campaign against official corruption, riding a wave of public frustration over President Petro Poroshenko's failure to uproot endemic graft. He has staged a series of rallies calling for the president's resignation, but they haven't produced any visible impact.

Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko claimed on television that his office has evidence that Saakashvili's representative received $500,000 from Ukrainian businessmen who have ties to Russia to finance the protests.

Protesters decry corruption in Ukraine, prevent arrest

December 05, 2017

MOSCOW (AP) — Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Kiev and called for the ouster of Ukraine's president following a botched attempt Tuesday by authorities to arrest Mikheil Saakashvili, a former Georgian president-turned-Ukrainian opposition leader.

The turmoil is just the latest challenge for the Ukrainian government, which has been weakened by months of political infighting and accused of not halting official corruption. Tuesday's standoff began when officers of Ukraine's Security Service, the SBU, went to Saakashvili's home in Kiev to detain him. Trying to resist the arrest, he climbed onto the roof and threatened to jump off, but SBU agents took him down and put him into a van.

Several hundred protesters then surrounded the vehicle and blocked it from moving. They clashed with police, who unsuccessfully tried to disperse the demonstrators with tear gas. After a tense standoff that lasted for hours, Saakashvili was freed by his supporters and led them on a march to parliament to demand President Petro Poroshenko's resignation.

"I will die for Ukraine," Saakashvili shouted to the crowd. "I owe you my freedom and my life." With the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag around his neck, Saakashvili urged Ukrainians to rise against "Poroshenko and his gang."

"Don't be afraid, let them fear us!" he shouted. Saakashvili has won broad popularity in Ukraine with his fiery campaign against official corruption, riding a wave of public frustration over Poroshenko's failure to uproot endemic graft. He has staged a series of rallies calling for the president's resignation, but they haven't produced any visible impact.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko claimed on television that his office has evidence that Saakashvili's representative received $500,000 from Ukrainian businessmen who have ties to Russia to finance the protest.

Saakashvili rejected the accusation, noting the long-running hostility between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin. When he was president of Georgia, Saakashvili made a failed attempt to reclaim control over Georgia's separatist province of South Ossetia, triggering a five-day war with Russia in 2008. He has repeatedly mentioned Putin's reported threat to have him hanged.

Saakashvili won quick support from Tuesday other Ukrainian opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Speaking in parliament, Tymoshenko criticized the SBU's attempt to arrest Saakashvili as "political terror."

Oksana Syroyed of the Self Reliance Party also denounced the attempted arrest as an action by a "despotic machine." But while opposition leaders expressed support for Saakashvili, their activists stayed away from the street protest, reflecting a cautious stance toward a potential competitor.

"Opposition parties see him as a rival and aren't in a hurry to support the protest," said Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kiev-based political analyst. Fesenko also said while Saakashvili has enough support to stage rallies, he lacks the power to force a government change.

"They can make a lot of noise, but most Ukrainians are wary of the negative and unpredictable consequences of a new Maidan," Fesenko said, referring to the 2014 protests on Kiev's main square that drove out Ukraine's former Russia-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych.

Poroshenko named Saakashvili as governor of the Odessa region in 2015, but he stepped down the following year after falling out with the president. Earlier this year, Poroshenko stripped him of Ukrainian citizenship while he was out of the country, but Saakashvili came back in September, helped by supporters who broke through a police line at the Polish border.

The tensions in Kiev come as fighting continues between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The conflict, which erupted after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, has left more than 10,000 people dead since then.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, was clearly relishing the turmoil in Kiev. "We are watching those developments with interest," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "It's Ukraine's headache. It's something you wouldn't wish to even your enemy, but, of course, we don't consider the Ukrainian people our enemy."

Yuras Karmanau contributed to this report from Minsk, Belarus.

Poland: Time abroad, in finance seen as assets of PM nominee

December 07, 2017

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland Finance Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, a former banker, would bring to the office of prime minister economic and international experience seen as assets while the country faces criticism from other European Union members for policies that have aroused concerns of democratic backsliding.

Morawiecki, 49, is widely considered one of the Polish government's most competent Cabinet members and has the trust of ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski even though he is a relative newcomer who became Law and Justice member only after he joined the government.

