Russian voters agree to let Putin seek 2 more terms

July 01, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian voters approved changes to the constitution that will allow President Vladimir Putin to potentially hold power until 2036, but the weeklong plebiscite that concluded Wednesday was tarnished by widespread reports of pressure on voters and other irregularities.

With three-fourths of all precincts counted, 77.6% voted for the constitutional amendments, according to election officials. For the first time in Russia, polls were kept open for a week to bolster turnout without increasing crowds casting ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic — a provision that Kremlin critics denounced as an extra tool to manipulate the outcome.

A massive propaganda campaign and the opposition’s failure to mount a coordinated challenge helped Putin get the result he wanted, but the plebiscite could end up eroding his position because of the unconventional methods used to boost participation and the dubious legal basis for the balloting.

The amendments that would allow Putin to run for two more six-year terms, in 2024 and 2030, are part of a package of constitutional changes that also outlaw same-sex marriage, mention “a belief in God as a core value” and emphasize the primacy of Russian law over international norms.

Voters could not cast ballots on the individual amendments, only on the entire group. Nationwide turnout was reported at 65% of the electorate. Kremlin critics and independent election observers questioned the turnout figures.

“We look at neighboring regions, and anomalies are obvious — there are regions where the turnout is artificially (boosted), there are regions where it is more or less real,” Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election monitoring group Golos, told The Associated Press.

Putin voted at a Moscow polling station, dutifully showing his passport to the election worker. His face was uncovered, unlike most of the other voters who were offered free masks at the entrance. The vote completes a convoluted saga that began in January, when Putin first proposed constitutional changes including broadening the powers of parliament and redistributing authority among the branches of government. Those proposals stoked speculation he might seek to become parliamentary speaker or chairman of the State Council when his presidential term ends in 2024.

His intentions became clear only hours before a vote in parliament, when legislator Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet-era cosmonaut who was the first woman in space in 1963, proposed letting him run two more times. The proposed changes were quickly passed by the Kremlin-controlled legislature.

The 67-year-old Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades — longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin — said he would decide later whether to run again. He argued that resetting the term count was necessary to keep his lieutenants focused on their work instead of “darting their eyes in search for possible successors.”

Analyst Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin political consultant, said Putin’s push to hold the vote despite the fact that Russia has thousands of new coronavirus infections each day reflected his potential vulnerabilities.

“Putin lacks confidence in his inner circle and he’s worried about the future,” Pavlovsky said. “He wants an irrefutable proof of public support.” Even though the parliament's approval was enough to make it law, the 67-year-old Russian president put his constitutional plan to voters to showcase his broad support and add a democratic veneer to the changes. But then the coronavirus pandemic engulfed Russia, forcing him to postpone the April 22 plebiscite.

The delay made Putin’s campaign blitz lose momentum and left his constitutional reform plan hanging as the damage from the virus mounted and public discontent grew. Plummeting incomes and rising unemployment during the outbreak have dented his approval ratings, which sank to 59%, the lowest level since he came to power, according to the Levada Center, Russia’s top independent pollster.

Moscow-based political analyst Ekaterina Schulmann said the Kremlin had faced a difficult dilemma: Holding the vote sooner would have brought accusations of jeopardizing public health for political ends, while delaying it raised the risks of defeat. “Holding it in the autumn would have been too risky,” she said.

In Moscow, several activists briefly lay on Red Square, forming the number “2036” with their bodies in protest before police stopped them. Some others in Moscow and St. Petersburg staged one-person pickets and police didn’t intervene.

Several hundred opposition supporters later rallied in central Moscow to protest the changes, defying a ban on public gatherings imposed for the coronavirus outbreak. Police didn’t intervene and even handed masks to the participants.

Authorities mounted a sweeping effort to persuade teachers, doctors, workers at public sector enterprises and others who are paid by the state to cast ballots. Reports surfaced from across the vast country of managers coercing people to vote.

The Kremlin has used other tactics to boost turnout and support for the amendments. Prizes ranging from gift certificates to cars and apartments were offered as an encouragement, voters with Russian passports from eastern Ukraine were bused across the border to vote, and two regions with large number of voters — Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod — allowed electronic balloting.

In Moscow, some journalists and activists said they were able to cast their ballots both online and in person in a bid to show the lack of safeguards against manipulations. Kremlin critics and independent monitors pointed out that the relentless pressure on voters coupled with new opportunities for manipulations from a week of early voting when ballot boxes stood unattended at night eroded the standards of voting to a striking new low.

In addition to that, the early voting sanctioned by election officials but not reflected in law further eroded the ballot’s validity. Many criticized the Kremlin for lumping more than 200 proposed amendments together in one package without giving voters a chance to differentiate among them.

“I voted against the new amendments to the constitution because it all looks like a circus,” said Yelena Zorkina, 45, after voting in St. Petersburg. “How can people vote for the whole thing if they agree with some amendments but disagree with the others?"

Putin supporters were not discouraged by being unable to vote separately on the proposed changes. Taisia Fyodorova, a 69-year-old retiree in St. Petersburg, said she voted yes “because I trust our government and the president.”

In a frantic effort to get the vote, polling station workers set up ballot boxes in courtyards and playgrounds, on tree stumps and even in car trunks — unlikely settings derided on social media that made it impossible to ensure a clean vote.

In Moscow, there were reports of unusually high numbers of at-home voters, with hundreds visited by election workers in a matter of hours, along with multiple complaints from monitors that paperwork documenting the turnout was being concealed from them.

At the same time, monitoring the vote became more challenging due to hygiene requirements and more arcane rules for election observers. The Golos monitoring group pointed out at unusual differences between neighboring regions: in the Siberian republic of Tyva over 73% voted in the first five days, while in the neighboring Irkutsk region, turnout was about 22% and in the neighboring republic of Altai, it was under 33%.

“These differences can be explained only by forcing people to vote in certain areas or by rigging,” Golos said. Observers warned that the methods used to boost turnout, combined with bureaucratic hurdles that hindered independent monitoring, would undermine the vote's legitimacy.

“There is a big question about the results of this vote,” Melkonyants said, adding that its outcome "can’t really bear any legal standing.”

Associated Press writers Irina Titova in St. Petersburg and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

Leaders of Russia, Turkey, Iran talk about stabilizing Syria

July 01, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — The leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran on Wednesday discussed efforts to stabilize Syria in a video call, emphasizing the need to promote a political settlement for the nine-year conflict.

Russia and Iran have staunchly supported Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the country's war, while Turkey has backed his foes. However, the three countries have pooled their efforts to help end hostilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the trilateral cooperation to help reduce violence in the country, but he also emphasized the need to deal with a few pockets of militant resistance. “We need to think what other steps must be taken to neutralize the terrorist groups that are still active,” Putin said at the start of the video call, noting that the situation in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib and the areas east of the Euphrates River remain tense.

The Russian leader extolled Russia-Turkey cooperation to reduce hostilities in Idlib, noting “the situation in the de-escalation zone has stabilized considerably following the introduction of a cease-fire.”

In early March, an agreement between Turkey and Russia halted the Syrian government’s three-month air and ground campaign into rebel-held Idlib. The cease-fire has largely held. Putin emphasized the need to help Syria rebuild its economy and encourage the return of refugees, criticizing the U.S. and the EU sanctions against Assad’s government as an attempt to “strangle Syria economically.”

The Trump administration this month began implementing new sanctions aimed at cutting off revenue for Assad’s government. The sanctions, known as the U.S. Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, are the toughest set of measures to be imposed on Syria yet, preventing anyone around the world from doing business with Syrian officials or state institutions or from participating in the country’s reconstruction.

Putin also spoke of the need to promote a political process, saying that “it’s necessary to help advance an inclusive dialogue between the Syrians within the framework of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva.”

“We propose to support that process, help the participants meet and start a direct dialogue on the development of parameters of Syria’s future state order,” the Russian leader said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also underlined the need to find a political solution to the conflict. “I hope that during this meeting we will continue this impetus,” he said.

Last month, Geir Pedersen, the United Nations' special envoy for Syria, told the U.N. Security Council that he hopes that talks on drafting the country's new constitution can be held in late August. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani used the call to urge the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Syria to allow Assad's government fully reclaim control of the country's territory.

Some U.S. troops have remained in Syria to protect an expanse of Kurdish-controlled oil fields and facilities from falling into the hands of the Islamic State group.

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.

Russian vote on extending Putin's rule until 2036 nears end

July 01, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s vote on constitutional amendments that could allow President Vladimir Putin to extend his rule until 2036 entered its final day Wednesday amid widespread reports of pressure on voters and other irregularities.

For the first time in Russia, the polls were kept open for a week to help reduce crowds on election day and to bolster turnout amid the coronavirus pandemic — a provision that Kremlin critics saw as just an another way to manipulate the vote.

Putin is all but guaranteed to get the result he wants following a massive state propaganda campaign and the changes and the opposition’s failure to mount a coordinated challenge. Ironically, however, the plebiscite aimed at consolidating Putin’s grip could end up eroding his position because of the unconventional methods used to boost participation and the dubious legal basis for the ballot.

By Wednesday morning, the turnout already exceeded 55%, according to election officials. But Kremlin critics and independent election observers questioned official figures showing that in some regions up to 85% of eligible voters had turned out.

