Germany's Merkel stands by Russia pipeline that US opposes

January 21, 2021

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that she isn't abandoning a German-Russian gas pipeline project that faces U.S. sanctions, although it's likely to be an irritant in generally improved relations with the new administration.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would bring Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, faces bipartisan opposition in the United States. Washington has said that the project would make Europe more dependent on Russian gas and hurt European energy security. The Kremlin has responded by accusing the U.S. government of trying to promote sales of its own liquefied natural gas.

Nord Stream 2 is owned by Russian state company Gazprom, with investment from several European companies. The pipeline construction was suspended in December 2019 when a Swiss firm pulled its vessels out of the project amid threats of U.S. sanctions, forcing Gazprom to try to complete it with its own resources.

Earlier this week, before President Joe Biden took office, Germany’s Economy Ministry said it had been informed of U.S. sanctions against the Russian pipe-laying ship Fortuna and its owner. Merkel has consistently stood by the project. She acknowledged Thursday that she said last summer the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was treated in Germany after being exposed to a nerve agent, “could play a role.” Navalny was arrested immediately after returning to Russia on Sunday.

But “I am saying today that ... my basic attitude has not yet changed in such a way that I would say that the project shouldn't happen,” Merkel added. “We will of course speak with the new American administration,” she said. “But we must also talk about what economic relationships with Russia in the gas sector are acceptable and what aren't. And it's not as if there were absolutely no trade relations between the United States of America and Russia in the oil sector, for example.”

She reiterated Germany's objections to “extraterritorial sanctions.” In general, Merkel said that “there is simply a much broader political overlap with President Biden” than with predecessor Donald Trump. But she said there will still be differences.

Gazprom says that 6% of the pipeline, or about 150 kilometers (93 miles), remains to be completed and insisted that it intends to complete the project soon — though it has acknowledged there's a risk the project could be suspended or canceled.

Kremlin brushes aside Western calls to release Navalny

January 19, 2021

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin on Tuesday brushed aside calls from the West to release opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was arrested upon his return to Russia from Germany following treatment for poisoning with a nerve agent. Moscow called his case “an absolutely internal matter.”

Navalny blames his poisoning on President Vladimir Putin's government, which has denied it. The condemnations of his arrest and the calls from abroad for his release have added to the existing tensions between Russia and the West. Some European Union countries are suggesting more sanctions against Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “we can't and are not going to take these statements into account.” “We are talking about a fact of noncompliance with the Russian law by a citizen of Russia. This is an absolutely internal matter and we will not allow anyone to interfere in it and do not intend to listen to such statements," Peskov said.

Navalny, 44, was detained Sunday evening at passport control at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after arriving from Berlin, where he was treated following the poisoning in August. On Monday, he was ordered to pre-trial detention for 30 days during a court hearing that was hastily set up in a police precinct where Navalny was being held.

Russia's prison service maintains that Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition figure and anti-corruption campaigner, violated the probation terms of his suspended sentence on a 2014 money-laundering conviction, which was deemed “arbitrary” by the European Court of Human Rights.

Officials are seeking to send Navalny to prison to serve the 3 1/2-year suspended sentence. He has interpreted the crackdown against him as a sign of Putin's fear. Peskov dismissed suggestions that Putin was afraid of Navalny as “nonsense” and insisted that he had violated the law. The spokesman said the questions law enforcement had for Navalny “have nothing whatsoever to do with the Russian president.”

Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20 and was flown to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities insisted that the doctors who treated Navalny in Siberia found no traces of poison and refused to open a full-fledged criminal investigation. Last month, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man who he alleged was a member of a group of officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, who purportedly poisoned him in August and then tried to cover it up. The FSB has dismissed the recording as fake.

After Navalny was jailed Monday, his allies announced preparations for nationwide protests on Saturday and released a video of Navalny urging people to not “be afraid” and “take to the streets.” Peskov said that while the calls to take to the streets were “alarming,” the Kremlin didn’t fear mass protests.

Also on Tuesday, Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption released a two-hour video investigation of what they called “Putin's palace” — an estate on Russia's Black Sea that they said cost $1.3 billion and was allegedly funded through an elaborate corruption scheme involving Putin's inner circle.

In the video produced and recorded before his arrest, Navalny claims that the estate and grounds that Russian media had linked to Putin years ago is 39 times the size of Monaco. The video featured drone video of the estate and detailed floor plans that Navalny says were leaked to his team by a contractor. Among the 3D images of interiors that the team said were created based on the floor plans and other sources were a hookah lounge, a small theater and a casino room.

