You are here

  • Home
  • Two Russians appear in Polish court over Wagner ‘propaganda’
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Two Russians appear in Polish court over Wagner ‘propaganda’

Two Russians appear in Polish court over Wagner ‘propaganda’
Two Russian men arrested in Poland under espionage laws went on trial Wednesday for allegedly distributing propaganda for the Wagner mercenary group, a Polish court said. (Reuters/File)
Short Url

https://arab.news/bttvw

Updated 42 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Two Russians appear in Polish court over Wagner ‘propaganda’

Two Russians appear in Polish court over Wagner ‘propaganda’
  • The pair were detained in August 2023 for distributing leaflets for the Wagner group in Warsaw and Krakow
  • The leaflets contained links to “recruitment websites” for Wagner, Russia’s most notorious mercenary group
Updated 42 sec ago
AFP
Follow

WARSAW: Two Russian men arrested in Poland under espionage laws went on trial Wednesday for allegedly distributing propaganda for the Wagner mercenary group, a Polish court said.
Poland, a NATO member as well as Ukraine’s neighbor and its staunch ally, has repeatedly voiced concerns about Russia-inspired provocative actions on its soil.
The pair, identified by Polish counter-intelligence as Alexei T. and Andrei G., were detained in August 2023 for distributing leaflets for the Wagner group in Warsaw and Krakow.
The leaflets contained links to “recruitment websites” for Wagner, Russia’s most notorious mercenary group.
It was disbanded and reorganized after its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash last year following an aborted mutiny in Russia.
The two suspects, who face up to 10 years in prison, appeared in a Krakow court on Wednesday, its spokeswoman told AFP.
Local media reported that the pair had distributed stickers promoting the once-powerful mercenary group.
The stickers bore the Wagner logo, a slogan in English saying “We are here. Join us,” and a QR code directing people to a Russian website about the mercenary group.
“The Russians had on them more than 3,000 propaganda leaflets promoting the Wagner group. The material was given to them in Moscow,” the Polish counter-intelligence agency said in August 2023.
The suspects were set to receive “up to 500,000 rubles” ($5,000) for their activities, it added.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Poland court Wagner group

Related

Russia’s Wagner has deadliest loss in Africa’s Sahel, highlighting the region’s instability
World
Russia’s Wagner has deadliest loss in Africa’s Sahel, highlighting the region’s instability
US intelligence thinks Wagner plans to send air defense system to Hezbollah — WSJ
Middle-East
US intelligence thinks Wagner plans to send air defense system to Hezbollah — WSJ

Britain calls UN meeting on Gaza, may sanction Israeli ministers

Britain calls UN meeting on Gaza, may sanction Israeli ministers
Updated 25 sec ago
Reuters
Follow

Britain calls UN meeting on Gaza, may sanction Israeli ministers

Britain calls UN meeting on Gaza, may sanction Israeli ministers
  • British Foreign Secretary David Lammy says Israel must ensure civilians were protected and routes were open to allow life-saving aid through
  • Britain looking at sanctioning Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over comments they had made about the conflict
Updated 25 sec ago
Reuters
LONDON: Britain and France have called an urgent meeting at the United Nations Security Council to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza and Britain is considering sanctioning two Israeli ministers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday.
Reuters reported earlier this month that food supplies to Gaza had fallen sharply in recent weeks after Israeli authorities introduced a new customs rule, and the United States said the humanitarian situation must improve or Israel could face potential restrictions on US military aid.
“We are constantly making representations on this with our partners,” Starmer told parliament, when asked about the situation. “There is an urgent need, and has been now for a very long time, for more aid to get into Gaza.”
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a statement Israel must ensure civilians were protected and routes were open to allow life-saving aid through, and that the United Nations meeting would address these issues. He said Algeria had also joined the call for the urgent meeting.
Starmer also said that Britain was looking at sanctioning Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over comments they had made about the conflict.
Previous foreign secretary David Cameron was also reportedly looking at sanctioning the pair before the then-governing Conservative Party lost an election in June.
Asked if his government would sanction Smotrich over comments that starving civilians in Gaza might be justified and Ben-Gvir for saying perpetrators of settler violence in the West Bank were heroes, Starmer said: “We are looking at that because they’re obviously abhorrent comments.”
“Israel must take all possible steps to avoid civilian casualties, to allow aid into Gaza in much greater volumes and provide the UN humanitarian partners the ability to operate effectively,” Starmer said.
“Along with France, the UK will convene an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address this.”

Kashmir gets new truncated government five years after losing autonomy

Kashmir gets new truncated government five years after losing autonomy
Updated 43 min 50 sec ago
Follow

Kashmir gets new truncated government five years after losing autonomy

Kashmir gets new truncated government five years after losing autonomy
  • Omar Abdullah becomes chief minister, vows working to restore Kashmir statehood
  • Without statehood, new local government is stripped of most of its essential authority
Updated 43 min 50 sec ago
Sanjay Kumar

NEW DELHI: Leaders of Kashmir’s biggest political party took the oath of office on Wednesday to run its new truncated local government — the first since India stripped the disputed region of autonomy and statehood five years ago.