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election monitoring group Golos, called the overall vote numbers “suspicious in general.” “We look at neighboring regions, and anomalies are obvious — there are regions where the turnout is artificially (boosted), there are regions where it is more or less real,” Melkonyants told The Associated Press.

The ballot completes a convoluted saga of concealment, deception and surprise that began in January, when Putin first proposed the constitutional changes in a state-of-the-nation address. He offered to broaden the powers of parliament and redistribute authority among the branches of the Russian government, stoking speculation he might continue calling the shots as parliamentary speaker or as chairman of the State Council when his presidential term ends in 2024.

The Russian leader’s intentions became clear only hours before a decisive vote in parliament, when legislator Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet-era cosmonaut who was the first woman in space in 1963, suddenly proposed a measure to let him run two more times. The amendments, which also emphasize the priority of Russian law over international norms, outlaw same-sex marriages and mention “a belief in God” as a core value, quickly sailed through the Kremlin-controlled legislature.

Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades — longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin — said he would decide later whether to run again in 2024. He argued that resetting the term count was necessary to keep his lieutenants from “darting their eyes in search for possible successors instead of normal, rhythmical work.”

Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst and former Kremlin political consultant, said Putin’s unrelenting push to hold the vote despite the fact that Russia is reporting thousands of new coronavirus infections each day reflected the Russian leader’s potential vulnerabilities.

“Putin lacks confidence in his inner circle and he’s worried about the future,” Pavlovsky said. “He wants an irrefutable proof of public support.” Even though parliamentary approval was enough to make it law, the 67-year-old Russian president put his constitutional plan to voters in a bid to showcase his broad support and add a democratic veneer to the changes. His maneuver backfired weeks later when the coronavirus pandemic engulfed Russia, forcing Putin to postpone the plebiscite originally scheduled for April 22.

The delay made Putin’s campaign blitz lose momentum and left his constitutional reform plan hanging as the damage from the virus mounted and public discontent grew. Plummeting incomes and rising unemployment during Russia’s outbreak have dented Putin’s approval ratings, which sank to 59% during Russia’s outbreak, the lowest level since his ascent to power, according to the Levada Center, Russia’s top independent pollster.

Amid the uncertainty, Putin rescheduled the vote immediately upon seeing the first signs of a slowdown in Russia’s infection rate even though the daily confirmed cases remains high. Moscow-based political analyst Ekaterina Schulmann said the Kremlin had faced a difficult dilemma. Holding the vote sooner would have brought accusations of jeopardizing public health for political ends, while delaying it further raised the risks of defeat, she said.

“A late vote could have been lost. Holding it in the autumn would have been too risky,” Schulmann said. Schulmann argued that the Kremlin’s focus isn’t so much on boosting overall turnout but rather on increasing attendance by public sector workers.

The authorities have mounted a sweeping effort to persuade teachers, doctors, workers at public sector enterprises and others who are paid by the state to cast ballots. Reports surfaced from many corners of the vast country that managers were coercing people to vote.

Kremlin critics and independent monitors pointed out that the relentless pressure on voters coupled with new opportunities for manipulations from a week of early voting eroded the standards of voting to a new low.

The Golos monitoring group noted unusual differences between neighboring regions: in the Siberian republic of Tyva over 73% voted during the first five days, while in the neighboring Irkutsk region the turnout was around 22% and in the neighboring republic of Altai it was under 33%.

“These differences can be explained only by forcing people to vote in certain areas or by rigging,” Golos said. Monitoring the vote became more challenging due to hygiene requirements and more arcane rules for election observers. The Kremlin also has used other tactics to increase turnout and support for the amendments.

Prizes ranging from gift certificates to cars and apartments were offered as an encouragement, giant billboards went up across Russia and celebrities posted ads for the “yes” vote on social media. Two regions with large numbers of voters — Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod — allowed electronic balloting and voters with Russian passports from eastern Ukraine were brought across the border in buses to vote.

Most observers expect the Kremlin to get its way, regardless of the opposition’s strategies. “People are angry at the government, but they still don’t have any alternative to Putin,” Pavlovsky said. He noted, however, that the unusual methods used by authorities to boost turnout and get the result Putin wants will undermine the legitimacy of the vote.

“The procedure has been distorted and simplified to the point when it would be difficult to trust the figures,” Pavlovsky said.

Support for Putin wanes in his former Russian stronghold

June 30, 2020

NIZHNY TAGIL, Russia (AP) — In 2011, the industrial city of Nizhny Tagil was dubbed “Putingrad” for its residents’ fervent support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nine years later, it appears the city 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) east of Moscow no longer lives up to that nickname.

Workers are speaking out against the constitutional changes that would allow Putin to stay in office until 2036 amid growing frustration over their dire living conditions, which have not improved despite all the promises.

“I am against the constitutional changes, most importantly because they are a coronation of the czar, who reigns but does not rule — Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin,” says Nikolay Nemytov, a 43-year-old engineer at Russian Railways, a state-run monopoly. He says his monthly salary, the equivalent of $430, is not nearly enough.

Anton Zhuravlyov, a 33-year-old operator at the Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Works Plant, or NTMK, agrees with him on the vote. “I think (the vote) is just a show. It is more for Putin to show that, ‘Look, the people support me, I am still needed, I am in demand,’" said Zhuravlyov, whose employer is one of the two biggest companies in the city. He says his salary hasn’t changed in four years, adding: “The majority of people are against him.”

Commentators say dwindling public support is the reason why the Kremlin rushed to push through the changes that effectively would allow Putin, already in power for two decades, to hold office for another 16 years if he chooses.

The coronavirus outbreak forced officials to postpone an April 22 vote on a set of constitution amendments that included a clause that resets the term count for Putin, allowing him to run for two more six-year terms after his current term ends in 2024.

At the first sign of the outbreak slowing down, Putin rescheduled the plebiscite for Wednesday, even though Russia's daily number of new infections is still just under 7,000. His historically high approval rating is at an all-time low — 59% in May, according to Levada Center, Russia's top independent pollster — and the Kremlin is clearly struggling to rally the enthusiasm and the turnout needed for the vote to be seen as a nationwide triumph.

Economic woes, like those in Nizhny Tagil, have been eroding Putin's ratings for years, said Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the Levada Center. “Over the past five years, poverty has been continuously growing, people's financial situation was worsening, and in the midst of it, the (approval) ratings have been slowly declining,” he said.

The mood was far different in 2011-12, when Nizhny Tagil, with its 360,000 residents, became a bedrock of support for Putin. Igor Kholmanskih, a foreman at the state tank and railroad car factory Uralvagonzavod, appeared on Putin’s annual nationwide phone-in marathon in December 2011 and denounced the mass protests occurring in Moscow at the time as a threat to “stability."

“Today, our staff of many thousands has work, has salaries, has a future, and we value this stability very much. We don’t want to go back,” the foreman said in proposing that he “and the guys” travel to Moscow to help suppress the unrest.

“Do come over!” Putin said with a smile. Several days after his inauguration in May 2012, the president visited Nizhny Tagil. A week later, he appointed Kholmanskikh to be his envoy in the Ural mountains region.

In a stark contrast, the once-vehement Putin supporter later criticized authorities for embellishing statistics on salaries that didn't reflect the dire living conditions. Kholmanskikh's unremarkable political career ended in June 2018 when Putin dismissed him, and he returned to Uralvagonzavod as chairman of the board — only to step down and completely vanish from public view by January of this year.

“The majority doesn't see this kind of money in their wallets. When people hear about average salaries in their cities and regions, they just assume they're being lied to,” Kholmanskikh said in a rare public appearance at a conference in December.

His sentiment tracked the shifting mood of Nizhny Tagil residents, from support to opposition, after several years of falling living standards. “Indeed, we used to be ‘Putingrad.’ We used to support the government's agenda,” says Nadezhda Zhuravlyova, 36, a local activist. “A lot has changed. The agenda that the government is promoting no longer satisfies local residents' needs.”

Zhuravlyova, who worked at NTMK for seven years and is now on maternity leave, is the face of a local opposition movement, Tagil for Changes, that was founded in 2018 — the year of the election that gave Putin another six years.

She says protests have been rising since then, with people no longer afraid to take a public stand. “In March, we organized a mass picket against the constitutional amendments, and many city residents (who attended) we were not acquainted with — they were not just from our circle. People just saw the protest and came forward,” Zhuravlyova says.

Zhuravlyova blames unpopular government policies such as raising the retirement age and increasing tariffs on garbage collection. She says wages are rising slowly but living conditions are worsening. “Many people get their salary and immediately spend it — (on) utility bills, paying off loans ... education, health care, groceries and medicine," Zhuravlyova said.

Nemytov, who worked at NTMK for 12 years before joining Russian Railways, says he spends almost half of his $430 salary on utility bills that go up every year. “This is just not enough for my family,” said the engineer, who adds that he cannot take his four children on fun outings or on vacations to southern Russia.

Zhuravlyov echoes his sentiment, blaming Putin. “He's the most important boss. (People) do as he says," the worker says. Nemytov believes the constitutional changes won't improve life for workers in Nizhny Tagil.

“They only care for us as numbers on a piece of paper. We don't exist for them,” the engineer says.