The investigation alleged that the estate, located in a secluded area that is heavily guarded by Russia's security forces, also had an underground ice rink and a tunnel from the mansion to the shore.

“It is the most secretive and guarded facility in Russia," Navalny says in the video. “It isn't a country house or a residence — it's an entire city, or rather a kingdom.” Within several hours of being posted on YouTube, the video received over 3 million views.

Peskov told Russian media the allegations in Navalny's investigation were “untrue.” In a statement Tuesday from pre-trial detention, Navalny encouraged his supporters to fight against “corruption, lies and lawlessness.”

“I refuse to stay silent, listening to the shameless lies of Putin and his friends mired in corruption. Corruption, lies and lawlessness make the lives of each of us worse, poorer and shorter. So why should we put up with it?" read the statement, posted on Navalny's Instagram page.

In the video, Navalny's team once again urged supporters to take to the streets on Saturday. “Navalny has been fighting for our rights for many years. It is our turn to fight for him,” a short message says at the beginning of the video.

Germany approves resuming Russia gas pipeline work

January 15, 2021

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities on Friday gave immediate permission for work to resume on a subsea pipeline bringing natural gas from Russia. The decision by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency can be appealed, meaning there could be another halt to the construction on the Nord Stream 2 project, which has drawn major criticism from the United States, some other European countries and environmental groups.

The U.S. government has argued that the Baltic Sea pipeline would make Europe more dependent on Russian gas and hurt European energy security. The Kremlin has responded by accusing Washington of trying to promote its own liquefied natural gas sales.

The pipeline project was also opposed by the administration of President Barack Obama, and German officials have said they don't expect broad changes in U.S. policy when President-elect Joe Biden takes over from President Donald Trump.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters on Friday, however, that he did expect high-level talks with the incoming administration about the possibility of new U.S. sanctions on companies involved in the pipeline project.

“Naturally we want to talk about this topic with our colleagues in Washington as soon as the new administration is in office,” he said. Maas added that he did not know whether the companies involved in building the pipeline had plans to immediately resume work following the Maritime and Hydrographic Agency's ruling.

The Russian state-controlled natural gas company, Gazprom, has positioned a ship to resume work on the multibillion pipeline, which was suspended after a Swiss firm pulled its vessels out of the project amid threats of U.S. sanctions. Because the Russian ship is of a different type than the Swiss vessels, Germany had to issue fresh authorization.

Gazprom says 6% of the pipeline, or about 150 kilometers (93 miles), remains to be completed.

Russia prison agency warns Navalny he faces immediate arrest

January 14, 2021

(AP) Russia's prison service said Thursday that top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny faces immediate arrest once he returns from Germany. Navalny, who has been convalescing in Germany from an August poisoning with a nerve agent that he has blamed on the Kremlin, said he will fly back home Sunday. He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of now trying to deter him from coming home with the threat of arrest. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied a role in the opposition leader’s poisoning.

At the end of December, the Federal Penitentiary Service, or FSIN, warned Navalny that he faced time in prison if he fails to immediately report to its office in line with the terms of a suspended sentence and probation he received for a 2014 conviction on charges of embezzlement and money laundering that he rejected as politically motivated. The European Court for Human Rights had ruled that his conviction was unlawful.

The FSIN said in a statement Thursday that it issued an arrest warrant for Navalny in late December after his failure to report to its office. The prison service, which has asked a Moscow court to turn Navalny's 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into a real one, noted that it's “obliged to take all the necessary action to detain Navalny pending the court's ruling."

In a parallel move just before New Year's, Russia’s main investigative agency also opened a new criminal case against Navalny on charges of large-scale fraud related to his alleged mishandling of $5 million in private donations to his Anti-Corruption Foundation and other organizations. Navalny has also dismissed those accusations as crudely fabricated.

Navalny, the most visible Putin critic who had received numerous brief jail terms over the past years, fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later.

Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent. Russian authorities insisted that the doctors who treated Navalny in Siberia before he was airlifted to Germany found no traces of poison and have challenged German officials to provide proof of his poisoning. They refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing the lack of evidence that Navalny was poisoned.

Last month, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man he described as an alleged member of a group of officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who purportedly poisoned him in August and then tried to cover it up.

The FSB dismissed the recording as fake.