The new government is led by Omar Abdullah as chief minister and six ministers from his National Conference party, which won the most seats in the region’s recent election.

Abdullah had served as the chief minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir between 2009 and 2014. His current second term comes as the region is no longer a state, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government repealed Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which granted the Kashmir semi-autonomous status and downgraded it to federally controlled territory.

“I was the last chief minister to serve a full six-year term, and now I’ll be the first chief minister of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The last distinction — as in the one who has served six years — I’m quite happy about. Being a chief minister of a union territory is a different matter altogether,” Abdullah told reporters.

“It has its own challenges, but I hope that the status of a union territory is a temporary one. We look forward to working in cooperation with the government of India to resolve the people’s problems, and the best way to do that would be to start by restoring the statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.”

Jammu and Kashmir is part of the larger Kashmiri territory, which has been the subject of international dispute since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Both countries claim Kashmir in full and rule in part. The Indian-controlled region is predominantly Muslim and has for decades witnessed outbreaks of separatist insurgencies to resist control from the government in New Delhi.

It has been without a local government since 2018, when Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party brought down a coalition government, forcing the assembly to dissolve.

The recent election to the assembly, which concluded on Oct. 1, was the first in 10 years.

The National Conference, the oldest party in Kashmir, which is led by Abdullah’s father, Farooq Abdullah, won 42 out of 90 assembly seats. Modi’s BJP secured 29, while the country’s main opposition Congress party, which contested the election in alliance with the National Conference, won six seats.

Modi took to social media to congratulate Abdullah on assuming office, saying that the central government “will work closely with him and his team for J&K’s progress.”

The prime minister promised to restore Kashmir’s statehood last month when he visited its main city, Srinagar, to campaign for his party.

Without the restoration, the new local government is stripped of most of its essential authority, leaving Lt. Gov. Manoj Sinha with greater influence than the chief minister.

The office of lieutenant governor was established in 2019 to put Kashmir under direct control of New Delhi, with India’s Parliament as its main legislator.

Kashmir’s statehood would have to be restored for its local administration to have similar authority to other states of India.

Topics: Kashmir Indian-controlled Kashmir

Related

Five years after losing special status, Kashmir gets a largely powerless government
World
Five years after losing special status, Kashmir gets a largely powerless government
Biggest Kashmir party opposed to India’s stripping of region’s autonomy wins most seats in election
World
Biggest Kashmir party opposed to India’s stripping of region’s autonomy wins most seats in election

Indians in Punjab fear dispute with Canada endangers work, study plans

Indians in Punjab fear dispute with Canada endangers work, study plans
Updated 45 min 8 sec ago
Reuters
Follow

Indians in Punjab fear dispute with Canada endangers work, study plans

Indians in Punjab fear dispute with Canada endangers work, study plans
  • Indians have made up Canada’s largest group of international students in recent years
  • India’s high commissioner, or ambassador, was among the six diplomats Canada expelled on Monday
Updated 45 min 8 sec ago
Reuters

CHANDIGARH, India: Indians in Punjab, worried that plans to work, study or visit families in Canada will be jeopardized by this week’s tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats over the murder of a Sikh separatist, are urging both governments to reduce the tension.
Canada’s nearly 800,000 Sikhs formed the world’s second largest community in 2021, after roughly 20 million in India. They have links to the northern granary state of Punjab, where their religion was founded more than 500 years ago.
“Many clients have reached out, worried about how this might affect their plans to migrate to Canada,” said an immigration lawyer, Karan S. Thukral, who is based in the Indian capital, though adding he had seen no big drop yet in legal inquiries.
“Indian students are among those feeling the impact most acutely.”
Indians have made up Canada’s largest group of international students in recent years, mainly from Punjab, holding more than 41 percent of student permits in 2022. International students bring in about C$22 billion ($16 billion) for its universities each year.
“We want to go to Canada to study and settle there, but now that’s not possible because students who want to go there are facing difficulties,” said Anita, a student in Punjab’s capital of Chandigarh, who gave only her first name.
Canadian study permits for Indians fell sharply late last year and the diplomatic tension was likely to weigh on future numbers, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told Reuters in January.
“It is something that both countries cannot afford because we are heavily dependent on each other,” said Kanwalpreet Kaur, a political science professor at Chandigarh’s DAV College.
“It is really keeping students on edge because their future is tied up with Canada,” she added.
Ties soured last September when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian government agents to the killing of the Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on Canadian soil.
India’s high commissioner, or ambassador, was among the six diplomats Canada expelled on Monday, linking them to the murder, while accusing the Indian government of having undertaken a broad campaign targeting the South Asian community in Canada.
India dismissed the accusations and accused Trudeau of pursuing a “political agenda,” while kicking out six high-ranking Canadian diplomats in retaliation.
However, both countries see no immediate impact on two-way trade, which stood at $8.4 billion at the end of the last fiscal year on March 31.
“It’s a loss for families and for our children who want to go there to live a better life,” said Gurinder Singh, who runs a cloth business and exports to Canada.
“The government should consider all this and should ensure that the matter does not escalate.”