Litvinova reported from Moscow.

Vote to extend Putin's rule faces little protest in Russia

June 25, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — They’ve offered prizes ranging from gift certificates to cars and apartments. They’ve put up billboards and enlisted celebrities to urge a “yes” vote. They’ve encouraged state-run businesses like hospitals and schools to pressure employees to register at the polls.

Russian authorities seem to be pulling out all the stops to get people to vote on constitutional amendments that would enable President Vladimir Putin to stay in office until 2036 by resetting the clock on his term limits.

The country’s divided opposition, meanwhile, has failed to mobilize a significant protest amid the audacious election campaign and the weeklong voting that begins with early balloting Thursday. Instead, critics are raising questions about the vote's legitimacy.

“Nothing will prevent the Kremlin from getting the formal result they need,” said former Kremlin speechwriter-turned-political analyst Abbas Gallyamov. The amendments include a change in the constitution that would allow the 67-year-old Putin, who has ruled Russia for over two decades, to run for two more six-year terms after his current one expires in 2024. Other amendments talk about improving social benefits and effectively ban same-sex marriage, tapping into the country's social conservatism and concerns about plummeting incomes.

The amendments have already been approved by both houses of parliament, the country’s Constitutional Court and were signed into law by Putin, and the vote is seen as an effort to put a veneer of democracy on the controversial changes. Putin says he's sure the “absolute majority” of Russians approve of them.

According to the Levada independent polling center, 44% of Russians said in late May they would vote “yes,” and 32% would vote “no" but only 25% of the “no” respondents planned to vote. “Those who don’t support the amendments are not mobilized. (They are) demoralized and don’t know what to do,” said Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the Levada Center.

The opposition has sent mixed signals. Its best-known figure, Alexei Navalny, has dismissed the vote as illegitimate, saying it doesn’t make sense to participate, even if voting against the amendments.

“Do you want to go and vote ‘no’? This strategy seems naive and a bit laughable to me. But if that’s what your heart wants - go and vote ‘no.’ The main thing is to not recognize (the vote’s legitimacy), because it’s a scam,” Navalny said on his YouTube channel.

Navalny’s team has backed a strike by election workers who don't want to risk contracting coronavirus at polling stations. But the strikers admit they haven't gained much traction -- an open letter has so far gathered a little over 500 signatures. In Moscow alone, there are about 2,000 workers, said Sergei Lebedev, who signed the letter, adding that he had expected more support.

“Reporters often ask whether we want to derail the vote. Of course not," he said, adding he doubted that enough poll workers would strike. The vote was set for April but was postponed due to the pandemic. Putin rescheduled the vote to conclude by July 1, saying that Russia has passed the peak of its outbreak, even as the number of new infections still hovers around 9,000 a day.

Some Moscow politicians and journalists launched a “No!” campaign against the amendments, but the virus lockdown prohibited rallies, and authorities have detained even single pickets. Most of the operations took place online. Live YouTube rallies and hashtag campaigns on social media revealed that a significant number of people don’t support the amendments, said Yulia Galyamina, one of the founders of “No!”

However, she admitted it could not compete with the Kremlin's operation. “Society is under the influence of ubiquitous (state) propaganda. We have neither the resources, nor the opportunity, to organize propaganda of this scale,” Galyamina said.

The biggest problem vote organizers face is turnout — luring people to the polls after weeks of coronavirus lockdowns and at a time when public support for Putin is dwindling: In April and May, his traditionally high approval ratings reached an all-time low of 59%, according to the Levada Center.

Authorities have turned to using incentives. In the Siberian Krasnoyarsk region, a constitutional quiz has been organized — conveniently near polling stations — with top prizes of a car or an apartment. Moscow authorities have allocated 10 billion rubles ($145 million) for gift certificates to shops and restaurants for voters.

There also have been appeals to patriotism and even homophobia. One video used gay stereotypes to promote the message that without the amendments, same-sex couples would be able to adopt children. Critics say the way the vote has been organized leaves room for manipulation and fraud. To keep big crowds from forming, polls will be open for seven days through July 1. It's not clear who will keep an eye on ballot boxes during regular disinfection breaks, when everyone, including poll workers and monitors, must leave the premises.

There also will be fewer independent monitors because more bureaucratic hurdles have been added. Online voting has also been allowed in the Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod regions, which have a combined population of nearly 16 million.

“The whole procedure from start to finish is aimed at covering up rigging, which will be very convenient to carry out,” says Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election monitoring group Golos.

Critics say those tactics reflect the government's struggle to mobilize supporters. They note that social media posts from celebrities supporting the amendments have been flooded with comments against them.

The opposition has shifted its focus to exposing potential vote fraud. After the polls opened on Thursday, Navalny retweeted a video of what appeared to be a polling station set up inside the trunk of a car in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. His team also posted photos of make-shift polling stations in tents and on street benches, pointing to lack of monitoring and control.

“The result of the vote has already been decided. I think they won’t even count anything, they will just declare the result of vote they had prepared,” opposition politician and Navalny ally Vladimir Milov said on Instagram.

Milov said the vote can still play into the opposition’s favor because “people will see tons of rigging and will get outraged.” Some anger already is palpable, especially among those pressured to vote by their employers, Melkonyants said.

“People feel that it’s not being done for them, all these amendments,” he said. “People have this feeling that there is some kind of fraud there." Political analyst Gallyamov echoed Milov’s sentiment: “The question is whether society will trust the result."

Russia opens polls for vote on extending Putin's rule

June 25, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Polls opened in Russia on Thursday for a week-long vote on constitutional changes that would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036. The vote on a slew of constitutional amendments, proposed by Putin in January, was initially scheduled for April 22, but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was later rescheduled for July 1, with polling stations opening a week earlier and staying open for seven days to prevent crowds on the main voting day.

The proposed amendments include a change in the Russian Constitution that would allow the 67-year-old Putin, who has ruled Russia for over two decades, to run for two more six-year terms after his current one expires in 2024.

Other proposed changes talk about improving social benefits, define marriage as a union of a man and a woman, and redistribute executive powers within the government, strengthening the presidency. The amendments already were approved by both houses of parliament and the country’s Constitutional Court, and signed into law by Putin. He insisted they be put to voters even though it was not legally required, a move many see as an effort to put a veneer of democracy on the controversial changes.

Holding the plebiscite in the middle of a pandemic has elicited public health concerns. Russia is still reporting over 7,000 new confirmed virus cases a day and has the world's third-highest caseload with 613,000 confirmed cases in all.

The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed the safety concerns, saying that Russia was able to slow its outbreak and assuring people that the additional voting days, outdoor polling stations and other measures are in place to protect voters

Critics said they feared the new procedures would hinder independent monitoring of the plebiscite and create opportunities for manipulation and fraud. After polls opened Thursday, opposition politician Alexei Navalny retweeted a video of what appeared to be a polling station set up inside the trunk of a car in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. His team also posted photos of makeshift polling stations in tents and on street benches.

In a tweet featuring a video of a tent with two poll workers in it and a small plastic ballot box, Navalny said sarcastically: “As you see, control is tight, rigging is impossible. Your vote may be of critical importance!”

Some media reports pointed out that in Moscow, where online voting is allowed, people who registered to vote that way were also able to vote at polling stations. Pavel Lobkov, a journalist with the independent TV channel Dozhd, said he was able to cast a ballot both in person and online. Election authorities said they would invalidate all the votes in the ballot box where Lobkov put his ballot.

Central Election Commission Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova rejected criticism of voting procedures. “No one is voting on benches or trunks of cars, no one is voting in tents," she said, calling the reported incidents of double voting a provocation.

Commenting Thursday, Putin said that the most important task is ensuring “the results of the nationwide vote are absolutely veracious, legitimate. Voters shouldn't be coerced and turnout shouldn't be artificially inflated “so that afterwards, no one can cast doubt on the position that the people will express,” Putin said.

Poland says Putin falsifies history to weaken Western allies

June 19, 2020

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish government says that Russian President Vladimir Putin is manipulating World War II-era history in a way that whitewashes Soviet crimes and accuses him of doing it as part of an “information war” against the West.

The statement Friday from the government in Warsaw came a day after Putin in a lengthy article in a U.S. journal insisted on recognizing the Soviet Union as the prime defeater of Nazi Germany and suggested that Poland — a nation that was carved up by the German and Soviet forces and which lost 6 million citizens — bears some blame for the start of World War II.

Stanislaw Zaryn, the spokesman for the head of Poland’s security services, called Putin's op-ed “an element of an ongoing, persistent information war Russia wages against the West.” The article, titled “The Real Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War II,” appeared in the National Interest journal six days before a huge military parade in Red Square to commemorate the end of World War II in Europe.

Sergey Radchenko, a historian of the Cold War at Cardiff University, called Putin’s article “a piece of crude propaganda” and described it on Twitter as a “historical narrative that would support his shallow claims to greatness as he seeks to perpetuate his rule.”

The war, in which the Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people, is a linchpin of Russia’s national identity and Russian officials bristle at any questioning of the USSR’s role. On the same day as the parade in Moscow, President Donald Trump will receive Polish President Andzej Duda at the White House for talks on defense and economic cooperation. Trump has promised to deploy more U.S. troops to NATO ally Poland, and details of those plans are expected.

