Category: Євросоюз

A Georgian court on Wednesday rejected a request to postpone former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s hearing on embezzlement charges. Saakashvili’s lawyers asked Tbilisi City Court to delay the hearing because the former president has been stateless since July 26, when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko revoked Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship. Calling the request unsubstantiated, Judge Badri Kochlamazashvili ruled that the hearing would be held at the court’s discretion. Saakashvili, 49, once a lauded pro-Western reformist, served two terms as Georgia’s president, from January 2004 to November 2013. His popularity declined toward the end of his second term, in part because of a five-day …

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Italy on Wednesday sent a navy patrol boat to Libya and seized a German rescue ship in dramatic steps aimed at ending the migrant crisis that has engulfed Europe in recent years. The crew on board the Iuventa, operated by the NGO Jugend Rettet, is being questioned on the orders of the Italian prosecutor. While investigators suspect “the crime of clandestine immigration” was committed by some of the Jugend Rettet boat’s crew, prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio told reporters that “my personal conviction was that the motive is humanitarian, exclusively humanitarian.” Jugend Rettet said on its Facebook page Wednesday that it went …

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Nana Sanjaia of VOA’s Georgian service spoke with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, following Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the country. Below is a transcript, edited for clarity and length. Q: Vice President Mike Pence is the highest official of the current U.S. administration who visited Georgia. What is the takeout from his visit? A: The vice president’s visit was extremely important, and so is the timing. The administration is six months in office but we’ve seen continued stable support for Georgia from the Senate, House and White House. We see how very carefully, very targeted the U.S. new administration …

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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence accused Russia on Wednesday of working to “destabilize” the Western Balkans and divide the region from the West where he said its future lies. Pence spoke in Montenegro, which joined NATO this year in defiance of Russia, on the final leg of a tour designed to reassure Eastern Europe of Washington’s commitment to its security despite doubts sowed by President Donald Trump’s lukewarm support for the Western military alliance. Montenegro, a former Yugoslav republic with a population of 680,000 and an army of 2,000, became NATO’s 29th member in June, eight months after Podgorica accused …

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Romania on Wednesday commemorated the deaths of thousands of Roma at a Nazi concentration camp, as Holocaust survivors recalled the horrors of more than 70 years ago. Romania’s foreign ministry said young generations should be educated about “this tragic episode in European history,” referring to August 2, 1944, when about 3,000 Roma were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The Elie Wiesel Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania says 50,000 Roma were deported to Trans-Dniester in the Soviet Union and 11,000 died. An exhibition opened Wednesday to commemorate the deaths. Constantin Braila, 86, a survivor who …

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Sirens wailed across Poland’s capital on Tuesday as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, a doomed revolt against the occupying Germans during World War II.   Sirens sounded for about two minutes starting at 5 p.m., the hour the 1944 uprising began, bringing traffic mostly to a standstill while people stopped to pay respect to the Poles who fought and died.   President Andrzej Duda, veterans, scouts and others took part in ceremonies, as did several thousand far-right extremists who marched through Warsaw. The German Embassy in Warsaw flew its flags — a German and a …

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The United States began removing furniture and equipment from a diplomatic property in Moscow on Tuesday in the first sign of compliance with a Kremlin order to slash its presence in Russia as retaliation for new U.S. sanctions. President Vladimir Putin has ordered the United States to cut around 60 percent of its diplomatic staff in Russia by Sept. 1, and said Moscow will seize two U.S. diplomatic properties in response to sanctions approved by Congress last week. The White House has said U.S. President Donald Trump will sign the sanctions bill, meant as a response to alleged Russian meddling …

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Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borissov signed a friendship treaty on Tuesday in a move designed to end years of diplomatic wrangling and boost Macedonia’s European integration. Macedonia’s difficult relations with its bigger eastern neighbor, with which it shares close religious, historic and linguistic ties, have hampered Skopje’s efforts to join NATO and the European Union. Bulgaria belongs to both organizations. Bulgaria still does not recognize the Macedonian language, which it views as a dialect of Bulgarian. The two Balkan nations have also clashed over minority rights and the nationality of 19th century guerrillas who …

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Nearly 500 people suspected of involvement in an unsuccessful coup attempt in Turkey last year went on trial Tuesday, where they face the prospect of the death penalty if found guilty. Those on trial Tuesday include top Army generals and pilots who are accused of directing the coup and bombing government buildings. They face charges that include murder and attempting to overthrow the government. The main defendant named in the case is the U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, whom has been blamed of masterminding the coup attempt. He has denied any involvement and is being tried in absentia. The trial is …

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On the latest leg of his first official tour of Eastern Europe, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence assured regional allies the United States will stand by their side. Facing a crowd of Georgian and international journalists at government offices in Tbilisi, Pence, standing alongside his host, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, said America first does not mean America alone. “President Trump has sent me with the simple message to you and to the people of Georgia, we are with you, we stand with you …  America stands with Georgia,” said Pence. The vice president came to Georgia, the only non-NATO …

