Why did the pope cross the road? To host more than 100 comedians

Christopher Lamb, CNN
Thu, 13 June 2024



A global gathering of comedians is due to take place Friday in an unlikely venue: the Vatican.

Pope Francis is hosting the equivalent of a “conclave of comedians” by inviting Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien and others to Rome. Over 200 people are expected at the audience, with more than 100 comedians from 15 countries.

The 87-year-old pontiff is known for his sense of humor. He likes to crack jokes with people he meets, often telling them with a smile: “please pray for me… not against me!” He has repeatedly emphasized the importance of having a sense of humor, saying it is something that he prays for each day.

“A sense of humor lifts you up, it shows your life is short and to take things in the spirit of a redeemer,” Francis once said in an interview. “It is a human attribute, but it is the closest to God’s grace.”

Francis’ meeting on Friday with “artists from the world of humor” is part of his latest attempt to engage with contemporary culture, with the Vatican explaining in a statement that the meeting underlines how the “art of comedy can contribute to a more empathetic and supportive world.”

It follows on from his landmark visit to the Venice Biennale and his meeting last year with artists and directors in the Vatican. The meeting also comes with the pope facing question marks over his outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics after reportedly using a homophobic slur at private meetings.

Others from the US contingent include Tig Notaro, Jim Gaffigan with several Catholics among them: both Gaffigan and Colbert identify as Catholics while Fallon and O’Brien were both raised in the Catholic Church. Also due to attend is Julia Louis-Dreyfus who told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that she had “no idea” what to expect.

Fr. James Martin, a Jesuit priest sometimes dubbed “The Colbert Report’s Chaplain,” will also attend the meeting and Colbert talked about the upcoming papal audience on his show.

“Pope Francis is going to meet me at the Vatican!” he joked. “Am I excited? Is the pope Catholic?”

Colbert then gave a jokey warning to Chris Rock, referring to the incident when Rock was hit by actor Will Smith during the Oscars.

“Chris, please for safety’s sake I would just keep Mary Magdalene’s name out of your mouth. Because the pope wears a big ring!”

He also made reference to the controversy over the pope’s reported use of an anti-gay slur asking: “Why Pope Frankie, why?”

Meanwhile, Whoopi Goldberg, the star of “Sister Act,” has already met the pope during an audience in the Vatican last year.

At that meeting, Goldberg said she offered Francis a cameo in “Sister Act 3,” the film series about a singer who joins a convent.

Playful pope jokes with world's comedians ahead of G7

AFP
Fri, 14 June 2024 at 4:01 am GMT-6·2-min read

The pope stuck his thumb in his ear and wiggled his fingers (Simone Risoluti)


Pope Francis on Friday clowned around with over 100 top global comedians including Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon before leaving to address a summit of G7 leaders in Italy.

"Instead of reading my speech, I'll just do this", the grinning 87-year-old said, as he stuck his thumb in his ear and wiggled his fingers at a room full of humourists.

Francis met with cheers and applause as he began the day with an audience for comedians from 15 countries, from Argentina to Germany and East Timor.

"Sister Act" star Whoopi Goldberg and Julia Louis-Dreyfus of "Seinfeld" fame waved from the front row as the pope entered the gilded and frescoed room at the Vatican.

The 107 comedians included Britain's Stephen Merchant, from TV show "The Office", US stand-up comedian Chris Rock, and Italy's Silvio Orlando, who played a scheming cardinal in "The Young Pope".

Seconds before Francis arrived, Jimmy Fallon, host of the "Tonight Show" in the US, had the room in fits of laughter as he pranced around at the front.

Goldberg has previously joked about offering the pope a cameo in "Sister Act 3".

Asked if she pressed Francis on it Friday, she quipped that "it wasn't the right moment, I'll probably send him an email", according to ANSA news agency.

Francis then headed to Puglia, to join the heads of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US at a summit also attended by leaders from Brazil, India, Kenya, Turkey and Ukraine.

"Immersed as we are in many social and personal emergencies, you have the power to spread serenity and smiles", the pope told the comedians.

"You are among the few to have the ability to speak to very different people, from different generations, backgrounds and cultures," Francis said.

The Argentine will be the first head of the Catholic Church to attend a G7 summit.

Francis has been asked by host Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to talk about the moral and ethical quandaries surrounding artificial intelligence.

He is also expected to conduct a series of bilateral meetings to discuss pressing global issues, including the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

ide/ams/ach


Did you hear the one about the pope? Francis tells audience of comedians it’s OK to laugh at God

Angela Giuffrida in Rome

THE GUARDIAN
Fri, 14 June 2024 

Pope Francis said that laughing at God “is not blasphemy” as he met more than 100 comedians from around the world at the Vatican, encouraging them to use their powerful gift of humour to spread laughter “in the midst of so much gloomy news”.

The pontiff, himself prone to the odd quip, invited comedians including Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Stephen Merchant to the audience at the Apostolic Palace on Friday as part of his attempt to engage with contemporary culture.

“In the midst of so much gloomy news, immersed as we are in so many social and even personal emergencies, you have the power to spread peace and smiles,” Francis, 87, said in a speech issued to the press by the Holy See.

“You are among the few to have the ability to speak to very different people, from different generations and cultural backgrounds. You unite people, because laughter is contagious.”

Francis said he has prayed to God for 40 years and asked him for “a good sense of humour”, before adding that it was not blasphemous to “laugh at God”, in the same way we “play and joke with the people we love”. However, he warned the comics that humour can be used “without offending the religious feelings of believers, especially the poor”.

The pope shook hands with the comedians afterwards, while Father Antonio Spadaro, the Vatican’s undersecretary for culture and education, shared a selfie with Whoopi Goldberg on social media.

The vast majority of the comedians present were Italian, followed by 12 from the US. Three came from Ireland – Ardal O’Hanlon, Tommy Tiernan and Patrick Kielty.

Related: Pope Francis tells priests to keep homilies short as ‘people fall asleep’

Francis told the comics that they managed to make people smile while also “dealing with problems, large and small”. He added: “You denounce abuses of power; you give voice to forgotten situations; you highlight abuses; you point out inappropriate behaviour.”

The Irish comedians were criticised for their attendance in an opinion piece on the Irish news website The Journal. “It seems grossly offensive, at best, that an organisation which presided over and aided in the cover-up of systemic child abuse could have the audacity to suggest it is now time for some laughs,” wrote Simon Tierney, who said that after hearing about the event he recalled another Irish entertainer “who took a rather more defiant approach to a different Pope”.

Tierney was referring to the late Sinead O’Connor, who in 1992 caused a severe backlash after tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live TV in protest against child sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

Francis, who in recent years has been blighted by ill-health, had a busy schedule on Friday, including meeting the president of Cape Verde and bishops from Equatorial Guinea before travelling by helicopter to Puglia, where he will be the first pontiff to address a G7 summit. The pope will lead a discussion about AI and has 10 bilateral meetings on the agenda.

Laughter lessons: a comedy watchlist for Pope Francis

Catherine Shoard
Fri, 14 June 2024 

Giving the audience a grin … Eric Idle and Graham Chapman in Life of Brian.Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

A hundred top comedians are generally considered a tough crowd, but Pope Francis had them rolling in the aisles at the Vatican on Friday, with jovial praise for their profession.

To “laugh at God” was fine, he explained, in the same way “we play and joke with the people we love”.

“While communication today often generates conflict,” the pontiff continued, “you know how to bring together diverse and sometimes contrary realities. How much we need to learn from you!”

The church has been the source of a great deal of humour over the ages – not all of it welcomed at the time by believers. Here we look at some of the most successful comedies for Pope Francis – and his disciples – to contemplate.

Life of Brian

All study of religious irreverence must begin with Monty Python’s satire about Brian (Graham Chapman), born to Mandy (Terry Jones), in the stable next door to Jesus – prompting considerable confusion. Now considered one of the finest films ever made, it was banned for blasphemy in 1979 across much of the world, including Ireland and Italy. This proved commercially invaluable. In Sweden, its posters read: “So funny it was banned in Norway.”

Father Ted

Among the pope’s congregation was Ardal O’Hanlon, best known as endlessly bewildered Father Dougal in Channel 4’s surreal sitcom about three priests exiled to remotest Craggy Island. Despite their almost total lack of faith, both Dougal and Ted (Dermot Morgan) share a benign decency (money resting in bank accounts notwithstanding) which made them that rare thing in the mid-90s: much-loved high-profile priests.