Zaryn accused Putin of pushing a false narrative about history in order to “undermine” the West and weaken the bonds among allies. “The claims made by Putin are part of a comprehensive disinformation effort aimed to destabilize the West, pit NATO member states against each other, undermine the credibility and reliability of the Alliance, as well as to paint a false picture of Russia as a global defender who should sit at the table when the decisions on the world order are made,” Zaryn said.

The Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany shortly before the war began in 1939, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. It contained a secret protocol in which the totalitarian powers agreed to carve up Poland and the Baltic states.

Two years later, Germany turned on Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union, bringing the Soviets into the war on the side of the Allies. Millions of Red Army soldiers lost their lives in the eventual defeat of Hitler’s Germany.

In recent years, Putin has been seeking to shift wartime blame to Poland as historical memory in the West has begun to focus more on the Soviet role in triggering the war and Stalin's crimes, and less on its role in defeating Germany.

In his article, Putin reiterated his contention that the Soviet Union was forced into signing the non-aggression agreement with Germany after Western powers and Poland cold-shouldered creating a military alliance.

“The Soviet Union did its utmost to use every chance of creating an anti-Hitler coalition. Despite — I will say it again — the double dealing on the part of the Western countries,” he wrote. He also defended the wartime annexation of the Baltic nations.

Poland has pushed back against such contentions before, while the dispute overshadowed January commemorations for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army.

Russia fines opposition radio station for fake news

June 19, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition-leaning radio station Echo Moskvy and its website editor have been fined the equivalent of $3,745 for posting the comments of a political analyst who questioned Russia's coronavirus statistics.

The station's chief editor Alexei Venediktov tweeted Friday that a Moscow court handed a $2,880 fine to the radio station and a $865 fine to its website editor Vitaly Ruvinsky “for publishing the statement of political analyst Valery Solovei,” adding that Echo Moskvy planned to appeal the ruling.

According to court filings, the fines were issued for “disseminating deliberate... misinformation” and “creating a threat to the life and (or) health of the people.” Venediktov didn't specify which statement by Solovei was considered misinformation. Russian state news agency TASS cited an anonymous source familiar with the situation as saying that the fines were handed out for “articles about the coronavirus infection.”

On March 16, Solovei alleged in an interview to Echo Moskvy that the government was lying when it said no one had died in the country from the coronavirus and at least 1,600 people might have died since mid-January.

By that time, Russian health officials hadn't reported a single coronavirus death, and Russia’s media and internet watchdog, Roscomnadzor, pressured the station to delete the interview from its website. Echo Moskvy complied, but editors insisted Solovei was merely expressing an opinion.

The country's comparatively low virus death toll — 7,972 deaths among over 569,000 confirmed infections as of Friday — has raised questions both in Russia and in the West, with some suggesting officials may be manipulating the numbers for political purposes. Russian officials have bristled at the accusations, citing effective response measures.

The demand to delete the interview was part of a widespread government campaign against what authorities called “fake news” about the pandemic. On March 31, Russian lawmakers approved fines of up to $25,000 and prison terms of up to five years for anyone who spreads what is deemed to be false information. Media outlets were to be fined up to $127,000 if they disseminate disinformation about the outbreak.

Russia's prominent legal aid group Agora found that since April, Russian law enforcement has pursued about 200 cases of spreading alleged misinformation about the virus. Thirty-three cases involved criminal prosecution, the group said in a study released this week, and more than $20,000 worth of fines have been handed down.

Any information that differs from what officials report is considered false by authorities, Agora pointed out.

New Zealand rocket launch postponed due to wind gusts

by Don Jacobson
Washington DC (UPI)
Jun 11, 2020

Ground controllers scrubbed a launch in New Zealand Thursday that would have sent five small satellites into orbit.

Private aerospace company Rocket Lab grounded the launch due to high winds and rescheduled for this weekend.

"We have several days left in the launch window for this mission and will share a new launch attempt date soon," the company tweeted.

"We gave it our best shot, but today the winds won," Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck added.

With more strong winds forecast for the launch site on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula, Rocket Lab said the "Don't Stop Me Now" mission is now set to lift off no earlier than 12:43 a.m. EDT Saturday.

The original March 30 launch was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rocket Labs' Electron rocket will send five satellites into orbit, including a Boston University experiment to measure solar winds and the Earth's magnetosphere.

The experiment aims for a better understanding of how solar winds change the environment in space near Earth and is part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, which promotes the use of small satellites for new space science experiments.

Other payloads include three spy satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office and an M2 Pathfinder communications satellite for the University of New South Wales and the Australian government.

The launch will be the 12th for an Electron rocket, which is considered a small vehicle with about 34,000 pounds of thrust on liftoff. By comparison, SpaceX's Falcon 9 is capable of 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

The mission will not include any testing or development for Rocket Lab's efforts to make the first-stage booster reusable, as several recent launches have done.

Paul Brinkmann contributed to this report.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/New_Zealand_rocket_launch_postponed_due_to_wind_gusts_999.html.

France-Turkey spat over Libya arms exposes NATO's limits

July 05, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — The festering dispute between France and Turkey over a naval standoff in the Mediterranean Sea has shone a glaring searchlight on NATO’s struggle to keep order among its ranks and exposed weaknesses in a military alliance that can only take action by consensus.

The dispute has also revealed NATO’s limits when its allies are or are perceived to be on different sides of a conflict — in this case in Libya — especially when a major nuclear ally like France has lamented the “brain death” at the world’s biggest security organization due to a lack of American leadership.

According to French accounts of the June 10 incident in the Mediterranean, the French frigate Courbet was illuminated by the targeting radar of a Turkish warship that was escorting a Tanzanian-flagged cargo ship when the French vessel approached.

France said it was acting on intelligence from NATO that the civilian ship could be involved in trafficking arms to Libya. The Courbet was part of the alliance’s operation Sea Guardian, which helps provide maritime security in the Mediterranean.

In a power-point presentation to French senators on Wednesday, which angered the French officials, Turkey’s ambassador to Paris, Ismail Hakki Musa, denied that the Courbet had been “lit up” by targeting radar and accused the French navy of harassing the Turkish convoy.

He also suggested that a NATO probe into the incident was “inconclusive” and that France had pulled out of Sea Guardian. The French defense ministry rushed to release its version of events and underline that it would not take part in the operation until the allies had recommitted to the arms embargo on Libya, among other demands.

NATO headquarters refused to provide details saying the report is “classified,” and it’s unlikely that its findings will be made public. A French diplomat said the investigators probably did the best they could, given that they were provided with two very different versions of what happened.

On Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused France of lying. “We have proven this with reports and documents and gave them to NATO. NATO saw the truth,” Cavusoglu said. “Our expectation from France at the moment is for it to apologize in a clear fashion, without ifs or buts, for not providing the correct information.”

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron had accused Turkey of flouting its commitments by ramping up its military presence in Libya and bringing in jihadi fighters from Syria. “I think that it’s a historic and criminal responsibility for a country that claims to be a member of NATO,” Macron said. “We have the right to expect more from Turkey than from Russia, given that it is a member of NATO.”

It’s not the first time Turkey has been at the center of controversy at NATO. Ankara’s invasion of northern Syria last year angered its allies, while its purchase of Russian-made missiles, which NATO says would compromise allied defense systems, got Turkey kicked out of the F-35 stealth fighter program.

Despite concerns about its direction and close ties with Russia — NATO’s historic rival — Turkey can't be ejected from the military organization. Legally, there is no mechanism, and decisions require the unanimous agreement of all 30 member nations. In any case, NATO insists that Turkey is too strategically important to lose.

In normal times, the United States — by far the most powerful and influential of the allies — could be expected to bring its partners into line. But the last four years, with President Donald Trump at the helm in the U.S. have been extraordinary times for NATO.

Trump has publicly berated European allies and Canada for not spending enough on defense budgets. He has pulled out of the Iran nuclear agreement, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Open Skies aerial surveillance pact, which the Europeans regard as important to their security.

Just after Turkey invaded Syria, Trump announced that he was pulling U.S. troops out, surprising and angering his allies. In recent weeks, he’s threatened to take American troops out of Germany, again without consultation.

At the heart of the France-Turkey quarrel is the question of whether NATO allies should respect the U.N. arms embargo for Libya. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last month that the alliance “of course supports the implementation of U.N. decisions, including U.N. arms embargoes.”

But in a interview on Tuesday, former U.N. Libya envoy Ghassan Salame said just after a Berlin conference in January where countries again backed the Libyan arms embargo, he saw pictures of weapons shipments showing that even Security Council members were sending “ships, planes and mercenaries” there.

With no firm U.S. guiding hand, divisions among the allies over how Libya should be handled, and a decision-making process that requires everyone to agree — even on what they should talk about — it’s difficult to see when NATO might debate the embargo question in earnest.

EU summit drags into 3rd day amid splits on virus fund

July 19, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — Marathon European Union talks to agree an unprecedented 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund entered a third day Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel warning that the summit of 27 leaders could still end without a deal.

The bitter negotiations, which are taking place amid the unprecedented crisis of the coronavirus pandemic, have underscored the deep fissures within the 27-nation bloc with the traditional Franco-German alliance struggling to get its way.