As minister of finance and economic development, he has been given credit for overseeing an economy that has boomed in the two years since Law and Justice assumed power, with growth at over 4 percent and unemployment at a record low of under 7 percent.

The question remains if Morawiecki will take direction from the powerful Kaczynski as outgoing Prime Minister Beata Szydloto did or try to pursue an independent path. His background in many ways makes him an unusual choice for the populist Law and Justice.

Before joining the government, Morawiecki ran the bank BZ WBK, which is controlled by Spain's Santander Group. The ruling party on whose behalf he will be leading Poland's government seeks to limit foreign influence and global capitalism, and has increased state spending on welfare programs.

Morawiecki is the son of a prominent pro-democracy activist of the 1980s who is now a lawmaker, Kornel Morawiecki. His political activity began in an independent students' union and his father's anti-communist organization, Fighting Solidarity. For his activism, he says he was arrested and beaten by communist security forces.

He studied history in his hometown of Wroclaw in southwest of Poland, graduated from the Business and Administration Department of the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology and obtained an MBA degree from Wroclaw University of Economics. He later studied at Central Connecticut State University and also in Germany, Switzerland and at Northwestern University in the U.S. state of Illinois.

With his foreign studies and professional experience, Morawiecki, who speaks English and German, could be better prepared than Szydlo to represent the country abroad as Poland faces off against the EU over a proposed overhaul of the judiciary and other policies seen as anti-democratic.

He was on the government team that negotiated the financial terms of Poland's 2004 accession to the European Union and then went into the banking sector eventually serving as the chairman of the board of managers for the BZ WBK.

He was an adviser to former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which apparently did not block his political rise even though Law and Justice considers Tusk a foe. Before taking on his government position in the fall of 2015 he served as honorary consul for Ireland.

Earlier this year, he became the first finance minister from Poland to be invited to a meeting of G-20 ministers in Germany.

Leaders of Turkey, Greece air grievances at tense conference

December 07, 2017

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The leaders of Greece and Turkey publicly aired their grievances Thursday in a tense news conference as a two-day visit to Athens by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan got off to a rocky start.

The Greek government had expressed hopes that the visit — the first to Greece by a Turkish president in 65 years — would help improve the often-frosty relations between the two neighbors. The NATO allies are divided by a series of decades-old issues, including territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea, and have come to the brink of war three times since the early 1970s.

But from the outset, the discussions focused on disagreements. On the eve of his visit, Erdogan rattled his Greek hosts by telling Greece's Skai television that the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne should be "updated." The treaty delineated modern Turkey's borders and outlines the status of the Muslim minority in Greece and the Greek minority in Turkey, among other issues.

In a visibly testy first meeting with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the two engaged in a thinly-veiled verbal spat over the treaty and Greece's Muslim minority, which Erdogan is to visit Friday.

"This happened in Lausanne, that happened in Lausanne. I get that, but let's now quickly do what is necessary," Erdogan told Pavlopoulos. "Many things have changed in 94 years. If we review these, I believe that all the sides will agree that so many things have to (change.)"

The spat continued during Erdogan's appearance at an unusually candid joint news conference with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The two listed a series of grievances their countries have with each other, including religious and minority rights, the divided island of Cyprus and the case of ten Turkish servicemen who have applied for asylum in Greece following a Turkish government crackdown after a failed coup last year.

"It is very important to strengthen our channels of communication, and this can only happen on the basis of mutual respect," Tsipras said. The prime minister said the two also discussed tensions in the Aegean Sea, where Greece complains Turkish fighter jets frequently violate its airspace.

"The increasing violations of Greek airspace in the Aegean and particularly the simulated dogfights in the Aegean pose a threat to our relations, and particularly a threat to our pilots," Tsipras said.

For his part, Erdogan insisted once more that the Lausanne treaty needed to be reviewed, but stressed his country had no territorial claims on its smaller neighbor. On the topic of the Muslim minority in Greece — which the country recognizes only as a religious minority, while Turkey has long pressed for better rights — Tsipras said his government agreed that improvements must be made in their quality of life.

"But issues that concern reforms involving Greek citizens are not an issue of negotiation between countries," he said. Tsipras noted it was unclear exactly what Erdogan was seeking with his call to update the 1923 treaty.

"The truth is I am a little confused about what he is putting on the table," he said. Greeks have been aghast at Erdogan's previous comments over possibly revising the Lausanne treaty, fearing that could harbor territorial claims.

Erdogan and Tsipras also sparred over Cyprus, a Mediterranean island divided since a 1974 Turkish invasion into a Turkish-occupied north and an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south. Another round of internationally-brokered peace talks to reunify the island failed earlier this year.

"Who left the table? Southern Cyprus did ... we want the issue to reach a fair and lasting solution but that is not southern Cyprus' concern," Erdogan said. Tsipras retorted: "My dear friend, Mr. President, we must not forget that this issue remains unresolved because 43 years ago there was an illegal invasion and occupation of the northern part of Cyprus."

Erdogan also raised the issue of Athens having no official mosque, to which Tsipras responded by saying Greece had restored several mosques around the country, including a centuries-old mosque in Athens.

The refugee crisis appeared to be the only issue the two sides did not disagree on, with both noting they had shared a significant burden of the migration flows into the European Union. More than a million people crossed from Turkey through Greece at the height of the crisis.

Later Thursday, several hundred leftist, anarchist and Kurdish protesters held a peaceful march through Athens against Erdogan's visit. On Friday, Erdogan will visit the northeastern town of Komotini to meet with members of Greece's Muslim minority.

Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Derek Gatopoulos and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed.

22 detained as Greeks mark 2008 police shooting of teenager

December 06, 2017

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Rioting youths hurled fire bombs, set up street barricades and damaged storefronts in Greece's two largest cities Wednesday, violence that broke out after marches marking the ninth anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a teenager and continued on-and-off for several hours.

The clashes in Athens and Thessaloniki coincided with a police security operation to prepare for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's two-visit to Greece, which starts Thursday. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Authorities said at least 22 people were detained for questioning in the Greek capital, where a pair of rallies drew several thousand participants. Some youths proceeded to hurl stones, flares and Molotov cocktails at police officers and set a parked car ablaze, police said.

The unruly rowdy demonstrators also blocked streets with burning trash bins and material taken from construction sites. Similar scenes unfolded in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, where protesters threw rocks at police from the top of apartment buildings. locks.

About 2,000 police were deployed in Athens for the events marking the 2008 death of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos. A police officer shot the boy while he was out with friends in Exarchia, a central Athens neighborhood popular with anarchists.

The policeman who fired the fatal shot said he didn't intend to shoot Grigoropoulos. He was convicted of deliberate manslaughter and is serving a life sentence. The teenager's death sparked riots across Greece that lasted for weeks. Athens was the hit the worst, with many stores, buildings, and vehicles in the capital smashed and burned.

Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece.

Snow disrupts road, air travel in England and northern Wales

December 10, 2017

LONDON (AP) — Snow is causing travel disruptions across central England and northern Wales, grounding flights, shutting down roads and causing traffic accidents. Birmingham and London Stansted Airports suspended flights as runways were cleared. The airports both advised passengers to contact their airlines to check their flight status.

"Please be advised that flight delays and cancellations are expected due to the adverse weather conditions," Stansted warned. The M1 motorway — the main highway between London and northeast England — was partially closed in Leicestershire.

Police in Wales warned against all but the most essential travel amid persistent snowfall that is forecast to last throughout the day. Strong winds slammed into Welch coast. The Met Office warned of wind and rain for London and southern England, with gusts of up to 70 mph (110 kph) predicted. Parts of the British capital were coated with snow Sunday morning.

Britain, EU in Brexit breakthrough; eye talks on future ties

December 08, 2017

BRUSSELS (AP) — Britain and the European Union made a significant step forward Friday in Brexit talks, officials said, after a flurry of overnight diplomacy by phone bridged differences over the Irish border.