Now a key comfort watch for many (Maurice Gibb was buried with the boxset), Ted has long since overcome its early controversy. Plus, as its creators once reassured a real priest, it was never intended to be representative. “Lads,” he told them, “you don’t know the half of it.”

Derry Girls

Also in attendance on Friday was Tommy Tiernan, who features in Lisa McGee’s show set in a girls’ Catholic school during the Troubles. The headmistress is the withering Sister George Michael (Siobhán McSweeney), who drips contempt for pupils and priests alike, and only became a nun for the free accommodation.

Sister Angela’s Girls

If that all proves too pointed for the pontiff, he might prefer this soapy Italian series in which an ex-con nun doles out frank advice to young hotties lodging in her convent. Angela’s faith is sincere, though her methods – think slapping local playboys – less conventional.

Sister Act

Whoopi Goldberg is a regular visitor to the Vatican: last year she petitioned Pope Francis to cameo in the third Sister Act film, continuing the adventures of a nightclub singer who seeks refuge from the mob sequestered in Maggie Smith’s nunnery. Goldberg reported that despite being “a bit of a fan”, Francis said he’d have to check his schedule.

The Pope Must Die

Released in the US as the marginally less sacrilegious The Pope Must Diet, this surprisingly tame comedy sees maverick priest Robbie Coltrane accidentally installed in the Vatican. It was released a year after Nuns on the Run, with Coltrane and Eric Idle struggling to suppress their criminal tendencies and heterosexual stirrings beneath enormous habits.

Bruce Almighty

Nothing to trouble the devout in this jolly Jim Carrey romp about an avaricious anchorman offered the chance to play God for a week. Amusing moments conclude with a respectful moral about converting sin into an appreciation of life’s small joys.

The Invention of Lying

This smart and subtle Ricky Gervais comedy is set in an alternative reality in which fibs don’t exist. But when one man works out how to lie, he cooks up the concept of religion to comfort his dying mother: “It’s not an eternity of nothingness. You go to your favourite place in the whole world and everyone you’ve ever loved will be there. And there’s no pain.”

Good Omens

The series based on Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel about a bickering angel (David Tennant) and demon (Michael Sheen) teaming up to avert Armageddon portrays heaven and hell as petty bureaucracies and flawed humanity as the universe’s only hope. A mixed message for Christianity, but uplifting seen through the right lens.

The Vicar of Dibley

“You were expecting a bloke: beard, Bible, bad breath. Instead, you got a babe with a bobcut and a magnificent bosom,” declares Dawn French at the start of Richard Curtis’s sitcom. Forged in the heat of the Anglican church agreeing to ordain women, it has since become one of their most effective weapons. Geraldine Granger’s language may be irreverent but you could never doubt her commitment – three consecutive Christmas dinners included.

ANC JOINS OPPOSITION IN RIGHT WING SWING

South Africa's President Ramaphosa is reelected for second term after a dramatic late coalition deal

South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance says it has reached a deal to form a unity government   Two smaller parties, the socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party and the right-wing Patriotic Alliance, will also take part in the unity government.

GERALD IMRAY and MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
Updated Sat, 15 June 2024 




















South African président Cyril Ramaphosa reacts after being reelected as leader of the country in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, June 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was reelected by lawmakers for a second term on Friday, after his party struck a dramatic late coalition deal with a former political foe just hours before the vote.

Ramaphosa, the leader of the African National Congress, won convincingly in Parliament against a surprise candidate who was also nominated — Julius Malema of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters. Ramaphosa received 283 votes to Malema's 44 in the 400-member house.

The 71-year-old Ramaphosa secured his second term with the help of lawmakers from the country's second biggest party, the Democratic Alliance, and some smaller parties. They backed him in the vote and got him over the finish line following the ANC's loss of its long-held majority in a landmark election two weeks ago that reduced it to 159 seats in Parliament.

During a break in what turned out to be a marathon parliamentary session, the ANC signed the last-minute agreement with the DA, effectively ensuring Ramaphosa stays on as the leader of Africa’s most industrialized economy. The parties will now co-govern South Africa in its first national coalition where no party has a majority in Parliament.

The deal, referred to as a government of national unity, brings the ANC together with the DA, a white-led party that had for years been the main opposition and the fiercest critic of the ANC. At least two other smaller parties also joined the agreement.

Ramaphose called the deal — which sent South Africa into uncharted waters — a “new birth, a new era for our country” and said it was time for parties “to overcome their differences and to work together.”

“This is what we shall do and this is what I am committed to achieve as the president,” he said.

The ANC — the famed party of Nelson Mandela — had ruled South Africa with a comfortable majority since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994.

But it lost its 30-year majority in the humbling national election on May 29, a turning point for the country. The vote was held against the backdrop of widespread discontent from South Africans over high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment.

Analysts warn there might be complications ahead, though, given the starkly different ideologies of the ANC, a former liberation movement, and the centrist, business-friendly DA, which won 21% of the vote in the national election, the second largest share behind the ANC's 40%.

For one, the DA disagreed with the ANC government's move to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza in a highly sensitive case at the United Nations’ top court.

The DA leader John Steenhuisen was the first to confirm the agreement.

“From today, the DA will co-govern the Republic of South Africa in a spirit of unity and collaboration,” he said as he stepped away from Friday's proceedings for a speech carried live on television in which he said a deal was signed and that the DA lawmakers would vote for Ramaphosa for president.

The Parliament session started at 10 a.m. in the unusual setting of a conference center near Cape Town’s waterfront, after the city’s historic National Assembly building was gutted in a fire in 2022. The house first went through the hourslong swearing-in of hundreds of new lawmakers and electing a speaker and a deputy speaker.

The vote for president started late at night, with the results announced well after 10 p.m. Ramaphosa finished his acceptance speech as the clock ticked past midnight and into Saturday.

Former President Jacob Zuma's MK Party boycotted the session but that did not affect the voting as only a third of the house is needed for a quorum.

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said the party was open to talking with anyone else who wanted to join the unity government. There are 18 political parties represented in Parliament and he said the multi-party agreement would “prioritize the country across the political and ideological divide.”

Some parties, including Malema's EFF, refused to join.

The two other parties that joined the coalition deal were the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Patriotic Alliance, which has drawn attention partly because its leader, Gayton McKenzie, served a prison sentence for bank robbery.

McKenzie said he had been given a second chance in life and that South Africa also had one now, a chance to solve its deep socioeconomic problems.

The ANC had faced a deadline to strike a coalition agreement as Parliament had to vote for the president within 14 days after election results were declared on June 2. The ANC had been trying to strike a coalition agreement for two weeks and the final negotiations went on overnight Thursday to Friday, party officials said.

South Africa has not faced that level of political uncertainty since the ANC swept to power in the 1994 first all-race election that ended nearly a half-century of racial segregation. Since then, every South African leader has come from the ANC, starting with Mandela.

The new unity government also harked back to the way Mandela, South Africa’s first Black president, invited political opponents to be part of a unity government in 1994 in an act of reconciliation when the ANC had a majority. Ramaphosa had played a key role in those negotiations as a young politician.

This time, the ANC’s hand was forced.

“The ANC has been very magnanimous in that they have accepted defeat and have said, ‘let’s talk,'" PA leader McKenzie said.

___

Magome reported from Johannesburg.

___

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa


South Africa's Ramaphosa re-elected after coalition deal

Julie BOURDIN
Sat, 15 June 2024 at 3:40 am GMT-6·4-min read


A former trade unionist turned millionaire businessman, Ramaphosa will preside over a government combining radically different political views (WIKUS DE WET)


South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was re-elected for a second term after his humbled ANC cobbled together an unprecedented coalition government.

Lawmakers in Cape Town voted overwhelmingly on Friday to put Ramaphosa, 71, back in office for another five years after the May 29 general election produced no outright winner.

"I am humbled and honoured that you, as members of the National Assembly, have... decided to elect me to be the President of the Republic of South Africa," Ramaphosa said in his acceptance speech.

The election marked a historic turning point for South Africa, ending three decades of dominance by the African National Congress of the late Nelson Mandela.

The party that led the anti-apartheid struggle won only 40 percent of the vote and, for the first time, lost its absolute majority in parliament.

It has now struck a deal to form what it calls a government of national unity.

"This is a historic juncture in the life of our country, which requires that we must work and act together," Ramaphosa said.

ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula said on Friday the broad coalition brings together a majority of the 18 parties that won representation in the 400-seat National Assembly.

These include the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party and other smaller groups.

Ramaphosa was re-elected by fellow MPs with 283 votes in a secret ballot.

He saw off a last-minute challenge by Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), whose candidacy gained 44 votes.

Ramaphosa will be sworn in next week in Pretoria and then unveil his new cabinet.

South Africa's BRICS allies Russia and China on Saturday welcomed Ramaphosa's re-election with President Xi Jinping sending him a congratulatory note and Russian President Vladimir Putin saying: "We highly appreciate your personal contribution to the development of strategic partnership between our countries".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also congratulated Ramaphosa, hailing South Africa's "joint efforts to restore just peace in Ukraine."

"With your leadership and experience, South Africa is in good hands" the EU Commission's president Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.

Neighbouring Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Ramaphosa's second mandate was "ample testimony of the great confidence and trust" South Africans had in him.

- 'Illegal' -

Lawmakers cast their ballot one by one in a lengthy ceremony held in a Cape Town convention centre.

EFF members took the oath wearing red overalls and in some cases rubber boots and plastic construction worker helmets.

They declined to support the incoming administration, having refused to countenance joining an alliance with right-wing or white-led parties.

"This is not a government of national unity, this is a grand coalition between the ANC and white monopoly capital. History will judge you harshly," EFF leader Malema said, after conceding defeat.

Graft-tainted former president Jacob Zuma's new party uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), which came third in the election, has disputed the results and its MPs boycotted Friday's sitting.

"The sitting of the national assembly today as far as we're concerned is illegal and unconstitutional," MK spokesman Nhlamulo Ndhlela told AFP.

A former trade unionist turned millionaire businessman, Ramaphosa will preside over a government combining radically different political views.

The ANC is a historically pan-Africanist, progressive party of the left that has overseen welfare and economic empowerment programmes for poor, black South Africans.

The largest coalition party, the DA, pushes a liberal, free-market agenda. Smaller parties that are understood to have agreed to join the government range from the left to the far right.

"At the heart of this government of national unity statement is a shared respect and defence of our constitution and the rule of law," DA leader John Steenhuisen said.

- No easy road -

The agreement extended to regional coalitions in Johannesburg's Gauteng province and in KwaZulu-Natal, the Zulu heartland.

Zuma's MK won the most votes in the latter but was left empty-handed as coalition members managed to get a wafer-thin majority of 41 out of 80 provincial councillors.

DA's Steenhuisen said the coalition agreement included a consensus mechanism to deal "with the disagreements that will inevitably arise".

Ramaphosa first came to power in 2018 after Zuma was forced out under the cloud of corruption allegations.

Under his watch South Africa suffered from record power cuts, the economy languished and crime remained rife. Unemployment is at almost 33 percent.

He will now have the arduous task to bridge conflicting views within government to turn around South Africa's economic fortunes.

str-dc-ub/zam/ach





Ramaphosa is re-elected for second term as South African president, heading broad coalition

NEWS WIRES
Sat, 15 June 2024 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was re-elected for a second term on Friday, after his humbled ANC cobbled together an unprecedented coalition government.

Lawmakers in Cape Town voted overwhelmingly to put Ramaphosa, 71, back in office for another five years after the May 29 general election that produced no outright winner.

“I am humbled and honoured that you, as members of the National Assembly, have... decided to elect me to be the President of the Republic of South Africa,” Ramaphosa said in his acceptance speech.

Last month’s election marked a historic turning point for South Africa, ending three decades of dominance by the African National Congress of the late Nelson Mandela.

The party that led the anti-apartheid struggle won only 40 percent of the vote and, for the first time, lost its absolute majority in parliament.

It has now struck a deal to form what it calls a government of national unity.

“This is a historic juncture in the life of our country, which requires that we must work and act together,” Ramaphosa said.

ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula said on Friday the broad coalition brings together a majority of the 18 parties that won representation in the 400-seat National Assembly.


Cyril Ramaphosa: from anti-apartheid activist to leader of South Africa's coalition government

Melissa Chemam
Fri, 14 June 2024



Cyril Ramaphosa, the former trade unionist and key participant in the fight against apartheid, is set to be given a second mandate as South Africa's president, albeit without an absolute majority in parliament. He remains the ANC leader too.

Cyril Ramaphosa, 71, emerged weakened from the elections that took place on 29 May.

Some political analysts have even questioned his ability to serve a full second five-year term.

But after weeks of negotiation he has been named leader of South Africa's first coalition government.

Once described by Mandela as one of the most gifted leaders of his generation, Ramaphosa played a key role in the negotiations that brought an end to apartheid in the early 1990s.
Emergence of an activist

Born on 17 November 1952 in Johannesburg, Ramaphosa comes from a family that was moved from Western Native Township to Soweto in 1962.

He attended Tshilidzi Primary School, and completed high school at Mphaphuli High School in Sibasa, Venda in 1971.

He registered to study law at the University of the North in 1972, and became involved in student politics, joining the South African Student Organisation (SASO) and the Black People’s Convention (BPC).

In 1974, he was sentenced to 11 months detention in solitary confinement, under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act for organising pro-Frelimo rallies. The Frelimo Liberation Front of Mozambique is a left-wing party that has been in powere in Mozambique since 1977.

He was detained for the second time and held for six months in 1976 following the Soweto student uprising.

He was sworn in as President of the Republic of South Africa on 15 February 2018 following the resignation of Zuma.

S. Africa's DA reaches agreement on unity govt - leader

Reuters Videos
Updated Fri, 14 Ju


::June 14, 2024

::Cape Town, South Africa

:: John Steenhuisen, Democratic Alliance leader

“It is my privilege to report to you, that after two weeks of thorough negotiations, that only concluded after today’s sitting of parliament had already started, the DA has reached agreement on the statement of intent for the formation of a government of national unity.”

“The government of national unity’s presidential candidate will come from the largest party inside the grouping, being President Cyril Ramaphosa. Following his election today, President Ramaphosa will then exercise his prerogative to appoint his new cabinet, from among the members of the government of national unity, in consultation with the leaders of the constituent parties”.

Once unthinkable, the deal between two sharply antagonistic parties is the most momentous political shift in South Africa since Nelson Mandela led the ANC to victory in the 1994 elections that marked the end of apartheid.

The ANC lost its majority for the first time in an election on May 29 and has spent two weeks locked in intensive behind-the-scenes talks with other parties, which came down to the wire on Friday morning as the new parliament was convening.

Two smaller parties, the socially conservative Inkatha Freedom Party and the right-wing Patriotic Alliance, will also take part in the unity government.

ITALY

The Centennial of an Assassination Offers a Warning for Today

Amy King & Brian J Griffith / Made by History
Thu, 13 June 2024 

The exhibition "Giacomo Matteotti. Life and Death of a Father of Democracy." at the Museo di Roma on Feb. 29, 2024 in Rome. To mark the centenary of Giacomo Matteotti's death, the Museum of Rome Palazzo Braschi hosted an exhibition tracing the life, the political path and the assassination of the socialist leader. 

Credit - Stefano Montesi—Corbis/Corbis via Getty

On May 30, Lorenzo Fontana, President of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies and a member of the right-wing political party Lega (League), announced that the seat once occupied by Giacomo Matteotti, the socialist deputy who was assassinated by Benito Mussolini’s henchmen in 1924, would remain vacant in perpetuity. A plaque was installed to commemorate Matteotti’s political murder, Fontana explained, and the empty seat in the Chamber would stand as a “permanent reminder of his sacrifice.”

A century later, the lessons of Italy’s “Matteotti Crisis” continue to resonate. Marred by the rise of authoritarian leaders, the spread of far-right nationalism and xenophobia, and instances of politically-motivated violence — including most recently a series of attacks and assassination attempts on European political leaders — the Western world increasingly resembles the conditions that produced the Italian crisis in 1924 and 1925. It will take learning from the mistakes made by Italian political leaders to prevent history from disastrously repeating itself.

Following the Versailles Settlement in June 1919, Italy was plunged into a quasi-civil war, marked by cost-of-living riots, left-wing agitation among laborers, and the emergence of Mussolini’s Italian Fighting Squads, which meted out “purificatory” violence against socialist leaders, labor unions, and striking workers. By the summer of 1922, Mussolini’s blackshirted militias nearly rivaled the country’s established forces of law and order.