“Whether there will be a solution, I still can’t say,” Merkel said as she arrived early for the extra day of talks at what had been planned as a two-day summit in Brussels. ”There is a lot of good will, but there are also a lot of positions. So I will join in working for it. But there may also be no result today.”

Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron walked out of heated talks late Saturday with a group of nations led by the Netherlands pushing to limit the amount of grants given to countries whose economies have been hardest hit by the pandemic and to impose strict conditions on how the money is spent.

“They run off in a bad mood,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in the early hours of Sunday after Merkel and Macron's departure from talks. “The fact that we continue talking shows we all have optimism.”

Rutte is widely seen as the leader of the nations known as the Frugal Four — the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden. He has long been known as a European bridge builder, but this weekend, his tough negotiating stance is being blamed for holding up a deal.

Macron and Merkel met deep into the night with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and the leader of the EU's executive commission, Ursula von der Leyen. On Sunday morning, they continued their talks along with summit host Charles Michel before the summit re-started.

The planned resumption of the summit at midday was delayed as different groups of countries met for talks on the sidelines. While Conte said he has a good personal relationship with Rutte, he said the “clash is very hard” and that Rutte's threat of wielding a veto ”is an unwarranted request.”

Rutte and his small group of allies are pushing for labor market and pension reforms to be linked to EU handouts and a “brake" enabling EU nations to monitor and, if necessary, halt projects funded by the recovery fund.

“He can’t ask us to do specific reforms,” Conte said. "Once (the aid) is approved, each country will present its proposals.” Rutte also wants a link to be made between the handout of EU funds and the rule of law — a connection that is clearly aimed at the likes of Poland and Hungary, countries that many in the EU think are sliding away from democratic rule.

“I don’t know what is the personal reason for the Dutch prime minister to hate me or Hungary, but he’s attacking so harshly and making very clear that because Hungary, in his opinion, does not respect the rule of law, (it) must be punished financially,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

The urgency of the talks is clear. The coronavirus pandemic has pitched the bloc into its worst recession ever and killed around 135,000 of its citizens. The EU executive has proposed a 750 billion-euro fund, partly based on common borrowing, to be sent as loans and grants to the most needy countries. That comes on top of the seven-year 1 trillion-euro EU budget that leaders have been haggling over for months.

All nations agree they need to help but the four richer nations in the north, led by the Netherlands, want strict controls on spending, while struggling southern nations like Spain and Italy say conditions should be kept to a minimum.

Macron said leaders need to compromise Sunday. “I think it is still possible, but these compromises, I say very clearly, will not be made at the cost of European ambition,” he said.

Mike Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Associated Press writer Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.

Virus deaths top 600,000 as cases rise in India, SAfrica

July 19, 2020

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Countries from the U.S. to South Africa to India were struggling to hold down rising rates of the coronavirus, as global deaths from COVID-19 surged past 600,000 in a sign of how far off the world remains from a return to normalcy.

While the U.S. leads global infections, South Africa now ranks as the fifth worst-hit country in the pandemic with 350,879 cases — roughly half of all those confirmed on the African continent. Its struggles are a sign of trouble to come for nations with even fewer health care resources.

India on Sunday reported a 24-hour record surge of 38,902 new cases, taking the country's total to 1,077,618. Elsewhere in Asia, China confirmed 13 new cases in the northwestern city of Urumqi while South Korea reported less than 40 additional cases for a second straight day.

The Urumqi outbreak is the latest to pop up since China largely contained the domestic spread of the virus in March. At least 30 people have been infected and authorities are conducting universal testing in communities where cases were discovered, later to be expanded to other parts of the city and major businesses.

South Korean authorities are also struggling to suppress an uptick in local infections, with 34 additional cases, 21 of them domestic and 13 from overseas, raising the country’s total to 13,745 with 295 deaths.

Both countries are mandating testing and enforcing two-week quarantines on all overseas arrivals. After a one-day respite, COVID-19 cases in the Australian state of Victoria rose again, prompting a move to make masks mandatory in metropolitan Melbourne and the nearby shire of Mitchell. Health officials on Sunday recorded 363 new cases in the past 24 hours. Two men and a woman in their 90s died, taking the national death toll from COVID-19 to 122.

The World Health Organization on Saturday again reported a single-day record of new infections with 259,848. South Africa now trails the U.S., Brazil, India — all far more populous countries — in the number of infections, surpassing Peru, after health authorities announced 13,285 new cases.

South Africa’s new coronavirus epicenter, Gauteng province, hosts the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria and one-quarter of the country’s population of 57 million, with many poor people living in crowded conditions in the middle of a frosty Southern Hemisphere winter.

“The simple fact is that many South Africans are sitting ducks because they cannot comply with World Health Organization protocols on improved hygiene and social distancing,” the foundation of former South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu and his wife, Leah, warned in a statement.

Global COVID-19 deaths have hit 601,549, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The United States tops the list with 140,119 deaths, followed by 78,772 in Brazil and 45,358 in the United Kingdom and 38,888 in Mexico, where a surge in cases have frustrated plans to reopen the economy.

The number of confirmed infections worldwide has passed 14.2 million, out of which 3.7 million are in the United States. There are over 2 million in Brazil and more than 1 million in India. Experts believe the true numbers around the world are higher because of testing shortages and data collection issues in some nations.

Infections are soaring in U.S. states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, fueled by the haphazard lifting of lockdowns and the resistance of some Americans to wearing masks. Teams of military medics have been deployed in Texas and California to help hospitals deal with a deluge of patients who are flooding emergency rooms in parts of the U.S. Some patients are being moved into hallways to make room for most seriously ill and nurses are working extra shifts to keep up with the surge.

Patients struggling to breathe are being placed on ventilators in emergency wards since intensive care units are full, officials say. Patients are waiting “hours and hours” to get admitted, said Dr. Alison Haddock of the Baylor College of Medicine in the state of Texas, which reported a new daily record for virus deaths Friday and more than 10,000 confirmed cases for the fourth consecutive day. More than 80 infants have tested positive for the virus in the state.

“I’ve never seen anything like this COVID surge,” said Haddock, who has worked in emergency rooms since 2007. “We’re doing our best, but we’re not an ICU.” The surge of infections means that millions of American children are unlikely to return to classrooms full time in the fall.

Police in Barcelona are limiting access to some of the city’s beaches because sunbathers are ignoring regulations amid a resurgence of the coronavirus. Authorities in Amsterdam are urging people not to visit the city’s famous red light district and have closed off some of the historic district’s narrow streets because they are too busy.

Local governments in India continued to reimpose focused lockdowns in several parts of the country following a surge in cases. And in Iran, the president made the startling announcement that as many as 25 million Iranians could have been infected, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Hassan Rouhani cited a new Health Ministry study that has not been made public. Iran has the Middle East’s worst outbreak with more than 270,000 confirmed cases.

In Bangladesh, confirmed cases surpassed 200,000 but experts say the number is much higher as the country lacks adequate labs for testing. Most people in rural areas have stopped wearing masks and are thronging shopping centers ahead of the Islamic festival Eid al-Adha this month.

Scientists, meanwhile, poured cold water on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s hope that the country may return to normal by Christmas, saying that, without a vaccine, normal life was a long way off.

Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

Warning: Italy's Mafias eye EU's billions in recovery funds

July 17, 2020

ROME (AP) — Italy’s anti-Mafia investigators issued a dramatic warning Friday that mobsters will scheme to get some of hundreds of billions of euros in European Union recovery aid after the pandemic.

As EU country leaders were huddling in Brussels about the amount and conditions for aid, the paramilitary general heading Italy’s anti-Mafia investigative agency DIA said mobsters are surely already mapping strategies to tap into some of that money, including through corruption or exploiting the country’s notoriously slow, inefficient bureaucracy.

Carabinieri Gen. Giuseppe Governale in an interview with RAI state TV likened the expected windfall of aid after COVID-19 devastated much of Europe’s economy to mammoth reconstruction following World War II.

“Hundreds of billions (of euros) will pour into Europe and Italy, and at this point, the Mafia won't stand around and watch,'' Governale said. ”The Mafia will dive into this sea" of money. Italy's several crime syndicates have often used intimidation or connivance to win public works contracts in the country.

As a measure of how mobsters influence local authorities who award such lucrative contracts, DIA's nearly 900-page, semi-annual report to Parliament on the state of the country's crime syndicates noted that more than 50 municipal governments in Italy — mostly in the south, mobsters' traditional power bases, but also as far north as the Alps — are currently being run by local prefects, after investigators determined that crime bosses had conditioned elected town officials.

The report reviewed investigations against organized crime in the last six months of 2019. But with much of Europe struggling to regain its economic footing after months of coronavirus lockdown, the DIA decided to sound an alarm that EU funds will be seen as manna for Italy's mobsters, who in the last few decades have already heavily infiltrated the country's economy.

With Italy's economy stagnant for years even before the pandemic, mobsters have used many of their billions of euros in cocaine and other drug trafficking revenues to buy up struggling hotels, pharmacies, restaurants, car dealerships and clothing shops. In particular the ‘ndrangheta, considered Italy’s most powerful crime syndicate and one of the world's major criminal organizations, is well positioned to go on a buying spree, especially considering tourism and retail sectors have been devastated by the lockdown.