"I believe that we have now made the breakthrough that we needed," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

But the agreement doesn't give details of how the thorny border issue will be solved, noting that much depends on the outcome of trade talks between Britain and the EU. Its crucial passages promise that whatever happens, the U.K. will maintain "full regulatory alignment" with the bloc on issues affecting Ireland.

Exactly what that means will be fought over by politicians and negotiators in the months to come. Juncker said that he would recommend to European Union leaders that "sufficient progress has been achieved" on the terms of the divorce to starting talking about issues like future relations and trade.

EU leaders meet in Brussels on Dec. 14 and are likely to endorse the assessment that enough progress has been made on the terms of Britain's financial settlement, the status of Irish borders and the rights of citizens hit by Brexit.

"I am hopeful, sure, confident, sure, that they will share our appraisal and allow us to move on the next phase of the negotiations," Juncker said. May said: "I very much welcome the prospect of moving ahead to the next phase, to talk about trade and security and to discuss the positive and ambitious future relationship that is in all of our interests,"

"I hope and expect we will be able to get the endorsement of the 27," she said, referring to the other EU countries. Juncker repeated that he didn't want Britain to leave the EU — the first time a member country has ever done so — saying "I will always be sad about this development but now we must start looking for the future."

Britain leaves the EU on March 29, 2019, but negotiations must be wrapped up within a year to leave time for parliaments to endorse any deal. Business leaders warn further delays will hurt companies as they plan for the future.

Existing rules allow people and goods to pass freely between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland with no border checks. Ireland wants to preserve the current arrangement, which has eased tensions along the border. May is struggling to balance those demands against the concerns of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which she relies on to support her government in Parliament.

May said that Northern Ireland has "a set of unique circumstances" because it has the U.K.'s only land border with an EU country. The border issue has been threatening to derail the divorce talks. Earlier this week, the DUP scuttled a deal between the U.K and the bloc, prompting the frantic diplomacy.

May said Friday that the agreement would maintain an open border while preserving the constitutional and economic integrity of the U.K. DUP leader Arlene Foster appeared satisfied Friday, saying that the agreement gave "very clear confirmation that the entirety of the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union."

May also met with European Council President Donald Tusk, who will chair next Thursday's summit, and Tusk said the EU and London must now start negotiating a transition period to ease Britain's way out of the bloc during a time of legal uncertainty after in 2019.

Tusk noted that Britain has asked for a two-year bridging period, he laid out conditions for that to happen. "I propose that during this period the U.K. will respect the whole of EU law, including new law, it will respect budget commitments, it will respect judicial oversight and of course all related obligations," he told reporters.

Tusk also said he has sent guidelines to EU leaders on how he thinks phase two of the Brexit talks should be handled. Meanwhile, British business groups were expressing relief that Brexit talks finally look set to start discussing the future shape of trade and economic relations.

Stephen Martin, who heads U.K. business group the Institute of Directors, said "it went right down to the wire, but businesses will be breathing a huge sigh of relief." Adam Marshall, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said that "after the noise and political brinksmanship of recent days, news of a breakthrough in the negotiations will be warmly welcomed by companies across the U.K."

Jill Lawless reported from London.

Doubts grow over UK government's preparation for Brexit

December 06, 2017

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government acknowledged Wednesday that it has made no detailed assessment of the economic impact of leaving the European Union, as its lack of preparation for a momentous break became clear.

David Davis, the official shepherding Britain's departure from the 28-nation bloc, said the nation should be prepared for a profound shift in the way the economy operates on a scale similar to that of the 2008 financial crisis.

He told a parliamentary committee that since Britain must prepare for a "paradigm change," in the economy, any assessment in the automotive, aerospace financial services or other sectors would fail to be "informative."

The House of Commons' Brexit committee's chair, Hilary Benn, described the decision as "rather strange" given the historic decisions at hand and since authorities wish to start renegotiating Britain's trade relations with the rest of Europe within weeks.

"You have said there are no impact assessments," Benn said. "You were hoping that, at the October (European) Council, the door would be open to phase two of the negotiations, where the question would be asked 'What does the U.K. government want?'