Topics: India Canada

Related

Special India-Canada relations reach historic lows as top diplomats expelled video
World
India-Canada relations reach historic lows as top diplomats expelled
Special India accuses Canada of ‘deliberate’ smear campaign in latest diplomatic row
World
India accuses Canada of ‘deliberate’ smear campaign in latest diplomatic row

Kremlin, commenting on Zelensky’s ‘victory plan,’ says Ukraine needs to ‘sober up’

Kremlin, commenting on Zelensky’s ‘victory plan,’ says Ukraine needs to ‘sober up’
Updated 16 October 2024
Reuters
Follow

Kremlin, commenting on Zelensky’s ‘victory plan,’ says Ukraine needs to ‘sober up’

Kremlin, commenting on Zelensky’s ‘victory plan,’ says Ukraine needs to ‘sober up’
  • Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-point ‘victory plan’ calls for an unconditional invitation for Kyiv to join NATO and a strategic non-nuclear deterrent package for Ukraine, among other things
Updated 16 October 2024
Reuters

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was too early to comment in detail on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan,” but that Kyiv needed to “sober up” and realize the futility of the policies it was pursuing.
Zelensky on Wednesday presented his five-point “victory plan” which he said called for an unconditional invitation for Kyiv to join NATO and a strategic non-nuclear deterrent package for Ukraine among other things.
Addressing parliament, the Ukrainian leader said that it could be possible to end the conflict with Russia no later than next year if his plan was implemented now.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Ukrainian plan was probably a “camouflaged” US plan which he said was about using Kyiv to fight against Russia “until the last Ukrainian.”
“But there could be a different plan there, which could be really peaceful, which is for the Kyiv regime to realize the futility of the policies they are pursuing and to realize the need to sober up and realize the causes that led to this conflict,” Peskov said.
Russia remains staunchly opposed to Ukraine joining NATO.
Washington, which has provided billions of dollars of arms and aid to Ukraine, has said it’s up to Kyiv how it deals with Russia.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Russia Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky

Related

Zelensky to unveil ‘victory plan’ to Ukrainian lawmakers after presenting it to Western allies
World
Zelensky to unveil ‘victory plan’ to Ukrainian lawmakers after presenting it to Western allies
Ukraine’s Zelensky city-hops across Europe, promoting ‘victory plan’ to allies
World
Ukraine’s Zelensky city-hops across Europe, promoting ‘victory plan’ to allies

US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy form new lobby group

US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy form new lobby group
Updated 16 October 2024
Reuters
Follow

US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy form new lobby group

US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy form new lobby group
  • New political action committee to advocate for a revamp of Washington’s long-standing stance on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict
Updated 16 October 2024
Reuters

WASHINGTON: Two US officials who resigned last year in protest over President Joe Biden’s policy on the Gaza war have launched a lobbying organization and a political action committee to advocate for a revamp of Washington’s long-standing stance on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.
Josh Paul, a former State Department official and Tariq Habash, who used to work as a policy adviser at the US Department of Education, said the American public is no longer in favor of unconditionally sending US weapons to Israel but that elected officials have lagged behind.
Their PAC, called “A New Policy,” would support candidates whose position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict center on aligning US policies with human rights and equality and would ensure US arms transfers to all countries in the Middle East including Israel comply with both US and international law.
Washington’s unwavering support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza and more recently in Lebanon has emerged as a key reason for why Muslim and Arab voters, who resoundingly had backed Biden in 2020, may withhold their votes from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.
“American voters are clear: they do not want to be complicit in this humanitarian catastrophe and a majority want an end to the transfer of lethal weapons that are used to kill Palestinian civilians,” Habbash said.
Many Muslims and Arabs in the US have urged Biden to call for a permanent ceasefire. Harris faces Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5 in what polls show to be a tight presidential race.
The US is Israel’s largest weapons supplier and has provided it with billions of dollars in military aid since Oct. 7, when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s relentless retaliatory offensive of the densely-populated Gaza Strip, which was home to 2.3 million people, has reduced the enclave to a wasteland, with hundreds of thousands of people repeatedly displaced. More than 42,000 people have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.

Topics: Israeli war on Gaza US Joe Biden Gaza Israel

Related

US education official resigns over Biden’s Israel-Gaza policy
World
US education official resigns over Biden’s Israel-Gaza policy
US State Department official resigns, says US report on Gaza inaccurate
World
US State Department official resigns, says US report on Gaza inaccurate

Latest updates

Britain calls UN meeting on Gaza, may sanction Israeli ministers
Britain calls UN meeting on Gaza, may sanction Israeli ministers
LuLu raises awareness about breast cancer, environment
Customers are being encouraged to purchase eco-friendly bags at all LuLu branches.
Union warns of ‘worrying trend’ after latest BBC job cuts
Union warns of ‘worrying trend’ after latest BBC job cuts
UNRWA ‘very near’ possible breaking point in Gaza operation, head says
UNRWA ‘very near’ possible breaking point in Gaza operation, head says
Food, medicines running out in North Gaza hospitals as Israel presses offensive
Food, medicines running out in North Gaza hospitals as Israel presses offensive

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.