“The international economy will need liquidity, and in this, the ('ndrangheta) clans will go compete with the markets in need of substantial financial infusions,” DIA's report said. It recommended that Italy's system of preventing financial crimes by mobsters be “ductile, adaptable and dynamic.” Those adjectives could also apply to Italy's crime syndicates, particularly the 'ndrangheta, which have proven to usually be one step ahead of investigators, as Italian authorities have lamented.

Mobsters were quick to take advantage of the European economic crisis a decade ago, particularly in Italy, either through loan-sharking or by using figureheads to become partners in legitimate enterprises. When the businesses fail, the mobsters take them over, using ill-gained revenues to make ‘’clean" money for themselves.

The DIA said its warning went beyond Italy's borders especially since, investigators say, the ‘’ndrangheta in particular as well as the country's other mafias are already rooted in much of Europe and beyond and the pandemic-triggered recession has “taken on global dimensions."

On the micro level, the investigators noted that Italy's mobsters, including Cosa Nostra in Sicily, can turn to time-tested methods of helping out families at risk of poverty. Especially in Italy's south, crime syndicates have long tried to curry favor with citizens, banking on their loyalty to help elect local politicians seen as malleable by the mob.

The DIA said the 'ndrangheta would likely seek to profit from the handling of hospital waste from COVID-19 cases. As for the Naples-based Camorra, that syndicate used its clansmen based in northeastern Italy to explore selling protective face masks from China, but abandoned that bid “only because it was determined to be little profitable,” DIA said.

Elbows? Masks? Presents? Let this divisive EU summit begin!

July 17, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — At the start of one of the most daunting and divisive summits in recent history, the atmosphere among the European Union leaders was downright giddy. Blame the coronavirus pandemic. With all kinds of masks, social distancing rules, and new ways of greetings, some of the leaders reveled in the novelty of it all as they met in person for the first time since February.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, so often a study in gravity at such meetings, was all merriment when she saw Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov with his mask slipped. With her face drawn in fake shock and horror, she pointed at his exposed nose to show he had committed a serious COVID-19 faux pas.

Other leaders were trying out various versions of the elbow bump, with Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel almost turning it into an elbow duel. But there was no mistaking his good nature since he had “Moien!” — the Luxembourgish for “Good morning!" — printed on his mask.

The apparently carefree mingling and schmoozing disguised the reason they had all gathered in a cavernous Brussels meeting room instead of holding their summit by videoconference: The issues they are grappling with are so historic and divisive they need to look one another in the eye, and have face-to-face talks as they negotiate.

Since the pandemic hit Europe early this year, the EU has seen an unprecedented recession with the economy of the 27-nation EU contracting by 8.3% this year, according to the latest predictions. Around 135,000 of its citizens have died from the disease.

To make sure the hardest hit nations can bounce back and the bloc as a whole can recover, the leaders are considering a 750-billion-euro recovery fund and at the same deciding on a 1.1-trillion-euro, seven-year budget. With 27 leaders coming in with diverse demands the two-day summit might not even be enough to settle their differences.

That magnitude was what made the moment of lightness at the start of the summit Friday morning so special. Summit host and European Council President Charles Michel was first in the room, and was soon bumping elbows with Borissov and others as they arrived. European Parliament President David Sassoli first went for a zen-like bow but soon got his elbow out like his chums did.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen crossed her arms across her chest. Merkel clasped her hands together as a greeting. Soon they were elbow bumping each other too — and others. For Merkel it was even a more special since she turned 66 and got presents from French President Emmanuel Macron, Borissov and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who also celebrated his birthday.

Soon Michel called them all to their desk, which had been especially spaced out as a health precaution. Then, literally, the masks came off. Metaphorically, the gloves did too.

Mike Corder contributed to this report from The Hague, Netherlands.

Far apart: EU leaders hold budget summit in pandemic times

July 17, 2020

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders acknowledged Friday they are about as far apart from reaching a deal on an unprecedented 1.85 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and virus recovery fund as the seating distance imposed upon them for health reasons at their summit center.

“The differences are still very, very big and so I can’t predict whether we will achieve a result this time,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel upon arriving at the Europa summit site. “So I expect very, very difficult negotiations.”

The challenges facing the 27 EU leaders — some of whom arrived masked, some unmasked — are formidable. Their bloc is suffering through the worst recession in its history and member states are fighting over who should pay the most to help other countries and which nations should get the most to turn around their battered economies.

French President Emmanuel Macron led the early negotiations, arriving Thursday and using the the pre-summit hours to meet with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a stringent budget hardliner and considered one of the biggest obstacles to reaching a deal at the two-day meeting.

“I am not optimistic, but you never know. Nobody wants another meeting,” said Rutte. Macron underscored the importance of the challenge. “The coming hours will be absolutely decisive," he said. “It is our project Europe that is at stake.”

What is slated as a two-day summit could go even longer, if necessary, to bridge the differences between leaders. “We want a result and we will continue working until we get that result,” if need be until Sunday, said Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Karins upon arrival. No early breakthroughs in pre-summit talks were reported.

“The crisis brought about by this pandemic, with all of its economic and social consequences, is the most severe we have had to face since the Second World War,” European Council President and summit host Charles Michel said late Thursday.

The urgency is such that the leaders have ended a string of coronavirus-enforced videoconference summits and are meeting in person for the first time since the pandemic began its devastating sweep around the globe.

The usual summit venue, an intimate room high up in the urn-shaped Europa center, was deemed too snug to be safe and instead the leaders have been sent down to meeting room EBS-5, whose 850 square meters (9,150 square feet) normally fits 330 people.

Delegations will be cut to a minimum, leaving leaders more dependent on their own knowledge of complicated dossiers. It should put a smile on the face of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been in office for 15 years and seen countless leaders come and go.

Since the pandemic struck, she is seen as a safe pair of hands to lead her country through the crisis and now that Germany holds the rotating six-month EU presidency her stature will be even greater at the summit. And throw in that she is celebrating her 66th birthday on Friday.

There may be cake but it will hardly be a cakewalk for Merkel. The members were already fighting bitterly over the seven-year, 1-trillion-euro EU budget when COVID-19 was still a local story in Wuhan, China, late last year. Then the virus hit the EU head-on and estimates are now that the economy of the 19 countries that use the euro currency will contract by 8.7% this year.

It sent the EU into a panic as it was at a loss on how to coordinate policies of its member states early on. Now, the EU’s executive is proposing a 750-billion-euro recovery fund, partly based on common borrowing, to be sent as loans and grants to the most needy countries.

Merkel, who is in her last term and has her political legacy at stake, already got Germany to agree to join in a common debt program to alleviate the economic suffering in mostly southern and eastern member states.

And she has agreed to include grants and not just loans in the recovery package to avoid overburdening member states with high debt already. Rutte doesn't like that and Dutch officials said they would stick to their tough line going into the summit, raising the specter that a further summit might be needed.

There are also plans to link budget funds to respect for basic democratic rights that the European Parliament says are under threat in nations like Hungary and Poland. Some eastern European nations will be objecting to having that as part of the deal.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was clear upon departure that he would fight any such strings attached to the plan. “The Hungarian position is clear: Hungarians should decide about Hungarians’ money," he said.

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands; Pablo Gorondi contributed from Budapest.

Virus prompts drastic measures as death tolls set records

July 17, 2020

HOUSTON (AP) — The coronavirus kept surging in hot spots around the U.S. on Thursday, with one city in South Carolina urging people to pray it into submission, a hospital in Texas bringing in military medical personnel and morgues running out of space in Phoenix.

Record numbers of confirmed infections and deaths emerged again in states in the South and West, with hospitals stretched to the brink and fears worldwide that the pandemic's resurgence is only getting started.

Texas reported 10,000 new cases for the third straight day and 129 additional deaths. The state has seen a third of its more than 3,400 total COVID-19 fatalities in the first two weeks of July alone.

Florida reached another ominous record, with 156 virus deaths, and health officials reported a staggering 13,965 new cases. South Carolina confirmed 69 deaths, more than double any other day. In Louisiana, where officials thought they had contained the virus earlier this year only to become a hot spot again, it's averaged more than 2,000 new confirmed infections a day over the past week.

Many of the governors leading states with the highest rising numbers had refused to mandate masks in public or prevented local officials doing so. While a number of them have reversed course — including Arkansas’ Republican governor — and at least 25 states now have mask rules, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp banned cities and counties from requiring face coverings and then sued Atlanta to prevent the city from defying his order.

Georgia's capital and 14 other cities had ordered masks be worn, but the Republican governor has maintained that no local directive can be more or less restrictive than his statewide mandates. “How can we take care of our local needs when our state ties our hands behind our back and then says, ‘Ignore the advice of experts?’” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson told reporters. He later added: “If you don’t want to protect us, then allow us the opportunity to protect ourselves.”

Arizona, meanwhile, has been so hard hit by the virus, the medical examiner's office in metro Phoenix has gotten portable storage coolers and ordered more to handle an influx of bodies — reminiscent of New York City at the height of the pandemic there earlier this year.

The Arizona agency’s regular morgue storage was 63% full Thursday. Marcy Flanagan, executive director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said many funeral homes are at capacity and unable to accept more bodies.

In Texas, the rising numbers are hitting big cities like Houston as well as smaller communities along the Mexico border. This month, Hidalgo County, about 220 miles (354 kilometers) south of San Antonio on the border, has reported more deaths than Houston's Harris County.

Dr. Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo County’s public health authority, said it’s not uncommon for the body of a COVID-19 patient to lay on a stretcher for 10 hours before it can be removed in the overcrowded hospitals where intensive care space is running short.

“Before someone gets a bed in the COVID ICU unit, someone has to die there,” Melendez said. Elsewhere in the second-largest state, health officials in San Antonio also turned to refrigerated trailers to store the dead, and soldiers prepared to take over a COVID-19 wing of a Houston hospital.

An 86-person Army team of doctors, nurses and support staff was setting up a nursing station at United Memorial Medical Center and expected to begin treating up to 40 patients in the coming days. Some of the soldiers from around the country wore their uniforms. Others wore scrubs affixed with strips of surgical tape that had their ranks, names and medical titles.

“This facility, working with the United States military, is something that we asked for,” said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, standing near the soldiers as they worked. “We have exhausted medical personnel that we’re so grateful to, but we didn’t have enough.”

In South Carolina, where the coronavirus crisis was deepening, the mayor of Charleston asked for spiritual help. “We do turn to God at a time like this,” Mayor John Tecklenburg said. Declaring a day of prayer and remembrance in what for centuries has been nicknamed the Holy City for the number of church steeples dotting its colonial skyline, Tecklenburg was surrounded by pastors of various faiths who prayed for the dead, the sick, their families, health care workers, scientists seeking a vaccine and politicians.

Charleston is one of the biggest hot spots in a state that's among the worst in the nation for the rate of new cases. South Carolina is a microcosm of how the virus has been playing out in the U.S. the past few months. Nearly 39% of the more than 62,000 known cases in the state have been diagnosed in the past two weeks.

South Carolina has set records for COVID-19 hospitalizations nearly every day this month. The 69 deaths reported Thursday pushed it well past 1,000 people killed by the virus, the 25th state to cross that somber threshold.

More than 13.5 million infections have been confirmed worldwide and over 588,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The numbers are likely higher for a number of reasons, including limited testing.

Elsewhere around the world:

— Brazil's health ministry reported that the country had passed 2 million confirmed infections and 76,000 deaths. Since late May, Brazil has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.

— With Europe’s summer vacation season kicking into high gear for millions weary of months of lockdown, scenes of drunken British and German tourists on Spain’s Mallorca island ignoring social distancing rules and reports of American visitors flouting quarantine measures in Ireland raised fears of a resurgence of infections.

— In France, which has seen new outbreaks, Prime Minister Jean Castex said masks would be mandatory in closed public places as of next week — sooner than Aug. 1 as previously announced.

— India’s record daily increase of nearly 32,700 cases pushed its total close to 1 million and led authorities to reimpose a three-day lockdown and nightly curfew in the popular western beach state of Goa, two weeks after it was reopened to tourists.

Parra reported from Madrid and Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.

Rising virus totals force rethink of bars, schools, tourism

July 16, 2020

MITO, Japan (AP) — Bars may be off the menu and many schools look set to remain closed for months to come as the new coronavirus causes more illness and death in many countries and the U.S. South and West.

India's record daily increase of nearly 32,7000 cases pushed its total close to 1 million and led authorities to reimpose a three-day lockdown and night curfew in the popular western beach state of Goa, two weeks after it was reopened to tourists.

The top elected official in the popular backpacking destination, Pramod Sawant, said people were flouting social distancing norms. Nearly 40,000 people were fined about $1.30 each in the past two weeks for not wearing face masks.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he might have to rethink plans for a domestic tourism campaign to help offset losses from keeping borders closed to foreign visitors. Tokyo's new cases have been rising by hundreds daily.

“We are looking at the situation with a high level of nervousness,” Abe said of his “Go To" campaign offering discounts for traveling within Japan which was set to start next week. As is true of many places, Tokyo's nightlife — bars, clubs, cabarets and karaoke parlors — has been seen as a weak link in efforts to contain the virus. But the most recent data show the illness also spreading in offices and among older Japanese, in nursery schools and senior facilities, undoing earlier progress.

The Japanese government is constrained by how far it can restrict businesses and public activities and it never imposed a full lockdown. Officials have struggled over the trade-off between curbing the spread of the virus and protecting the ailing economy.

In Australia, where some have advocated a policy of virus eradication rather than suppression, Prime Minister Scott Morrison ruled out the strategy as costly, risky and a potential illusion. “You can’t mortgage off your economy for what would prove to be an illusory goal,” he said.

After initially suppressing the pandemic, Australia saw the virus regain a foothold with breaches of controls in Melbourne hotel quarantines just as the nation was lifting its lockdown restrictions. The city has been shut down again, for six weeks, as 317 new cases were added Thursday to the tally in Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state.

Australia's smaller neighbor, New Zealand, has had success with its goal of eradication, having had no community-spread cases in 76 days. All of its 27 active cases are people in quarantine after returning from foreign travel.

With its borders closed to foreigners, New Zealand has resumed most activities. But for most countries a return to normalcy appears further off than many envisioned just weeks ago. Governors in several U.S. states ordered requirements for masks and imposed further limits on operations of bars and restaurants as the number of cases in the U.S. surged. California, Arizona, Texas and Florida together reported about 36,000 new cases on Wednesday.

The four states reported a total of more than 450 new deaths. In Alabama, which reported a one-day high of 40 deaths, officials said the state will begin requiring face masks. The mayor of Los Angeles declared the nation's second-largest city is on the verge of a shutdown of all but essential businesses and more school districts made plans to start the fall semester without on-site instruction.

San Francisco and Sacramento joined Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland and other districts in announcing public school students will not return to classrooms but stick with digital learning when the new term begins because of the spreading virus and testing delays.

In Texas, which again set a record for confirmed new cases, with nearly 10,800, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has increasingly emphasized face coverings as the way to avoid another lockdown. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock required masks at indoor public spaces and at larger outdoor gatherings in counties where four or more people are known to have COVID-19. The Democrat's order came as the state reported a record number of new confirmed cases.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appealed in a televised address to Ohioans to make “once-in-a-hundred year sacrifices” to protect their neighbors — whether or not the government requires them to do so. Alluding to the dire death tolls of the Spanish flu pandemic and the Vietnam War, he urged them to wear face coverings at all times while in public, but issued no mandate.

“Friends, this is not a drill. It certainly is not any hoax. This is not a dress rehearsal,” he said. Businesses have been tightening precautions, with Walmart becoming the largest U.S. retailer to require customers to wear face coverings at all of its Sam’s Club and namesake stores. In Las Vegas, some casinos began limiting smoking to keep customers from removing the masks they are required to wear.

Showing that there can be a way forward, China became the first economy to resume growing since the pandemic began in its central city of Wuhan. It reported an unexpectedly strong 3.2% expansion in the latest quarter after anti-virus lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened.

The 6.8% contraction in January-March was the country's worst downturn since at least the mid-1960s. Economists say China is likely to recover faster than some other major economies due to the ruling Communist Party’s decision to impose the most intensive anti-disease measures in history. Those cut off most access to cities with a total of 60 million people and suspended trade and travel — steps later imitated by some Asian and European governments as the virus spread.

Few other countries have shown the will to impose such stringent measures to keep the virus at bay. More than than 13.5 million people have been infected worldwide and over 580,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are thought to be far higher for a number of reasons, including limited testing.

Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.

In solemn ceremony, Spain honors pandemic victims and heroes

July 16, 2020

MADRID (AP) — Spain paid tribute Thursday to the nation's victims of the new coronavirus and workers who put their lives at risk during the worst of the pandemic with a solemn state ceremony in Madrid.

Relatives of around 100 people who died during the pandemic, representatives of medical personnel, police and other essential workers joined King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, government members and officials from the European Union and the World Health Organization at an esplanade in Madrid’s Royal Palace.

The guests, masked and seated in a socially distanced fashion surrounding a central cauldron, included representatives from a dozen religious organizations and ambassadors. The ceremony was shown live on television and online.

In an emotional speech, Hernando Calleja said he was sharing the pain of the loss of his brother José María, a well-known journalist and writer in Madrid, with other relatives of “anonymous” victims. “Let’s not forget that the coronavirus was and continues to be a cold, cruel and wrecking executioner,” Calleja said.

Aroa López, a nurse from the Vall d’Hebron hospital in Barcelona, spoke representing workers in hospitals, health centers and laboratories, at least 52.600 of whom have been diagnosed as infected with the virus. She also remembered truck drivers, cleaners and thousands of others who “took care of the millions of Spaniards who were confined.”

After telling how some health workers made videocalls between relatives and dying patients, or held the hands of those who didn’t want to die alone, she urged politicians to protect the public health system.

“Who will take care of us if the person who takes care of us cannot do it?” she implored. “Let us never forget the lesson learned.” As a live performance of string music took over from the words, attendees left white roses by the cauldron.

