All posts tagged: borders

Russia to withdraw troops from Armenia’s border – POLITICO

Russia to withdraw troops from Armenia’s border – POLITICO

Asked whether the withdrawal of the Russian border guards, formally part of the country’s FSB security service, had been discussed at the meeting, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said “yes,” according to state newswire TASS. On Sunday, long convoys of Russian military vehicles were seen leaving Armenia’s border regions, heading toward the capital, Yerevan. Dozens of Russian military vehicles were spotted leaving Armenia’s Syunik and Vayots Dzor provinces Sunday. | Gabriel Gavin/POLITICO Relations between Moscow and the former Soviet republic have hit historic lows in recent years. The Russian-led CSTO military alliance, of which Armenia is a member, refused requests from Yerevan to intervene when Azerbaijan began an offensive against the country in September 2022. Pashinyan has also accused Russian peacekeepers, deployed to Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region following a war in 2020, of abandoning their posts when Azerbaijani troops launched an offensive to conquer the territory, sparking a mass exodus of its 100,000 ethnic Armenian residents. Armenia’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that the country will no longer make financial contributions to the CSTO, after having …

Ukraine is ready for a just peace — not Russia’s version of one – POLITICO

Ukraine is ready for a just peace — not Russia’s version of one – POLITICO

“Remember, President Zelenskyy was at the Munich Security Conference just days before Russia invaded,” Reznikov told POLITICO. “I was a member of the delegation with him in Munich, and there was this atmosphere, this ambience [of] ‘Guys, you have to give up.’ It wasn’t said directly, but it was there,” he said. Hardly inspiring confidence as the negotiations with Russia kicked off. But above all, Reznikov and other Ukrainian officials involved in the talks — Ukraine’s Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak and his adviser Mykhailo Podolyak among them — also doubted the Kremlin’s sincerity and whether it was negotiating in good faith. This was a skepticism honed during the hundreds of hours they’d spent bargaining with Russian officials before the 2022 invasion. Were the concessions Russia offered even worth the paper they were written on? “They may sign documents, but whether they keep to agreements is another matter,” Reznikov said. “Remember the Budapest Memorandum,” he added, referencing the 1994 agreement Russia had signed, fixing Ukraine’s borders and recognizing its sovereignty in …

Moldova eyes energy lever to topple Kremlin puppet regime in Transnistria – POLITICO

Moldova eyes energy lever to topple Kremlin puppet regime in Transnistria – POLITICO

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, meanwhile, have stepped up their rhetoric against the country, attacking its European dream with rhetoric similar to what they lobbed at Ukraine. Yet Russia’s ability to intervene is, in practice, limited. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, local Russian forces have been cut off from their usual supply lines, unable to bring in reinforcements or fly in hardware. Many haven’t been rotated in or out of Moldova in years, and have settled down and raised families locally. And while they sit atop one of Europe’s largest arsenals of weaponry and ammunition at the closely guarded Cobasna depot, it is widely believed to hold little else but decaying WWII-era equipment that hasn’t already been sold off or repurposed by the Russians. Other frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet space have culminated in catastrophe. Just last year, a standoff between Azerbaijan and Armenia led to a mass exodus of 100,000 people from Nagorno-Karabakh. But in Moldova’s case, there’s no ethnic animosity driving efforts to end the standoff. Almost …

Ireland wants to return asylum seekers to the UK – POLITICO

Ireland wants to return asylum seekers to the UK – POLITICO

In a statement shared with RTÉ, a spokesperson for Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris confirmed that the justice minister had been tasked to “bring proposals to Cabinet next week to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe ‘third countries’ and allowing the return of inadmissible International Protection applicants to the U.K.” The move comes after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed that the rising numbers of people seeking asylum in Ireland was proof that the Conservatives’ plan to deport people to Rwanda has worked as a “deterrent … because people are worried about coming here.” A key condition of the Brexit deal that took the U.K. out of the EU was to maintain the land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland open, with no immigration checks. Speaking at a parliamentary hearing earlier this week, McEntee said that more than 80 percent of asylum seekers coming to Ireland arrived from Northern Ireland. Source link