"Are you actually telling us that the government hadn't at that point — and still hasn't — undertaken the assessment?" Benn asked. Davis told the committee he didn't need a formal impact assessment. "I'm not a fan of economic models because they have all proven wrong," Davis said. "When you have a paradigm change — as happened in 2008 with the financial crisis — all the models were wrong."

But as the day wore on, the government's last minute-planning became more evident. Treasury chief Philip Hammond revealed that Prime Minister Theresa May's closest advisers in her Cabinet had not yet had a full discussion of the "end state position," the status the U.K. would aim to have once it leaves the EU. In testimony before the House of Commons Treasury Committee, Hammond said it was too soon to have such talks.

He said that would happen once the EU accepts to move the Brexit talks on from the divorce issues to the question of future relations, like trade. "We are not yet at that stage and it would have been premature to have that discussion before we reach that stage," he said.

Britain and the EU on Monday came close to agreeing on key divorce terms, including how to maintain an open Irish border after the U.K. — including Northern Ireland — leaves the EU. But the agreement was scuttled at the last minute when the Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May's minority government, warned it wouldn't support a deal it saw as undermining Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that a solution to the issue "can only be discovered in the context of discussions on the end state of the U.K.'s relations with the rest of the EU." "We are going to take back control of our borders, of our laws and of U.K. cash contributions and that's the way forward," he added.

May was expected to hold talks with top EU officials later this week. Britain and the EU have only days to clinch a deal on the divorce terms — the Irish border, Britain's financial exit bill and the rights of citizens hit by Brexit — before a Dec. 14-15 EU summit that will decide whether Brexit talks can move on to future relations and trade.

The lack of progress so far has raised concerns that Britain may not have a deal by the time it officially leaves on March 29, 2019, and heightened fears that May's government could collapse. Business leaders in particular are expressing alarm at the lack of certainty in the process. The chief executive of manufacturers' organization EEF, Stephen Phipson, warned that inability to secure a transition deal before Christmas would be costly.

"While international companies appreciate the nuances of complex negotiations, they will assess the situation based on the facts at hand and all they will be able to see is the probability of a cliff edge looming on the horizon," he said.

Israeli defense chief calls for Arab boycott after protests

December 10, 2017

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's defense minister called Sunday for a boycott of Arab businesses in an area where residents took part in violent protests against President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, as a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli security guard in the volatile city in the first attack since the dramatic announcement.

Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, said the Arabs of Wadi Ara in northern Israel were "not part of us" and that Jewish Israelis should no longer visit their villages and buy their products. Hundreds of Israeli Arabs protested Saturday along a major highway in northern Israel, where dozens of masked rioters hurled stones at buses and police vehicles. Three Israelis were wounded and several vehicles were damaged.

"These people do not belong to the state of Israel. They have no connection to this country," Lieberman told Israel's Army Radio. "Moreover, I would call on all citizens of Israel — stop going to their stores, stop buying, stop getting services, simply a boycott on Wadi Ara. They need to feel that they are not welcome here."

Lieberman has long called for Wadi Ara to be included in his proposed swap of lands and populations as part of a future peace agreement with the Palestinians. The residents, like many of Israel's Arab minority, sympathize with the Palestinians of the West Bank and often openly identify with them. But they are also Israeli citizens who largely reject the notion of becoming part of a future Palestinian state.

The comments sparked criticism of racism and collective punishment toward a community of which only a small minority were violent. It also raised questions about how Israel could so aggressively oppose international boycott campaigns against it while one of its most senior ministers called for one against its own citizens.

Ayman Odeh, the head of the Arab Joint list in parliament, said Lieberman's call for a boycott of Arabs was reminiscent of the worst regimes in history. Gilad Erdan, the minister of public security from the ruling Likud Party, said that Lieberman's diplomatic plan was not applicable and he rejected the notion of giving up the country's sovereignty just because it had Arab citizens.

The violent protests inside Israel were part of the larger Palestinian "day of rage" following Trump's announcement that he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and planned to move the U.S. Embassy there.

Protests and demonstrations took place in dozens of locations across the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, lands captured by Israel during the 1967 war that the Palestinians want to be part of their future state.