Following Mussolini’s appointment as Prime Minister that October, and the subsequent spectacle of the March on Rome, political violence in Italy only worsened, especially in the lead up to national elections in 1924. By using violence, or the threat of it, in and around polling stations, Mussolini and his fascist hordes intended to sway election results in favor of the Fascist Party’s candidates. His tactics worked; Mussolini’s alliance of Fascists, liberals, Catholics, and conservatives won a landslide victory, gaining two-thirds of the seats in Parliament.

These illiberal tactics, however, attracted widespread condemnation, above all from militant anti-fascists like Matteotti and his left-wing colleagues in the Chamber. On May 30, 1924, Matteotti vociferously denounced the Fascist Party’s illegal campaigns of intimidation, calling for the annulment of the “illegitimate” results from the April elections. As he sat down at the end of his speech — during which he was interrupted by Mussolini’s supporters more than 100 times — Matteotti turned to his neighbor and told him, perhaps half sarcastically, to begin preparing his funeral oration.

Matteotti’s concerns proved well founded. On June 10, as he was walking from his apartment toward the Chamber’s headquarters in Rome, Matteotti was abducted and stabbed to death with a carpenter’s file by Amerigo Dùmini, a member of the Fascist Party-associated secret police. “You can kill me,” Matteotti is believed to have uttered as he was being spirited away, “but you can never kill the idea within me.”

Matteotti’s disappearance produced outrage across Italy and the Italian Diaspora. On June 27, workers throughout the peninsula put down their tools, while mourners gathered at the site of his kidnapping, praying together and laying red carnations. Simultaneous protests took place in other major cities, including Milan, where workers raised their hats in homage to Matteotti. The protests brought the country to a virtual standstill.

Some fascist sympathizers refused to take part in the commemoration. Instead, they shouted “Viva Mussolini!” (Long Live Mussolini!). In Rome, a group of local Blackshirts organized a public march from Lungotevere Arnaldo da Brescia, where Matteotti was abducted, to his family’s residence where they callously chanted provocative songs and slogans to Matteotti’s mourning widow, Velia.

Workers around the world also rallied in protest against this shocking crime. A mock funeral took place in Baltimore. Organized by the Italian division of the trade union the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, mourners bowed their heads in front of a portrait of Matteotti to mark their participation in “the world’s grief.”

Concerned by the power of Matteotti’s memory at home and abroad, Mussolini’s government declared that nobody could stop to pray within 10 meters of the location of his kidnapping, and it prohibited the donation of flowers and commemorative ribbons. Mourning in the houses of the Parliament was also forbidden, as were mass gatherings in Matteotti’s memory.

Despite these attempts to suppress public outrage, the discovery of Matteotti’s body two months later in a wooded area north of the capital sparked an unprecedented political crisis for Mussolini’s government. A contingent of anti-fascist parties, including Matteotti's Unitary Socialist Party, withdrew from the Chamber, challenging the legitimacy of the Fascist Party. This withdrawal, however, proved to be a fatal mistake, because it left Mussolini and his party without any effective opposition.

Even so, the enormous outpouring over Matteotti’s assassination backed Mussolini into a potentially disastrous political — as well as legal — corner.

On Jan. 3, 1925, Mussolini resolved to put an end to the simmering political crisis. The Duce-in-waiting admitted that he, and he alone, bore the “moral, political, and historical responsibility for all that has happened.” Following this admission, Mussolini issued an unmistakable challenge to those in attendance: “Article 47 of the Constitution says: ‘The Chamber of Deputies has the right to impeach the King’s Ministers and to bring them before the [Senate].’ I formally ask you, is there, in this Chamber or outside of it, someone who would like to apply Article 47?” Fearing violent reprisals for themselves as well as for their constituents, no one volunteered to hold the Prime Minister and his blackshirted hordes accountable for their many crimes, above all the brazen murder of a Member of Parliament.

The following month, Mussolini appointed a new secretary of the Fascist Party who promised “de-Matteottiize” the country. Violence intensified and Italy continued to slide towards dictatorship. On Christmas Eve, Mussolini declared himself Head of Government — in the absence of any opposition — making him answerable only to King Victor Emmanuelle III. On the same day, his government introduced a new law making it illegal for any journalist to publish in Italy without fascist approval, and it banned all opposition parties and organizations. Italy had shifted from a troubled multi-party democracy into a single-party dictatorship.

Under the Duce’s authoritarian leadership, the regime continued to prohibit the commemoration of Matteotti’s assassination. Even so, Matteotti became an internationally recognized symbol of resistance to Fascism. Commemorative protests were held across the U.S. and an Italian American anti-fascist newspaper raised $1,500 ($26,875 in 2024 dollars) in a week for a monument to Matteotti in New York as a reminder of “the sacred cause of justice and human liberty.” Fascism may have won the (ultimately temporary) battle for power but, in the long run, lost the battle over memory.

Today, the political scene in Europe and the U.S. increasingly resembles the conditions of interwar Europe, which resulted in the catastrophe of World War II.

In Italy, for example, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy — an openly neo-fascist party whose roots lie in a party founded in 1946 by surviving members of Mussolini’s dictatorship — is pursuing a subtle but nonetheless solidly far-right political agenda, with the potential of muting, if not erasing, the Italian Republic’s anti-fascist foundations. The same is the case across Europe, as right-wing strongman figures and illiberal parties — many of them xenophobic — gain ground in places as varied as Germany and Portugal.

And in the U.S., Donald Trump has significantly destabilized American democracy by systematically weaponizing the “culture wars”; advancing “Big Lies,” such as that the 2020 election was stolen and that those convicted for crimes tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection are “hostages”; and threatening retribution against his political opponents. The MAGA movement has garnered vociferous support from groups like the National Socialist Movement, Patriot Front, and the Proud Boys. Much of Trump’s political rhetoric, moreover, is straight from the authoritarian playbook.

Long accused of harboring fascistic tendencies, Trump now faces legal challenges reminiscent of Mussolini's political crisis a century ago. He faces 91 felony charges. But unless he is convicted in more than just the New York hush money trial — an increasingly unlikely outcome — it is possible that Trump could win a second term as President. And following his inauguration in January 2025, which would coincide with the centennial of Mussolini’s infamous declaration of dictatorship in a Chamber empty of any opposition parties, Trump would be well-positioned to similarly bypass law and order completely.

Matteotti’s empty seat in Italy’s Chamber, therefore, serves as a ghostly reminder of both Fascism’s predilection for violence and liberal democracy’s perpetual vulnerability to the challenges posed by authoritarianism. However, it also serves as a fitting memorial to the bravery of an individual who attempted to hold a corrupt political leader to account and vociferously oppose the slow but steady dismantling of democracy. Authoritarians rely on intimidation, the projection of charisma and confidence, and complacency from the citizens they intend to dominate and control. Only collective resolve in opposing the spread of illiberal political cultures can repel today’s authoritarian challengers and safeguard democracy — that’s the lesson of Matteotti’s assassination.





Amy King is a senior lecturer of modern European history at University of Bristol. Her first research monograph, The Politics of Sacrifice: Remembering Italy’s Rogo di Primavalle, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2024. Brian J Griffith is an assistant professor of European history at California State, University, Fresno. He is currently completing his first research monograph on the political and cultural history of winemaking in Fascist Italy, titled Cultivating Fascism: Wine, Politics, and Identity in Mussolini’s Italy.

Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.

Write to Made by History at madebyhistory@time.com.

UK
Post Office campaigner Alan Bates given knighthood - but insists there's still 'work to do'

Sky News
Updated Fri, 14 June 2024



Alan Bates, the campaigner who highlighted the Post Office scandal, has been given a knighthood in the King's Birthday Honours list.

Other famous faces on the list include artist Tracey Emin and cyclist Mark Cavendish, who were given a damehood and knighthood, respectively.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has received the highest award possible, being made a Companion of Honour.


Singer Rebecca Ferguson, Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon, Countdown's Susie Dent and Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden were among the showbiz names made MBEs.

Sir Alan founded the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance and told Sky News he is accepting the honour "not just for myself… but on behalf of the whole group".

He described the accolade - given to him for services to justice - as "recognition of the sheer hell that they've been through over the years".

"It's not just for me, it's for all of them," he said.

Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongfully convicted of stealing from the Post Office because of a faulty accounting system called Horizon.