Russia has nothing to fear from EU in South Caucasus, Armenia insists – POLITICO

Russia has nothing to fear from EU in South Caucasus, Armenia insists – POLITICO

“That doesn’t exclude bilateral good relations with Russia, and that’s something we want to explain to our Russian colleagues,” he added. Earlier this month, at a meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the EU unveiled a €270 million package designed to help bolster the economic independence and resilience of the former Soviet republic. Russia currently has an effective monopoly over Armenia’s energy networks, railways and imports of key goods like grain. While Russia has also maintained control over Armenia’s borders for the past three decades, relations have soured in recent years, with the Kremlin refusing to back the country in its long-running conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan. Moscow deployed more than a thousand peacekeepers to the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh following a war in 2020, but its troops refused to intervene last September when Azerbaijani forces launched an offensive and sparked the mass exodus of its 100,000 Armenian residents. Days prior to the attack, Pashinyan told POLITICO that the country could …

Israeli strikes on Rafah kill 18, as Gaza death toll tops 34,000 – POLITICO

Israeli strikes on Rafah kill 18, as Gaza death toll tops 34,000 – POLITICO

The lastest strikes came within hours after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to provide Israel with $26.3 billion in assistance. The measure, which includes $9 billion in humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, now goes back to the Senate, which about 10 weeks ago cleared legislation with nearly identical aid to Israel. The House bill will now get bundled with three other measures. The Senate will receive them as a single package that includes aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, along with new sanctions, a TikTok ban and U.S. power to freeze Russian assets. Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the U.S. Meanwhile, thousands of Israeli protesters took to the streets on Saturday to call for new elections and demand more action from the government to free the hostages …

Armenia agrees to return 4 villages to Azerbaijan – POLITICO

Armenia agrees to return 4 villages to Azerbaijan – POLITICO

Azerbaijan has been demanding the return of the villages as a condition for a peace agreement after more than three decades of conflict, mostly centred on the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The preliminary agreement involves the villages of Baghanis Ayrum, Asagi Eskipara, Heyrimli and Kizilhacili, according to the statement. Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought several bloody wars in recent years. Source link

Migration: The US political battle playing out at the Mexican border

Migration: The US political battle playing out at the Mexican border

Back to homepage / Shows / Reporters Issued on: 19/04/2024 – 14:42 13:05 REPORTERS © FRANCE 24 The US-Mexico border is the most dangerous land frontier in the world, according to the United Nations, but it’s also the one with the most crossings. Since January 2023, 2.3 million migrants have been apprehended by border police after entering the United States illegally, an all-time high that does not include migrants who got through without being arrested or taken charge of, or those who died trying to cross. The situation has become unmanageable for Texas border towns like Eagle Pass, which has become the epicentre of these illegal arrivals. Our correspondent Fanny Allard reports. Located in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley on the Mexican border, the town of Eagle Pass (population: 30,000) has become the epicentre of the US migration crisis and the symbol of Texas’s resistance to the federal authorities. Back in January, the Republican Governor Greg Abbott deployed the National Guard there. He also ordered the installation of razor-wire fencing in several places to …

Poland arrests Zelenskyy assassination plotter linked to Russia – POLITICO

Poland arrests Zelenskyy assassination plotter linked to Russia – POLITICO

A man has been arrested on suspicion of being involved in a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Polish prosecutors have said. The man, a Polish citizen identified only as Paweł K., was arrested in Poland. Ukraine supplied information leading to his arrest. “The detained person was charged with reporting readiness to act for foreign intelligence against Republic of Poland, said a statement by Poland’s National Prosecutors’ Office. “The act is punishable by up to 8 years’ imprisonment.” Source link

Ukraine backers blast ‘double standard’ after allies rush to Israel’s defense – POLITICO

Ukraine backers blast ‘double standard’ after allies rush to Israel’s defense – POLITICO

“I am sure that Ukraine will raise an argument that if one non-NATO country has been provided with air defense when attacked by a hostile adversary, why should Ukraine be treated differently? Given the dire and urgent situation that Ukraine now faces, that argument is rather convincing,” he added. Asked why Britain couldn’t offer the same type of support it gave Israel to Ukraine, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told LBC radio on Thursday that doing so would represent a “dangerous escalation.”  But some Ukraine supporters brushed off that argument. Answering a tweet asking why the West did not shoot down Russian drones and missiles, former French ambassador to Washington, Gérard Araud, wrote: “Good question indeed….” As Kyiv’s ministers plead with Western allies for more help, especially with air defenses, pro-Kyiv allies said the Iran attack episode proved the problem was a lack of will, not one of capabilities. “The common resolute allied response shows how effective our joint efforts can be when there is enough will,” Tomáš Kopečný, the Czech envoy for Ukraine’s reconstruction told …