They resumed briefly Sunday, with Palestinian youths in the West Bank city of Bethlehem hurling stones toward Israeli soldiers, who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas. In Jerusalem, police said a 24-year-old Palestinian stabbed an Israeli security guard at the entrance to the city's central bus station. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the guard sustained a serious wound to his upper body and the attacker was apprehended.

Israel's Channel 10 TV news aired security camera footage from the scene showing the attacker removing his jacket near the security gate and then thrusting what looked like a knife into the guard's chest before fleeing.

In more than two years of intermittent attacks, Palestinians have killed more than 50 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. Israeli forces have killed more than 260 Palestinians in that time, mostly attackers.

Trump's announcement raised fears that a new wave of violence would erupt in its wake. But three days of mass protests were relatively contained. Four Palestinians were killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes following rocket fire from there and in clashes along the border. In the West Bank there were dozens of injuries, but no deaths.

The status of Jerusalem lies at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Trump's move was widely perceived as siding with Israel. Even small crises over Jerusalem and the status of the holy sites in its Old City have sparked deadly bloodshed in the past. Trump's announcement triggered denunciations from around the world, even from close allies, that suggested he had needlessly stirred more conflict in an already volatile region.

In Israel, the move was embraced as a long overdue acknowledgement of Israel's seat of parliament and government and the historic capital of the Jewish people dating back 3,000 years. Upon departing for a diplomatic visit to Paris and Brussels, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was prepared to respond to critics.

"While I respect Europe, I am not prepared to accept a double standard from it. I hear voices from there condemning President Trump's historic statement but I have not heard condemnations of the rockets fired at Israel or the terrible incitement against it," he said. "I am not prepared to accept this hypocrisy, and as usual at this important forum I will present Israel's truth without fear and with head held high."

Russian lawmaker blames officials for IOC ban

December 06, 2017

MOSCOW (AP) — A senior lawmaker says Russian sports officials have not done enough to stop the International Olympic Committee from barring the Russian team from the upcoming games in South Korea. The IOC ruled on Tuesday to bar Russia and its sports leaders from the 2018 Winter Games after its lead investigator concluded members of the Russian government concocted a doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Games.

The Kremlin has vehemently denied running a state-sponsored doping program. Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee at the Russian parliament's upper house, said on Wednesday that the ruling is "clearly part of the West's policy to restrain Russia" but insisted that Russian sports officials are to blame and "ought to bear personal responsibility" for letting it happen.

In Putin's heartland, apathy and disappointment rule

December 11, 2017

NOVOKUZNETSK, Russia (AP) — Three months ahead of Russia's presidential election, apathy and disappointment pervade incumbent Vladimir Putin's heartland. Alexandra Chekh, a retired kindergarten director, voted for Putin the last time around in 2012. Now she wonders if he has anything to offer.

"Change? If he could do it, he would have done it by now," she said. "If nothing gets done, then maybe we will need a new person." A new person is unlikely — the 65-year-old Putin is the overwhelming favorite in Russia's March 18 presidential vote. But the dim view taken by former supporters such as Chekh is notable in a city like Novokuznetsk, part of the Kemerovo region in southwestern Siberia where Putin tallied 77 percent of the vote in 2012.

The city itself lies 4,500 miles (7,240 kilometers) east of Moscow. Since that last election, anti-corruption campaigner and adamant Putin foe Alexei Navalny has been able to spread his message far beyond the prosperous and educated urban circles of Moscow and St. Petersburg where his support started. But Navalny is saddled by a fraud and embezzlement conviction — which his supporters view as politically motivated — that will prevent him from running in the presidential race unless he's pardoned or some other dispensation is made.

Navalny is pressing on, nonetheless. On Saturday, several hundred people showed up at his rally in Novokuznetsk, a city of nearly 550,000 people that is home to coal mines, metals plants and soot-smelling air. Some at the rally came without hats or gloves despite the minus -15 Celsius (minus -5 Fahrenheit) temperatures.

Navalny focused on the grievances he has been highlighting throughout the campaign: low pay for state employees, the concentration of wealth in Moscow and the Kremlin's excessive funding for foreign policy forays.

Official statistics show the region's average monthly pay as 31,600 rubles ($532), a little under the Russian average. But Novokuznetsk residents think those figures are inflated by officials. When Navalny asked the crowd how much a nurse makes in Novokuznetsk, they shouted "10,000" or "15,000."

If Putin's 18 years in power have induced apathy and a sense of helplessness among Russian voters, that's the big issue in Navalny's view. Putin has made voters in industrial cities like Novokuznetsk his base, touting stability as the key achievement of his rule. But these days, finding a fervent Putin supporter on Novokuznetsk's snow-covered streets can be hard.

Of seven residents approached by an AP reporter, only four said they supported Putin. None of them expressed enthusiasm. A survey by the independent polling agency Levada Center suggests that enthusiasm for Putin is in decline countrywide. It found that 51 percent of those questioned said they were tired of waiting for Putin to bring "positive change," 10 percentage points higher than a year ago.

Through his canny, energetic use of social media and YouTube, Navalny has done an end-run around Russia's state-controlled news media, which is the main source of information for people outside of the country's main cities. Demonstrations called by Navalny this year rattled the Kremlin, not only because of their large turnouts but due to the fact they were taking place in provincial cities throughout the country.

Many of those who showed up at the Novokuznetsk rally say Putin does have support there, but nowhere near as overwhelmingly as the last election figures indicated. The real picture, they say, is distorted by widespread voting fraud.

Navalny told The Associated Press after the rally that he is encouraged by the warm reception he is seeing in Russia's regions. He says that proves support for Putin in the places that habitually give him 80 percent of the vote at the polls is "fiction and falsification."

Navalny's activists all over Russia have been canvassing all year on the streets and going door-to-door to talk to voters, despite threats and intimidation from authorities. "If we can hold such a big rally here, with all the pressure and intimidation, it means that we enjoy at least significant support here," Navalny said after an hour of posing for photos with rally attendees in Novokuznetsk.

Navalny initially laughed off a question about what is going to happen if authorities — when the presidential campaign officially starts later this month — formally bar him from running. "(The Kremlin) cannot bar me from running if such a big number of people is supporting me," he declared.

But he later offered a glimpse into his plans. "If they don't register me, people together with me will not recognize this election and we will boycott this election," he said. A low presidential turnout is something the Kremlin is very wary about.

Fighting apathy is one of the most common theories behind the surprise presidential bid of socialite-turned-journalist Ksenia Sobchak. The 36-year-old candidate has been mildly critical of Putin but faces none of the obstacles that Navalny's supporters do. Many Russians think her efforts are designed to boost interest in an otherwise bland presidential campaign — a claim that Sobchak absolutely denies.

But Navalny probably does not even need to call for a boycott to bring the turnout even lower, because many residents of the Kemerovo region have already given up on the presidential vote. Sergei Maslyukov, 40, watched his daughter slide off a mammoth mound of snow on Novokuznetsk's main square. He did not go to Navalny's rally Saturday and has not heard much about the popular activist. He is also disappointed in Putin but sees no viable alternative to the Russian leader.

"The promises he made . he did not make good on them," Maslyukov said. "What promises? Do you think average pay in Russia correlates to the prices? I'm not going to vote for anyone."

Putin undecided whether to run as an independent or not

December 07, 2017

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has not decided yet whether to run for office next year as an independent candidate or secure support from the ruling party, his spokesman said Thursday.

The 65-year old Russian leader, who has ruled the country since 2000, ended months of speculation by announcing Wednesday that he would seek his fourth term in office in the March 18 presidential vote. Putin's 80-percent approval ratings make his victory all but certain.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that the president has yet to make up his mind whether he would run as an independent or on United Russia's platform. United Russia won last year's parliamentary election, but is nowhere near as popular as Putin. The Russian president may want to avoid association with the party, which has been tainted with corruption scandals.

Asked if there is anyone to challenge Putin, Peskov told reporters Thursday that Putin is "the strongest candidate." "The level of the popular support that he enjoys is unavailable for other candidates," Peskov said.

The Kremlin has been worried about growing voter apathy, and the uncertainty over Putin's plans seemed intended to encourage public interest in the race. Putin's most visible adversary, anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navlany, declared his intention to run last December but a criminal conviction bars his from running for president. Navalny has been convicted on two separate sets of charges largely viewed as politically motivated.