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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says diplomatic actions taken by Russian in response to fresh sanctions will not deter U.S. commitment to its security and that of its allies. Speaking Tuesday during a visit to Georgia, Pence said the sanctions bill President Donald Trump will soon sign sends a “very clear message” that with Russia’s activities in Ukraine and its support for Iran and Syria, its “posture has to change.” Congress overwhelmingly passed the sanctions bill punishing Russia for interference in the 2016 U.S. election, while also imposing new measures on Iran and North Korea. Russia responded by ordering the …

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Germany on Monday lent support to France’s push to make operational a new multinational military force that will tackle Islamist militants in Africa’s Sahel region and urged other powers to contribute funds at an Autumn donor conference. On a joint visit to Niger’s capital, Niamey, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and her French counterpart, Florence Parly, said the Sahel force was West Africa’s best hope for defeating the militants. Some observers see the G5 Sahel force — comprised of troops from Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad — as forming the basis of an eventual exit strategy …

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Russian authorities are now barring American diplomats and their families from a U.S. recreational residence on the outskirts of Moscow, part of sweeping retaliatory measures announced by Kremlin leader Vladmir Putin. The Russian president ordered the U.S. on Sunday to cut its overall staff of more than 1,200 in Russia by 755 people, in response to new U.S. sanctions imposed against Moscow for its interference in the 2016 presidential election. It is believed to be the single largest cut ever imposed on the U.S. embassy in Moscow and consulates elsewhere in Russia, although many of those to be dismissed are likely …

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Five aid groups that operate migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean refused to sign up to the Italian government’s code of conduct on Monday, the Interior Ministry said, but three others backed the new rules. Charity boats have become increasingly important in rescue operations, picking up more than a third of all migrants brought ashore so far this year against less than one percent in 2014, according to the Italian coast guard. Italy fears the groups are facilitating people smuggling from North Africa and encouraging migrants to make the perilous passage to Europe, and it proposed a code containing around …

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When Luxembourg’s new law governing space mining comes into force on Tuesday, the country will already be working to make the science-fiction-sounding mission a reality, the deputy prime minister said. The legislation will make Luxembourg the first country in Europe to offer a legal framework to ensure that private operators can be confident about their rights over resources they extract in space. The law is based on the premise that space resources are capable of being owned by individuals and private companies and establishes the procedures for authorizing and supervising space exploration missions. “When I launched the initiative a year …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is defending his massive cut in the size of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia, saying it had waited long enough for relations with Washington to improve. Putin said he had hoped “the situation would perhaps change for the better. But it seems that even if the situation is changing, it is not for any time soon.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said an improvement of U.S.-Russia relations rest on “curing the worsening political schizophrenia” in Washington, but said the two countries remain “far away” from closer ties. The Russian leader Sunday ordered the U.S. to cut …

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A British television channel on Monday defended its decision to broadcast recordings of Princess Diana candidly discussing her personal life, after some royal watchers called it a betrayal of the late princess’ privacy. Channel 4 said the video tapes, made in the early 1990s, are an “important historical source” and place Diana “front and center” in her own story as Britain marks 20 years since her death.   The channel said that although the recordings were made in private, “the subjects covered are a matter of public record and provide a unique insight into the preparations Diana undertook to gain …

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Whistleblowing site Wikileaks has published more than 20,000 leaked emails it says it has verified to be from now French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign. Months after the emails were initially leaked and posted online before the election, Wikileaks says it has verified the authenticity of 21,075 of them using DomainKeys Identified Mail, or DKIM. Wikileaks has posted the remainder of the emails, 50,000 more, “for context”. All the emails are available to the public in a searchable archive, with verified messages flagged as such. France’s election campaign commission said in May “a significant amount of data,” some of it likely …

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The tiny European nation of Slovenia is undergoing a tourism boom partly because it’s the native country of U.S. first lady Melania Trump.   The Slovenian Statistics Office said Monday that some 1,939,000 tourists visited the Alpine country of 2 million in the first half of this year, a 15 percent increase from the same period last year.   Analyzing the impact of the Slovenian-born first lady on the tourism growth, the statistics office said the number of U.S. visitors has risen 15 percent since Donald Trump took office in January. The deputy director of the Statistics Office, Karmen Hren, …

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As Vice President Mike Pence prepares to visit Montenegro and hold talks with Western Balkan leaders this week, a senior State Department official says U.S. engagement in the region remains strong. This is being welcomed by those countries’ leaders amid concerns that deep cuts in the proposed budget for the State Department could diminish Washington’s role in these fragile democracies exposed to Russian interference. VOA’s Keida Kostreci reports. …

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