Read more: All the big names recognised in the King's Birthday Honours list

Sir Alan rejected the offer of an OBE last year because former Post Office boss Paula Vennells had been given a CBE in 2019.

The former CEO handed the award back in January and was later officially stripped of the title by the King amid the fallout from a TV drama on the scandal.

Sir Alan said it would have felt "wrong" to accept an OBE last year, adding it would have felt like "an insult" to other former sub-postmasters.

"We're a lot further forward with everything now," he added.

Sir Alan said the knighthood was "a bit of a shock, a bit out of the blue" - and he initially thought "it was a bit of a wind up".

He admitted he did "weigh up" whether to accept the honour, considering there's still "work to do" and many victims have not received full and fair financial redress.

Sir Alan has encouraged other wronged former sub-postmasters to "stand firm" and not "sell yourself short" - vowing they will "go back to the courts" to fight for compensation if needed this autumn.

He also said that he believed Fujitsu, the company behind the faulty Horizon accounting system, is yet to contribute towards compensation.

"I think they're going to have to cough up somewhere along the line," he said.

"I very much see the government at the moment providing the redress for people, as a sort of middleman.

"I think there's a lot of money to be recovered from elsewhere to repay the taxpayer in all of this."

Meanwhile, it is believed a team of around 80 Metropolitan Police officers are monitoring the Post Office inquiry closely.

Sir Alan insisted they "certainly should be looking at whether or not there are criminal prosecutions that should be brought, and not just for individuals, but corporate charges as well".

He met with police officers last month just before Ms Vennells gave evidence at the Post Office inquiry - which was also the day he was offered the knighthood.

Police are still investigating Post Office, says Mr Bates

If police had said they were not investigating the matter, the former sub-postmasters would have fundraised privately to prosecute, he said.

"Unlike them - the Post Office prosecuting the sub-postmasters," he said. "I think we've got to wait and actually see evidence first - before prosecutions."

When asked whether or not he has confidence in the Post Office and its interim chairman Nigel Railton at the moment, Sir Alan replied: "I don't know, but I mean if he decided to sell the business, I would heavily support him."

Sir Alan reflected on how life has changed for him and his wife since the TV programme aired, describing himself as "the least likely celebrity you could find".

"It's always been about the job," he said. "Getting the job done, it's not been about me.

"I still like escaping up to the hills, when I can, by myself."

Sir Alan's wife Suzanne 'very proud'

"She's always been a lady to me," he insisted. "It's not going to change our lives at all. We're just going to be Alan and Suzanne."

Suzanne said she is "very proud" of her husband, who she said is "very, very deserving".

In response to Sir Alan's statement about Fujitsu failing to contribute compensation, the company said in a statement: "The Fujitsu Group has always regarded this matter with the utmost seriousness and offers its deepest apologies to the sub-postmasters and their families.

"The UK statutory public inquiry is ongoing and we remain steadfast in our commitment to cooperate entirely.

"Based on the findings of the inquiry, we will also be working with the UK government on the appropriate actions, including contribution to compensation.

"The Fujitsu Group hopes for a swift resolution that ensures a just outcome for the victims.

Russia has brought out its S-500, an 'experimental' weapon it's never used before, Ukrainian spy chief says as Ukraine hunts air defenses in Crimea

Chris Panella
Fri, 14 June 2024 

Russia has brought out its S-500, an 'experimental' weapon it's never used before, Ukrainian spy chief says as Ukraine hunts air defenses in Crimea


Russia deployed its only S-500 air defense system in Crimea amid Ukrainian strikes.


The system is "experimental," Ukraine's spy chief said, and has never been used before in combat.


Ukraine has upped its attacks in Crimea, likely hoping to destroy Russia's air defenses in the area.

Russia has deployed its only S-500 air defense system in Crimea as Ukraine ups its attacks on the occupied peninsula, Ukraine's spy chief said this week.

The S-500, an advanced system described by Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate as "experimental," has never been used in combat before.

Russia moved the S-500 to protect the Kerch Bridge, as well as strengthen Russia's air defense network in occupied Crimea, Budanov said Wednesday. The 12-mile-long bridge, which connects mainland Russia to occupied Crimea, is both a streamlined way for Russian forces to reach the area, as well as a symbol of Russia's control of the peninsula.

It's repeatedly been a target for Ukraine's drone boats, bombs, and strikes. Russian air defense assets have also been targets, especially in recent weeks.

Explosion causes fire at the Kerch bridge in the Kerch Strait, Crimea on October 08, 2022. A fire broke out early Saturday morning on the Kerch Bridge -- preceded by an explosion -- causing suspension of traffic and bringing bus and train services to a halt.Vera Katkova/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The S-500, called the Prometheus, is a mobile, surface-to-air defense system designed to intercept ballistic missiles and other ranged weapons. The system is "essentially a modernized version of the S-300," the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington DC-based think tank, said Thursday.

The S-500 has been tested multiple times but has never been in combat before. Russia has claimed it's able to intercept all weapons, including hypersonic missiles, which are extremely fast and fly unpredictable paths at low altitudes, but that capability remains unclear.

Russia has previously claimed missiles were hypersonic that weren't and that weapons were unbeatable that also were not.


The S-500's problematic development and production, from the project's start in 2010 to severe delays over the following decade, raised questions about its viability as a system. It was delivered to the armed forces in 2021, though in a limited state unable to meet the requirements for the system.

In April 2024, then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that it would enter battle in one of two variations: missile defense and an anti-aircraft role.

Russian troops with new S-400 surface-to-air missile systems after their deployment at a military base outside the town of Gvardeysk in Kaliningrad on March 11, 2019.REUTERS/Vitaly Nevar

The S-500's new role protecting the Kerch Bridge and bolstering Russian air defense capabilities in Crimea comes as Ukraine conducts strikes on the peninsula aimed at making the area untenable for the Russian military.

Since late May, attacks in the area, particularly targeting Russia's air defenses, have intensified. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have reported major strikes, including one this week, hitting S-300 and S-400 systems.

Ukraine is suspected of using US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, for these strikes, among other capabilities.

As Ukraine continues to target air defenses on the peninsula, Russia may deploy more of its air defense assets there, ISW said, "making them vulnerable to further Ukrainian strikes." A fight of this nature could strain and deplete Russia's air defense arsenal.

An Army Tactical Missile System during live-fire testing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on December 14, 2021White Sands Missile Range/John Hamilton

"ISW previously assessed that Ukrainian forces may be conducting an organized effort to degrade Russian air defenses, which could enable Ukraine to more effectively leverage manned fixed-wing airpower (namely using F-16 fighter jets) in the long term," the think tank wrote.

Ukraine's strikes into Crimea have long been supported by the US and Western allies but come on the heels of US President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders agreeing — in some cases, reluctantly — to let Ukraine use long-range weapons to strike Russian targets in occupied territory.

Per ISW, Ukraine could "in principle" replicate the success of their Crimea strikes in other occupied areas should Western allies approve such strikes, creating opportunities for Ukraine and degrading Russia's capabilities.


Ukraine's use of a Patriot missile system to down Russia's prized A-50 spy plane was 'historic,' said a US air defense officer

Cameron Manley
Sat, 15 June 2024 

Ukraine's use of a Patriot missile system to down Russia's prized A-50 spy plane was 'historic,' said a US air defense officer


Ukraine used a Patriot missile to down a prized Russian A-50 spy plane earlier this year.


The hi-tech A-50 is crucial for Russia's early warning, command, and control during air operations.


A senior US officer called the destruction of the A-50 a 'SAMbush.'

A senior US Army officer has confirmed that Ukraine used a Patriot missile system to down a Russian A-50 spy plane back in January.

Speaking at the Fires Symposium event last month, Colonel Rosanna Clemente, the assistant chief of staff of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said that Patriot launchers were "being used to protect static sites and critical national infrastructure" in Ukraine.

"Others are being moved around and doing some really historic things that I haven't seen in 22 years of being an air defender. And one of them is a 'SAMbush,'" she said, referring to surface-to-air missile ambushes that Ukrainians have been performing.

"They're doing that with extremely mobile Patriot systems that were donated by the Germans because the systems are all mounted on the trucks."

She added that Ukrainian anti-aircraft teams used this tactic "to engage the first A-50 C2 system back in January."

On the same day, Ukraine also claimed to have shot down an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post.

Ukraine used a Patriot to down the A-50 spy plane in January 2024.Anthony Sweeney/US Army

The A-50, produced by manufacturer Beriev, is a crucial spy plane that allows Russia to detect incoming Ukrainian missiles and identify ground targets. The aircraft can also act as a mobile command-and-control center to direct Russia's air strikes and other attacks. It has a range of over 3,000 miles and can stay airborne for about eight hours.

The plane has been a "key enabler for Russian operations over Ukraine providing airborne early warning of threats as well as command and control functionality," according to British intelligence.

Ukraine claimed it downed a second A-50 in February, though it is not yet clear what weapons were used in this instance.

Russia now only has around 5 operational A-50s left, reports say.

In March, Ukraine also attempted to strike the Beriev manufacturing plant where Russia refurbishes and modernizes its A-50s, the think tank the Institute for the Study of War said.

Russian sources claimed that the plant was repairing an A-50 that had been previously damaged in a drone attack.

Kidnapped, abused, humiliated – the Ukrainian children stolen by Russia

Tom Watling
Sat, 15 June 2024 

Vladimir Putin and, from left, Ukrainian children Serhiy, Bogdan, Serhii, Ksenia and Denis after being rescued from forced Russian deportation (Getty/Save Ukraine)

LONG READ

Anastasiia Motychak did not know why Irina – the person in charge of her camp in Russian-occupied Crimea – had just slapped her across the face; she just knew she missed her mum and wanted to go home to the Ukrainian city of Kherson.

It had been two months since the then 15-year-old had been put on a bus and moved from the then Russian-occupied Kherson, in southern Ukraine, to a two-week “vacation camp” in Yevpatoria, western Crimea. Kherson was no place for a child, the Russian soldiers had warned.

Days later, Ukrainian forces liberated the city. But by then, Anastasiia was 150 miles deeper into occupied territory, sleeping in a room with barred windows.

Living in areas held by different military forces, she and her mother soon struggled to communicate; the cell lines between the two cities had been cut.

Then Irina showed up.

The short-tempered teacher would glare at Anastasiia and swear at the children. None of them knew why.

One January evening, after Anastasiia had returned from a walk – something she was allowed to do – her roommate pulled her into their room and told her Irina was looking for her.

Confused, the teenager poked her head out of her room to see if Irina was near. She was.

“She grabbed me and took me into a room nearby,” the teen recalls. “She started swearing, telling me that I would never return home. She said she was sick of me. She said that if I did anything like this again, she would call the police and send me to the Ural mountains in Russia. Then she closed the door and she slapped me across the face.”

Anastasiia still doesn’t know what she did wrong.

Save Ukraine CEO Mykola Kuleba, Ksenia Koldina and Anastasiia Motychak pictured during a trip to London late last year (Tom Watling / The Independent)

Roughly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been moved to such camps since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to Ukrainian officials. Nearly a quarter of those who have been taken are orphans or children without parental care.

More than 70 camps for forcibly “re-educating” children have been found, according to the Ukrainian government, including in Belarus, occupied Crimea and even far-east Russia, where the children are three times closer to the United States than Ukraine.

The issue of returning these abducted children to Ukraine is set to be the key issue at a peace summit this weekend in Switzerland, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia has not been invited.
‘We would be punished’

According to reports from the independent Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the so-called camps where the children are taken are anything but a holiday.

When they enter them, the OSCE wrote in May 2023, the youngsters “find themselves in an entirely pro-Russian environment … exposed to a pro-Russian information campaign often amounting to targeted re-education”.

When Anastasiia arrived in the camp in Yevpatoria, she was put into a small, shared room with several other children from Kherson.

She said the pillows on her bed stank and there were cockroaches everywhere, especially in the food hall. “I felt like I was in prison,” she says. “We had balconies in our room but they had bars on them.”

Anastasiia says she was “constantly monitored” during her time in the camp, only ever permitted to go outside under the watchful eye of one of the camp officials, and added that they were often punished for reasons they did not understand.

“We would be punished but we did not know why,” she says. “We didn’t know why they would not let us go. They refused to answer our questions.

“​​They told us that they would not get a bus to take us home and that we had to get our parents to come and collect us. They kept on repeating and repeating that.”

The aftermath of shelling in Kherson – the city was occupied by Russian forces before being liberated by Ukraine (AFP via Getty Images)

The OSCE paper added that “the Russian Federation does not take any steps to actively promote the return of Ukrainian children”, despite this being mandated by the Geneva Convention on the treatment of children during war. Instead, the paper said, “it creates various obstacles for families seeking to get their children back”.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner tasked with negotiating the rescue of Ukrainian children from Russia, told The Independent that Moscow officials do “everything they can to block the return” of these tens of thousands of children.

Moscow has repeatedly denied abducting children and has sought to justify its actions by claiming it was done for the protection of the children. But such denials are dismissed by Lubinets.

“Ever since Russia occupied Crimea and part of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014, all this time, Russia has deported Ukrainian children and violated the rights of civilians,” he said. “We have then had eight years of discussions [to return the children]. Did we have any concrete results? No.

“The only real way we can stop the deportation of Ukranian children is the liberation of all occupied territories of Ukraine. We have no other way.”

Anastasiia is one of only 388 children to have been rescued, according to Children of War, a portal created to track young deported Ukrainians. Only 2 per cent of those taken by Russia have returned, largely because their hometowns were liberated from Russian rule.

Three months after Ukraine freed Kherson, Anastasiia’s mother was able to contact Save Ukraine, a non-profit organisation that helps families travel through Russia to recover their relations. It has helped rescue more than 60 per cent of the children freed so far.

Putin meets with Maria Lvova-Belova – the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against both (SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)

After a 15-day circuitous route around the front line in Ukraine, through Poland, Belarus and southwestern Russia, Anastasiia was reunited with her mum four months after she was taken. That was February 2023.

A month later, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, who has bragged about “rescuing” a Ukrainian child of her own, then 17-year-old Filip Holovnya.

Prosecutors at the ICC said they had “reasonable grounds” to believe she bore criminal responsibility for acting “directly, jointly with others and/or through others” to deport Ukrainian children to Russia. Putin, they added, has command responsibility. Russia decried the arrest warrants as politically motivated.

Kateryna Rashevska, a legal expert at the Regional Centre for Human Rights in Kyiv who has been advising the United Nations on the camps where children are being held, tells The Independent that the forced deportations are “a sign of Russia’s intent to exterminate our nationhood”.

“For us, for Ukrainians, it is a direct threat to our identity,” she says. “Russia wants to turn our children into enemies of Ukraine.”
‘Why wouldn’t you go?’

The Independent has spoken to five Ukrainian children recovered from Russia, ranging from 12 to 17 years old when they were taken, about their experiences in these “vacation camps”.

All stayed for at least four months, like Anastasiia; at least three stayed for more than eight, well after the ICC issued its arrest warrants in March last year. They were all rescued by Save Ukraine.

Liza Batsura, 16, says she remembers the moment a Russian official walked into her classroom in Henichesk No 27 Vocational School, near the Crimean peninsula.

Russian authorities moved her from Kherson to Crimea in September 2022, when she was 14. Her school director said he would put her in the basement if she refused. She would not be rescued until May the following year, by her estranged mother, Oksana Halkina.

“The teacher told us someone was coming,” Liza says. “Then we were taken into a room with one big table and chairs, and this woman walked in.

“She said it was not safe in Henichesk because of the war. She said it would be better for us in Russia, where we would have all these advantages.”

The official, flanked by official-looking men, allegedly offered each child 100,000 rubles (£893) “to move to any Russian city we wanted”, according to Liza.

By that point, Liza hadn’t spoken to her mother in more than half a year. The pair had a difficult relationship, so Liza had been living in a children’s home in Kherson prior to being taken by Russian authorities. Her mum was only told where she had been taken a week after she left.

“Some thoughts crossed my mind. What if this is a great opportunity for me?” Liza says. “Some other kids pressed me morally, asking: ‘Why wouldn’t you go?’”

Liza says six or seven children in her classroom took the opportunity – but she declined.

Liza Batsura and her mother Oksana look out from a bridge in Kyiv after the teenager returned to Ukraine (Reuters)

“In the end, I thought, I am closer to Ukraine than I am to Russia,” she says. “The whole atmosphere of Russian propaganda was very annoying as well.”

One of those that accepted the offer, Zorik Ibrian, 17, has stayed in Henichesk, where he infrequently messages Liza to swear at her for supporting Ukraine. He was orphaned a year before Russia’s full-scale invasion.
‘I just wanted it to be over’

For Bogdan Shvetzov, it was the daily routine of singing the Russian national anthem that he hated the most.

Russian authorities moved him from Kherson to Crimea in October 2022, when he was 12. Like Anastasiia, Bogdan’s mother had been told it was not safe for him in Kherson. He would not be rescued until April the following year.

The young boy was transferred to the camp through the Black Sea, via boat. He said he wasn’t scared while he was travelling there because it was his first time on a boat.

But when they reached Yevpatoria, which is where all the children from Kherson were first taken, he was separated from his classmates, put on a coach and taken to a camp nearby, where he was forced to partake in a never-ending routine built around Russian propaganda.

“They made us sing the national anthem first thing every morning before physical exercise,” he says, adding that PE started at 8.30am every day, after which they would have mandatory Russian classes and, later, arts and crafts.

“We were made to stand in two rows. The care-givers would walk back and forth between us to make sure we were singing. If we weren’t, they would take you to the director of the camp. There, if you refused to sing, you were told that your parents would pay a fee.”

Bogdan Shvetzov, then 12, with his mother in Kyiv in April 2023. It was the first time they had seen each other in seven months (Save Ukraine)

He says he didn’t know the anthem so he would pretend that he was singing by occasionally opening his mouth. Eventually, he picked up some of the words, which he would sing randomly.

“It became more annoying each day. I just wanted it to be over,” he adds. “But I was afraid to say or do something in case it created a bigger problem. I saw some children get taken.”

During a recent interview, the Russian children’s commissioner, Lvova-Belova, described the daily ritual of singing the national anthem as an “important part of identification with the Russian Federation”, adding that “there is nothing wrong with that”.

She did not address Bogdan’s claims that children were threatened if they did not sing – nor did Bogdan ever find out whether children were punished.

During her first month away from home, while at camp “Druzhba”, which means “friendship” in Russian, Liza describes the moment the head of the camp’s security found a Ukrainian flag in one of the girl's bags.

“He gathered us around and torched the flag in front of us. Then he said: ‘Look, this is how your country will burn’,” she says.

Liza adds that he would regularly call them “ukropy” and “khokhol”, which are derogatory Russian terms intended to describe Ukrainians as a lesser people.

Serhiy (left) and Denis Berezhnyi (centre, right) at the Save Ukraine HQ in Kyiv with Mykola Kuleba (right), the organisation’s CEO (Save Ukraine)

Denis Berezhnyi, now 18, says he will never forget the day he was moved to occupied Crimea.

He says Russian authorities tricked him into moving from Kherson when he was 17, on 7 October 2022. He had been staying in a college away from home.

“I did not want to go but my teacher told me my parents had signed the papers,” he says. “I found out later that that was a lie.” He would not return until June 2023.

During those nine months, his deaf and mute parents, for whom he was the primary care-giver, relied on their neighbours and Denis’s 13-year-old brother.

“I was worrying a lot,” Denis says, “because I did not know what was happening with my parents and my brother. I did not know if they were OK.”

Like Bogdan, it was the monotony of the camp that frustrated him. As one of the oldest to be taken, he was not permitted to partake in the classes during the day.

“We didn’t really do anything in the camp,” Denis says. “But we were not allowed to leave. I felt like I was in a prison.”

Two months in, the authorities moved him to a technical college in Kerch, a few miles from mainland Russia, where he was forced to take classes he had not chosen.

Denis says he remembers the day he stepped back into liberated Ukrainian territory as clearly as the day he was taken from Kherson.

He managed to contact Save Ukraine after his friends told him the organisation could help rescue him. His friend Serhiy’s mother picked them both up.

Ksenia hugs her brother Serhii in a playground in Kyiv months after she rescued him from a Russian foster family (Save Ukraine)

“It took us five days to get back,” he says, mentioning a route similar to the one taken by Anastasiia’s mother but reversed.

“I slept for maybe two hours the whole time. I was exhausted when we got back.”

As he drove over the border from Poland, he says he shouted “Slava Ukraini”, which means “Glory to Ukraine”. It is a phrase that has become symbolic of Ukraine’s stand against Russia.

“I was so happy when we crossed over because I knew I wouldn’t have to see any more Russian flags, or have to sing the Russian anthem,” he says. “I was relieved. I finally felt at ease.”
‘It was a time of constant fear’

But for Ksenia Koldina, 19, her return from a Russian re-education camp was not the end of her nightmare.

The aspiring journalist had been living with her younger brother, Serhii Koldin, and a Ukrainian foster family in Vovchansk, Kharkiv Oblast – roughly six miles from the border with Russia – ever since their parents lost custody of them two years earlier. That town has since been partially occupied by Russian forces after they launched a cross-border attack in May this year.

In August 2022, six months after Russia initially occupied Vovchansk, Ksenia’s foster family sent her across the border to the town of Shebekino in Belgorod. They had been swayed by Russian propaganda that suggested children would be safer across the border. She was 17 at the time. They sent her brother to a camp 620 miles away, to the town of Gelendzhik in the Krasnodar Krai region, southern Russia. He was just 11.

Unlike the four others interviewed, no one came to collect Ksenia or her brother. Any hopes of their return rested on Ksenia alone.

“It was a time of constant fear,” she says, noticeably less keen on speaking about her experiences than the other interviewees. “I didn’t know what was going to happen the next day. I was completely in the dark.”

A drone view shows damaged property caused by Russia’s attack on Vovchansk, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region (via Reuters)

She adds: “I thought I was going to have to stay in Russia forever. I thought I would have to take on a Russian passport.”

Having turned 18, she managed to escape after her friends helped her connect with social services in Kharkiv. From there, she learnt about Save Ukraine, who helped her locate her brother. The siblings had not seen each other for nine months and had only spoken infrequently.

When she tried to organise picking him up, it was not only his new foster family that was uncooperative. Serhii stopped taking her calls. When she arrived, he backed away as she tried to hug him.

Ksenia said Serhii appeared confused and anxious. “He started saying, ‘It’s better for me in Russia. I want to stay’,” Ksenia recounted to the New York Times in a separate interview.

She later found out that Serhii had been regularly told that all Ukrainians were Nazis and “khokhols”, the same insult used in the Crimean camps.

Mykola Kuleba, chief executive of Save Ukraine, tells The Independent the indoctrination becomes more difficult to undo the younger someone is when they are subjected to “re-education”.

The former children’s ombudsman for Ukraine from 2014 to 2021 has been instrumental in recovering those taken. He also personally took in Ksenia and Serhii after they returned to Ukraine.

Mstyslav Chernov, an Oscar-winning Ukrainian journalist, says the abduction of children from Mariupol, in southern Ukraine, is his biggest fear. He was the last journalist in the city before Russia occupied it in May 2022 (AP)

“Ten-year-olds don’t believe they have been kidnapped,” he says. “They believe they were saved.

“The Russians convert everything. They change reality. That’s why so many people have been brainwashed. That’s why it is very hard to communicate with them. It gets worse every day.”

‘Impossible to return them’

That Anastasiia, Liza, Bogdan and Denis were able to tell their stories hinges largely on the fact that Kherson, where the first four are from, was liberated.

Their parents and friends were able to coordinate with Save Ukraine and organise for someone to retrieve them.

In Knsenia’s case, which is nonetheless a rare one, that she was living close to the Ukrainian border made it easier for her to stay in contact with friends in Kharkiv.

But there is evidence to suggest that many more children have been displaced from cities well behind the Russian front line. Lvova-Belova has bragged about “rescuing” more than 740,000 Ukrainain children.

Mstyslav Chernov, one of the last journalists to leave the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol before it was occupied, and who has been investigating war crimes in the city ever since, said the abduction of children from Mariupol was one of his greatest concerns.

It has been more than a hundred miles behind the Russian front line since May 2022. And there are many more cities like it.

Kuleba, without providing evidence, suggests that if you include occupied regions, as well as all those children taken since the annexation of Crimea and invasion of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014, the number of children Russia has displaced would rise into the millions.

“There are maybe five million Ukrianians in Russia who have been brainwashed,” he claims.

Then there are the really unlucky ones: those who may never be counted, who may never know they were taken, who may never know they were – they are – Ukrainian. They may never even know their real name.

“There is a reason we have no cases of returning children under the age of six,” Kuleba says.

“It’s because they do not know that they have been kidnapped, or from what area they were taken. They are growing up believing they have always been Russian.”

As his face flushes with a mix of resignation and then anger, Kuleba adds: “I think it will be impossible to return them.”

IF YOU CAN'T MUTINY GO AWOL

Shunned by West, Russian army deserters live in fear

Bruno KALOUAZ with Joris FIORITI in Rouen
Sat, 15 June 2024 

Russian officer Farkhad Ziganshin says he does not feel safe in Kazakhstan and fears he might be deported to Russia (STRINGER)


Russian officer Farkhad Ziganshin had prepared himself for a life of military service since a young age. He could never have imagined that one day he would become a deserter and flee the country.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine changed everything.

"I don't support what's happening in Ukraine, I don't support the government we've had for so many years," Ziganshin, 24, told AFP in Kazakhstan, where he fled in September 2022 after Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's first military mobilisation since World War II.

Faced with a choice between taking part in a war of aggression or going to prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, hundreds of deserters and draft dodgers have fled to neighbouring ex-Soviet countries where they are now stuck in limbo.

Russian authorities have opened a criminal case against Ziganshin for abandoning his unit. He does not feel safe in Kazakhstan and fears he might be deported to Russia.

But it is hard for men like him to seek refuge in the West because many Russian servicemen do not have the Russian passport that allows travel to Europe and only have documents that permit them to reach neighbours such as Kazakhstan or Armenia.

Anti-war activists urge European and US policymakers to do more to help men like Ziganshin, who are hunted at home and viewed with suspicion in the West.

While in Kazakhstan, Ziganshin was briefly arrested twice, most recently in June.

He is not giving up, however. He openly speaks of his opposition to Putin and the war in Ukraine with foreign journalists.

Together with other opponents of the war he has recorded videos to encourage Russians to flee the battlefield as part of an initiative dubbed "Farewell to arms".

In one such video, a serviceman sets fire to a uniform bearing the letter "Z", a symbol of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, before heading for the nearest forest.

"No one attacked your homeland," says a message at the end of the clip. "We have already refused to take part in a criminal war. You should too."

- 'Live with dignity' -

Ziganshin went to a military boarding school at the age of 10 and graduated from a military academy that prepares Russian tank commanders.

He describes the Russian armed forces as a "great school of life". But when Russia invaded Ukraine, he realised this was not the army he wanted to dedicate his life to.

He managed to resign, only to learn the next day that a military mobilisation had been declared and that he would be deployed to Ukraine, along with around 300,000 other men.

Ziganshin packed up in a hurry and fled to neighbouring Kazakhstan. Afraid of being sent back to Moscow, where he will be criminally prosecuted, he has been trying to acquire a visa to travel to France.

Kazakh rights campaigner Artur Alkhastov said Russian deserters stand virtually no chance of receiving refugee status in the Central Asian country.

"We've got really strong diplomatic ties with Russia," said Alkhastov.

Campaigners have also accused local authorities of facilitating the arrests of Russians who have sought refuge in Kazakhstan.

Mikhail Zhilin of the Russian Federal Guard Service fled to Kazakhstan to avoid the draft, illegally crossing the border. He was sent back to Russia and last year sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Russian contract soldier Kamil Kasimov, who also fled to Kazakhstan, this spring was detained and taken to a Russian military base in the town of Priozyorsk in central Kazakhstan, according to activists.

Ziganshin shudders at the thought of being sent back to Russia where he faces a long prison term. His Kazakh residence permit has expired.

"I'm young, I want to do something with my life, I want to live with dignity," he said.

Other Russian army deserters have fled to Armenia in the South Caucasus. But like Kazakhstan, activists say the country hosting a Russian military base is also not a safe destination. Two Russian deserters have been detained by Russian military personnel in Armenia over the past two years.

European countries remain out of bounds, said Ivan Chuviliaev, spokesman for anti-war Russian project Idite Lesom ("Get lost"), which has been helping Russians to desert and leave the country.

"They have no documents to put a visa in," he said.

- 'Absurd death' –

Andrei Yuseinov, who served in the 39th motorised rifle brigade in Sakhalin in Russia's Far East, was lucky enough to escape to Georgia.

He said he had "forged his story" and passed himself off as a civilian in his home town of Orenburg in order to obtain a passport, which enabled him to travel to Georgia with his wife and child.

The 24-year-old said he refused to die "an absurd death" in Ukraine.

"I used to see mothers crying in front of officers who didn't answer them even though they knew their children were dead," Yuseinov said.

Campaigners and Western governments have been concerned about Georgia's recent pro-Russian drift and Yuseinov believes he is not safe there.

He hoped to travel to France but in May, the French embassy in Tbilisi refused to issue him a visa.

- 'Resistance fighters' –

Since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, many Russians have sought to find refuge in France, which has a long tradition of welcoming political exiles.

Last year, the country's National Court of Asylum (CNDA) threw a lifeline to military deserters and draft dodgers too, ruling that "Russians fleeing mobilisation for the war in Ukraine and those mobilised who have deserted can obtain refugee status".

According to the CNDA, 102 Russians fleeing mobilisation have already been granted refugee status in France. There are no army deserters among them.

Obtaining refugee status or even receiving a visa to travel to EU countries is difficult for many Russians, and activists are urging European governments to do more to help.

"They are real resistance fighters, they are not only soldiers who refused to risk their lives," said Olga Prokopieva, head of Russie-Libertes, a Paris-based association.

"We would like France to become more involved, in particular with deserters who have found themselves stuck in Armenia and Kazakhstan."

Artem Klyga, a lawyer working with the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, has been lobbying the French and German governments to help Russians fleeing the battlefield.

He said both countries understood the scale of the problem but were also wary of welcoming servicemen who might have committed war crimes.

"I usually hear that all these Russians are war criminals, so you need to block them in Russia," he said.

The German foreign ministry said anti-war Russians who are "particularly at risk of persecution" can be welcomed on humanitarian grounds.

- 'Harassed' -

Vladimir (not his real name) is one of the war refuseniks who managed to obtain asylum in France.

The 30-year-old reservist said he was "harassed" in the early months of the war, with Russian military personnel coming first to his home, then to his place of work and to his mother's home in an effort to enlist him.

"The fear grew," said Vladimir.

In May 2022, he left for France to avoid being drafted. Soon after, his mother received his military summons. The CNDA granted him refugee status in April after two years of proceedings.

Dmitry (not his real name), a dance teacher in his 30s, said he did not want to "take up arms to kill other people".

He fled Russia in September 2022, a few days after receiving a military draft notice. He was granted asylum in April.

Oleg (not his real name), a combat sports instructor in his 40s, said he has "always been against Putin".

He said his wife took part in protests organised by allies of Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who suddenly died in an Arctic prison in February. Oleg took part in a fund-raising campaign for a Ukrainian friend whose home was destroyed as a result of the Russian invasion, he said.

- 'Saved my family' –

After Oleg received his summons, he, his wife and their two children left for Georgia in September 2022.

He received refugee status in France in April.

"If we hadn't left, I'd either be in prison or on the battlefield," said Oleg.

Alexander, 34, his wife Daria, 37, and their two children are still waiting for the French authorities to decide their fate.

The family fled Saint Petersburg in March 2023, after Alexander, who is an engineer, received his draft notice.

Their car and the front door of their flat were vandalised due to Daria's anti-war activism.

The family, who are residing in a town in northern France, have left behind a comfortable life.

Alexander said he had no regrets. "I saved my family and did not become a murderer," he said.

- 'Support deserters' -

Activists say that if Western countries want to better support Ukraine they should offer asylum to Russian deserters.

"If we want the Russian army to be weaker, we have to support deserters," said Chuviliaev.

Independent Russian-language media outlet Mediazona has recorded around 8,600 AWOL cases since the start of the mobilisation in September 2022. By comparison, just over 600 such cases were brought before the courts in 2021. Charges of desertion have also soared, with more than 300 cases brought before courts since the start of the draft, according to Mediazona. That compares to 33 such cases in 2021.

Russian deserters should be welcomed in the West, not stigmatised for having served in the Russian army, said a spokeswoman for InTransit, an organisation that helps men flee the war.

"If you're just an activist and you went to a few demonstrations, you can receive a humanitarian visa. But if you were in the army and shot yourself in the leg and ran away," she said, "then you don't get any visa."

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