Despite the ban, Russia's most popular opposition politician has mounted a grassroots campaign and held rallies across Russia to pressure the Kremlin to allow him to run. Putin's potential rivals include several luckless candidates from past contests and one notable newcomer — TV host Ksenia Sobchak, 36, the daughter of Putin's former boss.

Putin announces 2018 re-election bid, ends long speculation

December 06, 2017

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he would seek re-election next year in a race he is poised to win easily, putting him on track to become the nation's longest-serving ruler since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Putin's approval ratings regularly top 80 percent, making him all but certain to win the March election by a broad margin. While few doubted the 65-year-old leader would run, the delay in his declaring so fueled some conspiracy theories and was seen as the Kremlin's political maneuvering.

The 65-year-old Russian leader's potential rivals include several luckless candidates from past contests and a notable newcomer — TV host Ksenia Sobchak, 36, the daughter of Putin's one-time boss. The president chose to make his re-election announcement at the GAZ automobile factory in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. The factory is a symbol of Russian's industrial might, and Putin found an enthusiastic audience in the blue-collar workers who make up the core of his base.

"I couldn't find a better place and moment," he said to massive applause at the plant. "Thank you for your support. I will run for president." For months, Putin fended off questions about his plans for 2018, fueling speculation about why he would not say if he would seek re-election. Some theorized he might step down and name a preferred successor.

The Kremlin has been worried about growing voter apathy, and the uncertainty over Putin's plans seemed intended to encourage public interest in the race. "It was necessary to ensure electoral mobilization," Dmitry Orlov, a political consultant close to the Kremlin, said in televised remarks.

Putin has been in power in Russia since 2000. He served two presidential terms during 2000-2008, then shifted into the prime minister's seat because of term limits. As prime minister, he still called the shots while his ally, Dmitry Medvedev, served as the placeholder president.

Medvedev had the president's term extended to six years and then stepped down to let Putin reclaim the office in 2012. If Putin serves another six-year term, which would run through 2024, he would reach the milestone of having the longest tenure since Stalin, who ruled for nearly 30 years.

Earlier Wednesday, Putin was asked about his intentions at a meeting with young volunteers in Moscow. He said he would decide shortly, then showed up at the GAZ factory making his announcement. The plant is one of the country's most emblematic industrial giants. It was built during the Soviet industrialization drive in 1932 and has churned out millions of vehicles, from vans and military trucks to Volga sedans and luxury cars for the Soviet elite.

"Thank you for your work, for your attitude to your jobs, your factory, your city and your country!" Putin told factory workers. "I'm sure that together we will succeed." A stream of fawning comments from officials and lawmakers followed his declaration.

Chechnya's regional leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, hailed the president's announcement, saying on Instagram that only Putin can "resist a massive shameless and unprecedented" pressure by the West. Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Putin's decision helped end "anxiety and tensions in the society."

The upper house is expected to authorize the start of formal election campaigning later this month. Veterans of past campaigns — Communist chief Gennady Zyuganov, ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and liberal leader Grigory Yavlinsky — all have declared their intention to run. They will likely be joined by Sobchak, a well-known television host who is the daughter of the late St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, who was Putin's boss in the 1990s.

"I don't trust a system where Putin makes all decisions," said Sobchak, who also met with voters in Nizhny Novgorod Wednesday. "Let's believe in our ability to change the situation." The most visible Putin foe, Alexei Navalny, also wants to join the race, even though a conviction he calls politically motivated bars him from running. He has organized a grassroots campaign and staged rallies across Russia to raise pressure on the government to allow him to run.

In a signal that the Kremlin isn't going to budge, Navalny's campaign chief, Leonid Volkov, last week was sentenced to a month in jail for staging an unauthorized rally in Nizhny Novgorod. Navalny himself spent 20 days in jail in October for organizing another rally.

"The best illustration of how elections work in Russia is my campaign chief Leonid Volkov sitting in jail just one kilometer (less than a mile) from the venue where Putin declared his bid," Navalny tweeted.