The country's monarch praised the citizens' response to the outbreak and called for responsible behavior in fighting the virus. “We have a moral obligation to always recognize and respect the dignity of the deceased and a civic duty to promote the best values that underlie our society,” Felipe VI said before the ceremony came to an end with a minute of silence.

All Spanish political parties attended the state tribute except for the far-right Vox, whose leader has called the event an “act of propaganda” and “an exculpatory ceremony” for the left-wing ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Spain has officially recorded 28,413 victims who died after testing positive for the COVID-19 disease, although excess mortality figures suggest the actual figure is thousands higher. The country is grappling with dozens of fresh outbreaks after it emerged from a strict lockdown last month.

Germany eyes local travel bans to prevent 2nd virus wave

July 14, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's point person in the coronavirus pandemic said Tuesday that the country is on course to avoid a big second wave of infections but only if people keep practicing social distancing, wear masks and if necessary, quarantine in areas that experience spikes in new cases.

Helge Braun, who as Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff is tasked with coordinating the government's pandemic response, said Germany is considering local travel bans for areas that see a sudden, unexplained surge in virus cases.

“Our measures are appropriate to preventing a a second big wave,” Braun told The Associated Press in an interview at the Chancellery in Berlin. “But this requires us to stay the course, not get careless in our measures and maintain our respect for the virus.”

Germany has managed to flatten the curve of infections to three per 100,000 inhabitants a week - a very low rate by international comparison. The country of 83 million has reported just over 200,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 9,077 deaths since the start of its outbreak.

Braun, a trained emergency room doctor, attributed Germany's success to swift action during the early stages of the outbreak that was focused on preventing the country's health system from becoming overwhelmed.

This included rejecting the idea - floated early on by several governments - of allowing the virus to sweep through the population quickly in order to get through the pandemic sooner and potentially foster future immunity.

“We looked at this and our conclusion was that unless one brings the infection under control very strongly, then it will tend to grow exponentially,” Braun said. “We discarded herd immunity as a political policy completely.”

Social distancing measures and the wearing of face masks in public, which has become a big issue of contention in Germany and elsewhere, will likely remain compulsory for the coming months, Braun said.

"We need to keep them in place to ensure the low number of infections," he said. Braun declined to comment on the high number of confirmed cases in the United States at the moment, but he said his office was in constant contact with other governments to share best practices in fighting the pandemic.

He cited Japan’s approach of sealing off areas where there are new infection clusters, noting that this would be possible, too, under rules Germany's federal and state governments agreed to three months ago.

Asked about the proposal later Tuesday during a visit to Bavaria, Merkel appeared to back the idea, suggesting it was preferable for people to have certainty about travel restrictions than to find themselves banned from some places but not from others.

France says 'merci' to virus heroes on poignant Bastille Day

July 14, 2020

PARIS (AP) — Medics in white coats replaced uniformed soldiers as stars of France’s Bastille Day ceremonies Tuesday, as the usual grandiose military parade in Paris was recalibrated to honor medics who died fighting COVID-19, supermarket cashiers, postal workers and other heroes of the pandemic.

Yet for thousands of participants in a protest across town, the national homage wasn't nearly enough to make up for missteps by French President Emmanuel Macron and his government before and during the coronavirus pandemic. Riot police sprayed tear gas and unruly demonstrators hurled smoke bombs as the largely peaceful demonstrators marched to Bastille plaza, where the French Revolution was born on July 14, 1789.

The contrasting scenes marked a Bastille Day like any other, overshadowed by fears of resurgent infections in a country where more than 30,000 people have already lost their lives to the coronavirus. With tears in their eyes or smiles on their faces, medical workers stood silently as lengthy applause in their honor rang out over the Place de la Concorde in central Paris from Macron, the head of the World Health Organization and 2,000 other guests. A military choir sang the Marseillaise national anthem, and troops unfurled an enormous French tricolor flag across the plaza.

The battle against the virus was the main focus, as Macron sought to highlight France’s successes in combating its worst crisis since World War II. Mirage and Rafale fighter jets painted the sky with blue-white-and-red smoke, and were joined by helicopters that had transported COVID-19 patients in distress.

The guests included nurses, doctors, supermarket and nursing home workers, mask makers, lab technicians, undertakers and others who kept France going during its strict nationwide lockdown. Families of medical workers who died with the virus also had a place in the stands.

Medics in jeans or sandals strolled onto the plaza for the climax of the ceremony, and the lengthy military parade was truncated into a smaller affair closed to the public to prevent new virus infections.

In eastern Paris, meanwhile, medical workers’ unions marched to decry years of cost cuts that left public hospitals ill-prepared when the virus raced across France. “We are enormously short of personnel,” said protester Sylvie Pecard, a nurse at the Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris who described colleagues falling ill with the virus as COVID-19 patients filled its wards. “It's because we haven't recruited nurses. I came here 20 years ago and there were no empty positions. Now all the services are short of personnel, and it's worse and worse.”

Other protesters chanted slogans against police violence, spoke out against racial injustice, or against Macron policies seen as favoring the wealthy, or against his decision to appoint a man accused of rape to oversee French police forces. Some protesters wore yellow vests, representing their movement against economic injustice — or face masks in the same neon yellow shade.

Riot police closely surrounded the crowd, and smoke from tear gas and firecrackers swirled around Bastille Plaza after sporadic tensions. Demonstrators sang in support of medical workers, while the Bastille Opera house displayed a huge message of thanks surrounded by portraits of nurses and doctors by street artist JR.

In an interview with French television networks, Macron addressed the anger his presidency has unleashed, acknowledging “mistakes” in managing the pandemic and in pushing through business-friendly reforms.

“Our country is afraid. There is a crisis of trust,” he said. He noted a new 8-billion-euro investment and hiring plan signed this week for French hospitals, but warned of “massive” unemployment and other economic problems still to come after months of virus lockdown. He announced no significant policy changes for the remaining 22 months of his term.

He said masks would be required in indoor public places by Aug. 1, but that schools should resume as usual in September. France has one of the world’s highest virus death tolls, and scientists are warning of a potential resurgence as people abandon social distancing practices, hold dance parties and head off on summer vacations.

At the main Bastille Day event, troops sported masks as they got in formation, took them off for the ceremony, then put them on again when it was over. Macron made a point of donning his before speaking to WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus. One government member panicked when she realized she forgot hers, but was saved by a colleague with a spare.

All around France, towns and cities scaled back holiday festivities to stem virus infections. For Tuesday's annual fireworks display over the Eiffel Tower, City Hall is closing off the heart of Paris, including embankments of the Seine and other neighborhoods where crowds usually gather on Bastille Day.

Jeffrey Schaeffer, Christophe Ena and Francois Mori contributed to this report.

Armenia-Azerbaijan border fighting escalates; 16 killed

July 17, 2020

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia and Azerbaijan forces fought Tuesday with heavy artillery and drones, leaving at least 16 people killed on both sides, including an Azerbaijani general, in the worst outbreak of hostilities in years.

Skirmishes on the volatile border between the two South Caucasus nations began Sunday. Azerbaijan said it has lost 11 servicemen and one civilian in three days of fighting, and Armenia said four of its troops were killed Tuesday.

The two neighbors in the South Caucasus have been locked in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. International efforts to settle the conflict have stalled.

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have frequently engaged in clashes. The current skirmishes appear to mark the most serious spike in hostilities since 2016 when scores were killed in four days of fighting.

The latest incident began Sunday when Armenian and Azerbaijani troops exchanged fire in the northern section of their border. Officials in both countries blamed each other for starting the fighting and said that sporadic shelling has continued.

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said two senior officers, Maj. Gen. Polad Hashimov and Col. Ilgar Mirzayev, were killed in fighting Tuesday along with five other servicemen. Armenian officials claimed that Azerbaijani drones launched an attack on the Tavush province town of Berd, targeting civilian infrastructure. Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said that one of Azerbaijani drones was downed.

Stepanyan also charged that the Azerbaijani military used civilians as shields, placing artillery close to the village of Dondar Gushchu in the Tovuz district about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border.

“The Azerbaijani side has surrounded its own population with artillery batteries, making them a target, and then complained that the Armenian forces fired in that direction,” she said on Facebook where she posted images of the Azerbaijani artillery around the village.

The Azerbaijani military denied losing a drone and in turn claimed that its forces shot down an Armenian drone and destroyed an Armenian artillery system along with its crew. As hostilities continued, Armenia also accused Azerbaijan of launching cyberattacks on Armenian government websites.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday accused Azerbaijan of provoking the clashes and warned that it would “bear responsibility for the unpredictable consequences.” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev denounced what he described as “another provocation of Armenia” and vowed to protect Azerbaijan’s national territory.

Turkey, which has close ethnic and cultural ties with Azerbaijan, has voiced strong support to Baku in the conflict. The United States and Russia, which co-chair the Minsk group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that has tried to negotiate a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, have condemned the violence and called for restraint.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had separate calls with his counterparts in Armenia and Azerbaijan on Monday to call for an immediate ceasefire. Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Tuesday that Moscow was “deeply worried” about the fighting and stands ready to play mediator.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also expressed worry. His spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said in a statement that the U.N. chief “urges an immediate end to the fighting and calls on all involved to take immediate steps to deescalate the situation and refrain from provocative rhetoric.”

Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, contributed to this report.