Europe's rights court accepts Ukraine case against Russia

January 14, 2021

MOSCOW (AP) — Europe’s top human rights court agreed Thursday to look into Ukraine’s complaint against alleged human rights violations in the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula. The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, or ECHR, concluded that Ukraine's case against Russia is backed by sufficient evidence and admissible for consideration. It wasn't clear when the court would deliver a verdict.

Ukraine has argued in its complaint that Russia was responsible for a variety of human rights violations in the Black Sea peninsula. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea hasn’t been recognized by a vast majority of nations and drew U.S. and EU sanctions against Moscow.

International human rights groups long have pointed at numerous rights abuses in Crimea, including restrictions of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and harassment of pro-Ukraine activists and members of the Crimean Tatar community.

Moscow has charged that it rightfully took over Crimea after an overwhelming majority of local residents voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia in a referendum. It has continuously rejected accusations of human rights violations in the region.

The ECHR ruled, after examining Ukraine's complaint, that it provided sufficient evidence of human rights violations in Crimea for the court to consider the case. The court noted, however, that some of the Ukrainian allegations, including its claim that Russia was responsible for killings and shootings in the region, weren't properly backed by evidence.

“As to the allegations of an administrative practice of killing and shooting, the Court found that the incidents referred to had not amounted to a pattern of violations,” it said. Russia's Justice Ministry quickly issued a statement outpointing that pronouncement by the court.

Russian authorities have fulfilled the court's past decisions, but they have become increasingly irritated with its rulings. Last year's constitutional vote approved an amendment that emphasized the priority of Russian law over international norms, a provision that could lead to Moscow's refusal to accept some of the future rulings by the ECHR and other international bodies.

Top associate of Russian opposition leader Navalny detained

December 25, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — A top associate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained Friday after doorstepping an alleged security operative who has inadvertently revealed details of Navalny's supposed poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent.

Lyubov Sobol, a key figure in Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, was detained for 48 hours after a day of interrogation on charges of violent trespassing. The move followed Sobol's attempt on Monday to enter the Moscow apartment of the alleged operative, whom Navalny had previously duped into describing details of the alleged poisoning.

Sobol has denied the accusations and insisted that she violated no law by ringing the doorbell to the apartment. While Sobol was being questioned, the state Investigative Committee issued a statement accusing her of trespassing — charges her colleagues have rejected.

Earlier this week, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man he identified as Konstantin Kudryavtsev and described as an alleged member of a group of officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who purportedly poisoned him with the Soviet-era Novichok agent in August and then tried to cover it up.

Navalny, who is convalescing in Germany, said he phoned the man hours before the investigative group Bellingcat released a report alleging that FSB operatives with specialized training in chemical weapons followed him for years and were in close vicinity when he was poisoned.

In the call, Navalny introduced himself as a security official and beguiled his interlocutor into sharing details of the alleged poisoning operation and acknowledging that he was involved in the “processing” of Navalny’s underwear so “there wouldn’t be any traces” of poison.

Navalny fell sick during the Aug. 20 flight in Russia and was flown to Berlin while still in a coma for treatment two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities have vehemently denied any involvement in the poisoning, and the FSB dismissed the recording released by Navalny as fake.

Bosnian Serbs say icon given to Russian minister not stolen

December 22, 2020

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — An Orthodox icon presented to Russia's foreign minister had not been stolen from the Ukraine, the office of Bosnia's Serb leader said Tuesday, amid an international diplomatic spat over its origins.

The presiding Serb member of Bosnia’s three-member presidency, Milorad Dodik, gifted the gilded icon to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov when he visited Bosnia on Dec. 14. The icon, which was said to be 300 years old, is believed to have originated from eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian troops in a six-year conflict. Dozens of Serbs have fought alongside the pro-Russia rebels in the conflict.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Sarajevo has requested information on how the Bosnian Serb leader came to possess the icon, noting that the failure to provide the information would mean Bosnia is supporting Russia’s “aggressive policy and military actions” in eastern Ukraine.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Saturday it would return the icon to the Bosnian Serbs for an international police investigation about its origin. After more than a week's silence, Dodik’s office said in a statement that the icon was not stolen and that it not a piece of “cultural heritage or national treasure.” It said it is “a church-blessed icon” that ordinary Orthodox faithful keep in their homes.

The statement did not say how Dodik came to possess the religious artwork or how it was brought to Bosnia. Instead, it condemned rival Bosnian politicians and media of spreading lies aiming to harm Serb-Russian relations.

“Hideous lies cannot hurt the brotherly ties between the two Orthodox nations,” the statement said. Dodik, a staunch pro-Russian politician, also tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday.