Where are the Russian oligarchs? This Twitter feeds follows their private jets

David K. Li 

Jets and helicopters belonging to Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich were on the move Monday in such far flung locales like Moscow and Codrington, a town in Antigua and Barbuda.

© Provided by NBC News

And at around the same time, a jet owned by steel magnate and fellow Russian oligarch Alexander Abramov touched down in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.

The comings and goings of powerful Russian elites have come under intense scrutiny since Vladimir Putin's forces invaded Ukraine last week, an attack that's drawn international condemnation.

And that's why 19-year-old Jack Sweeney, a University of Central Florida student, started tracking them on the Twitter feed Russian Oligarch Jets, which he launched this past weekend and already has more than 52,000 followers as of Monday afternoon.

"People have been asking me about Putin for a while, they wanted to know if they could track him," said Sweeney, an information technology major.

While the isolated Russian president isn't much of a jet-setter, Sweeney realized Putin's wealthy fellow countrymen are — and their movements by air are easily accessible public information. So the student did the next best thing to following Putin, which is to shadow the Russian elites.

The instant popularity of his bot, which automatically posts public data on movements of these crafts, took Sweeney by surprise.

“It’s just been crazy,” he said. "I just figured some people would be interested in it. I just didn't think all kinds of people would be."

As of Monday afternoon, Sweeney was tracking 39 planes and helicopters belonging to 19 oligarchs.

Coming into this weekend, Sweeney admitted he had little knowledge of the Russian power structure, or even what it means to be an oligarch.

“Before this, I didn’t even know there were these (influential) oligarchs like this,” he said. “They probably do have a decent amount of power from what I can understand.”

These individuals who comprise Russia’s new money class have come under intense scrutiny following the invasion of Ukraine.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, oligarchs used personal connections to take over previously state-owned industry and profit from new Russian capitalism.

"These are the glitterati of Russia," said Howard Stoffer, a Russia expert who teaches international affairs at the University of New Haven.

U.S. and other world leaders who want to pressure Putin into withdrawing his armies from Ukraine have taken to economic fight to these rich Russian businessmen.

While Western forces have been ratcheting up sanctions against the Russian economy as a whole, they've also been taking the highly unusual step of attacking the pocketbooks of Putin and the oligarchs.

Stoffer said he welcomed any sunlight shined on powerful Russians, even if it's just the travel habits of these affluent men.

"They should be exposed and they should be paying whatever price a country can extract from them," he said Monday.

"Get these (airplane) tail numbers out. Tell the governments these are the people, this is where they're located and let them take whatever action they feel is appropriate."

AND THEIR YACHTS

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/02/ukrainian-sailor-partially-sinks.html

After decades of flat pay, some Japan firms boost salaries to retain skilled staff

By Tetsushi Kajimoto 

© Reuters/THOMAS PETER 

People cross a street a street ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that have been postponed due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Tokyo

TOKYO (Reuters) - Over the last five years Yokohama-based Lasertec Corp has delivered what much of Japan Inc hasn't in decades: big pay rises.

The maker of chip-measuring equipment has boosted salaries by about a third overall since 2016. Employees at its main unit, many of them engineers, make on average just under 14 million yen ($121,000) - more than three times the national average of 4.3 million yen.

Lasertec is among a subset of Japanese firms, often in specialised areas such as technology, where pay is increasingly tied to employee performance and not determined by seniority or the base pay set in annual labour talks.

While "shunto" spring wage talks between big manufacturers and unions still have immense significance for the economy - especially this year - more firms are opting for performance-based pay, experts say, a change that speaks to a wider shift slowly taking hold in Japan. 

© Reuters/Kim Kyung Hoon Outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Tokyo, Japan

"For companies like us, employees are valuable assets, not costs," said Yutaro Misawa, a senior executive at Lasertec, whose profit has soared nearly five-fold and shares have surged more than 2,800% over the past five years.

Attractive pay makes it easier to retain talented engineers who specialise in research and development, especially given the labour crunch as Japan's population shrinks, Misawa said.

But for much of the rest of the world's no.3 economy, wages remain lacklustre. Thanks to decades of deflation, companies, like households, tend to hoard cash instead of spending. Japanese companies now sit on a record $2.8 trillion in cash and deposits.

In dollar terms, average annual pay totalled $38,515 in Japan in 2020, well below the OECD average of $49,165 and little changed from the early 1990s.

Higher wages are critical for the government's target of stable 2% inflation. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called on companies to boost salaries and kick-start a virtuous cycle of spending, as part of his platform of "new capitalism" to push for greater wealth distribution.

LAGGARD?

Renewable energy start-up Abalance Corporation has actively hired mid-career executives over the past three years, lifting the average salary in Japan by more than 30%. Its roughly 100 employees in Japan - both locals and non-Japanese - are paid on average more than 7 million yen.

"Acquiring talented people from all over the world is vital for a company's growth," said Yuichi Kawauchi, a senior executive. "If we leave things as they are and fail to show Japan as an attractive place to work, Japan will fall further behind the rest of the world."

To be sure, performance-linked pay means bonuses can get cut in a downturn - an unattractive prospect for the many Japanese workers who prize stability. Unions typically seek incremental increases to base pay, which is permanent.

Most firms don't plan to raise base pay at spring labour talks this year, the latest Reuters Corporate Survey showed. A slim majority expect to raise total pay, which includes one-off bonuses, the survey showed.

That won't be enough to keep up with recent spikes in commodity costs, analysts say, eroding household spending power.

RAISING CHILDREN

For Yamada Consulting Group, which helps midsize companies restructure, attractive pay and perks are necessary to keep staff from being poached, President Keisaku Masuda said.

The consulting firm allows staff to work shorter hours to encourage them to raise children.

"We face stiff competition for high-performance workers. We have substantially raised pay and improved working conditions to prevent head-hunting," Masuda said.

It raised pay by an average of 19% in 2020 and by 5% last year and now its average employee earns 9.2 million yen.

Japan's labour talks will eventually shift from uniform hikes in base pay towards more flexible wages that reflect the market value of workers, said Yuya Takada, a researcher at recruitment and staffing firm Recruit Holdings Co.

Even Toyota Motor Corp, itself the long-time pace-setter of the spring labour talks, has stopped disclosing details of base pay, highlighting the gradual decline in importance of the labour talks.

Seniority-based pay will become a thing of the past, Recruit's Takada said.

"That'll lower the significance of the way management and unions struggle for base pay hikes at annual rituals."

($1 = 115.4800 yen)

(The story has been refiled to fix typo in currency conversion in the second paragraph)

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by David Dolan and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

US House passes bill making lynching a federal hate crime

The House passed legislation on Monday that would classify lynching as a federal hate crime.

Lawmakers easily passed the bill, which is named after Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was lynched in 1955, on a 422-3 vote.

While the bill sailed through with bipartisan support, three Republicans - Reps. Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Chip Roy (Texas) - voted against it.

The legislation's passage comes more than 120 years after the first federal anti-lynching legislation was introduced by then-Rep. George Henry White, who was the only Black member of Congress at that time.

"Our nation endured a shameful period during which thousands of African Americans were lynched as a means of racial subordination and enforcing white supremacy. These violent incidents were largely tolerated by state and federal officials, and they represent a stain on our nation's legacy," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.).

"Today, we acknowledge this disgraceful chapter in American history, and we send a clear message that such violent actions - motivated by hatred and bigotry - will not be tolerated in this country," Nadler said.

The bill, authored by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), would designate lynching as a hate crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

More than 4,700 lynchings occurred in the U.S. between 1882 to 1968, according to an estimate from the NAACP. Black people made up most of the victims of lynching, since typically white perpetrators would use the attacks to terrorize them.

The highest number of lynchings were in Mississippi, where Till was beaten and shot in the head by two white men for allegedly flirting with a white woman.

An all-white jury found the two men not guilty of Till's murder. But the men later admitted in a magazine interview a year later that they had in fact killed Till.

The House previously passed the bill in 2020, but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) objected to clearing it by unanimous consent in the upper chamber.

Paul's objection came even though the Senate had previously passed a version of the bill in 2018 by unanimous consent.

Paul said that he was concerned it might "conflate lesser crimes" like minor assaults as lynching.

"There has to be justice. People are chanting justice. [But] justice has to have a brain and has to have vision and can't be hamstrung into something that could give someone ten years in prison for a minor crime," Paul said at the time.

Paul is now indicating that he supports the latest iteration of the bill after working with senators leading the effort in the upper chamber.

"I'm pleased to have worked with Senators Cory Booker and Tim Scott to strengthen the final product and ensure the language of this bill defines lynching as the absolutely heinous crime that it is, and I'm glad to cosponsor this bipartisan effort," Paul said in a statement on Monday.

Jet fuel is bad for the environment. 

Contrails are even worse.

Jason Markusoff 

MACLEANS

FEB. 28,2022

The fact that airplanes are climate-­damaging fuel hogs—aviation accounts for two per cent of human-caused climate change—has been obvious to the travelling public for some time. What’s becoming increasingly clear, though, is that spending even more jet fuel may be necessary to deal with the sector’s bigger contributor to the heating climate: contrails. As the airline industry puzzles over how to decarbonize, researchers are rapidly gathering an understanding of how these anthropogenic cloud formations add to global warming, and how they might be avoided.

© Used with permission of / © St. Joseph Communications.

 (Jostein Nilsen/EyeEm/Getty Images)

Planes constantly emit a trail of substances, including carbon dioxide, water vapour and black carbon (soot). When aircraft pass through patches of cold, humid air, the water vapour and large soot particulates combine to form a long stream of ice particles. The ones that disappear quickly aren’t a problem, explains Sebastian Eastham, research scientist at MIT’s Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment. But the formations that persist for hours can form human-made cirrus clouds, which trap huge amounts of thermal radiation that would otherwise escape into space. With contrails, Eastham says, “you have this large, sudden contribution to global warming, where you have caused the Earth’s atmosphere system to retain a significant amount of additional energy.” Carbon dioxide, by comparison, has a less acute but more prolonged energy-trapping effect.

Much of aviation’s challenge, then, is figuring out how flights can avoid the patches of cool, humid air that are ripe for creating contrails. Their locations are hard to predict—varying hour to hour—so it’s an air traffic control and modelling problem. There is a theory that temporarily flying higher (or lower) for brief stretches of some flights can create huge savings in contrails at the cost of a relatively small amount of extra fuel burn and carbon emissions—emitting a bit more to save the planet, as it were. It’s the “low-hanging fruit” for slashing aviation’s climate impact, the Royal Aeronautical Society’s John Green said at a conference last May. The industry has begun turning simulations into real-world examples: last fall, United Arab Emirates’ Etihad Airways teamed with a U.K. flight analytic firm to adjust the path of a Boeing 787 travelling from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi and says it avoided producing the equivalent of 64 tonnes of CO₂ by emitting only 0.48 extra tonnes.

Another contrail avoidance option—well, besides, flight avoidance altogether—is flying with alternative fuels. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has experimented with jets burning crop-based biofuels, which are less carbon-intensive over their life cycle than jet fossil fuels. They don’t necessarily produce lower in-flight carbon emissions than jet fossil fuels, says Anthony Brown, research pilot engineer with the NRC, but they substantially reduce the large soot particles that help create contrails. Given the unpredictability of when flights will hit contrail-prone skies, using different fuels is a more definitive way to tackle this problem than changing flight paths, Brown says.

But it will be years before either solution scales up to industry-wide usage. So while the conspiracy fanatics who baselessly fear “chemtrails” remain as wrong as ever, there is reason to look up, see lingering jet exhaust clouds and get a bit anxious.

This article appears in print in the March 2022 issue of Maclean’s magazine with the headline, “Menace in the mist.” Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here.

Center of California's San Andreas Fault Could Cause Even Bigger Earthquakes, Says Study

Orlando Jenkinson 

© Richard Par/Getty Images Stock image view of San Andreas fault. The central section of the fault has a greater potential or larger earthquakes than previously thought.

Larger earthquakes at the center of California's huge San Andreas fault line are more likely than previously thought, according to a study published in the journal Geology.

The research challenged earlier assumptions that the central section of the San Andreas Fault did not create severe earthquakes, compared to other parts of the fault. The authors suggested instead that serious earthquakes of large magnitudes have happened there in the past and could happen again.

The San Andreas Fault is the border section between two massive tectonic plates under the surface of the Earth—the Pacific and North American plates.

It stretches almost 800 miles through California, reaching past San Francisco in the north and almost as far south as San Diego. At the two extremities in the north and south, the plates are relatively static and can see large pressures built up over time that produce big earthquakes when they move.

This happened with devastating consequences in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, a 7.9 magnitude quake in the northern section of the fault that claimed the lives of over 3,000 people. In the south at least 57 people died in 1994 when a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck at Northridge near Los Angeles.

In contrast to these two volatile sections of the San Andreas fault, the parts of the plates at the central section are not static but move past each other in slow motion at around one inch per year. Scientists thought this "creeping" section of the fault tended to avert any large pressure build-ups and negate chances of big earthquakes there. The research found otherwise.

Scientists examined the degree of heating in rocks almost two miles below the surface in the central section. Material down there can offer clues to previous earthquake activity because rocks heat up with friction when earthquakes occur. The scientists found no evidence of large quakes in the central section in the last 2,000 years but said larger earthquakes had happened there further back in time.

"This means we can get larger earthquakes on the central section than we thought," lead author Genevieve Coffey, from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told Columbia Climate School news. "We should be aware that there is this potential, that it is not always just continuous creep," she said.

Their analysis of rocks in the central section of the fault showed evidence of earthquakes displacing rocks by more than five feet, which would equate to an earthquake of around 6.9 in magnitude (larger than the fatal 1994 Northridge earthquake). Even larger earthquakes than that could also be possible in the central section, the authors said.

"Ultimately, our work points to the potential for higher magnitude earthquakes in central California and highlights the importance of including the central [San Andreas Fault] and other creeping faults in seismic hazard analysis," the study said.

Black women have been hit 'especially hard' by pandemic job losses–and they're still behind in recovery

Morgan Smith 

The U.S. economy has bounced back at a stunning pace since 2020's coronavirus recession – yet this recovery has largely left behind Black women.

© Provided by CNBC

Throughout much of the pandemic and consistently since December, Black women's unemployment (5.8%) has been significantly higher than that of Latinas, Asian women and white women, according to research from the National Women's Law Center.

Experts point to several possible factors widening the recovery gap, with hiring discrimination, burnout and a lack of substantial benefits in lower-paid industries at the top of the list.

"If you look at the experiences of Black women in corporate America, the pattern is really clear: the workplace is worse for women of color than white women, and Black women consistently stand out as having the worst experience of all," Rachel Thomas, co-founder and CEO of Leanin.org, tells CNBC Make It. "So Black women have been hit especially hard by the pandemic's economic downturn."

CNBC Make It spoke with Thomas and other experts about the main issues driving this economic gap and how employers can better support Black women in the workplace.
Burning out in front-line jobs

Black women have shouldered a disproportionate share of front-line jobs throughout the coronavirus crisis that have put them at a higher risk of contracting the virus. More than 1 in 3 Black women have worked in front-line jobs, the NWLC reports, including roles as personal care aides, nursing assistants, cashiers and retail salespeople.

These industries have been the hardest hit by the pandemic and continue to be vulnerable to coronavirus restrictions and shutdowns. The recovery of these jobs remains sluggish and uneven: in January, women only gained 52,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality, or about 34%, despite making up about 53% of the industry's workforce.

Most of these jobs have required employees to show up in person, even at the height of the pandemic. Such conditions have put Black women in a compromised position as they tend to live in regions with higher transmission rates and are more likely to fall ill, Jasmine Tucker, the NWLC's director of research, says. "A lot of these jobs don't offer fair paid leave or even sick leave policies, so every time you get sick, you risk losing your job," she explains.

According to research from Lean In, 47% of Black women have gone to work during the pandemic when they had a good reason to stay home, whether that was being sick or not having child care. These high-risk, low-reward jobs have led Black women to a difficult choice: quit, or show up to work at the expense of their — and often their family's — well-being.

Lack of child care

The ongoing child-care crisis has hit Black mothers especially hard during the pandemic, pushing a lot of women out of the workforce.

Black mothers tend to shoulder more child-care responsibilities than their white counterparts, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, and are also more likely to be the primary wage earners in their families. Without access to affordable child care, many have had to quit their jobs.

More than two thirds of working Black mothers are also single. "Large numbers of Black women have left the workforce because they are mothers, or single mothers, and had to make a difficult choice to leave their jobs to take care of their children during the pandemic," Thomas says. "The lack of affordable child-care and flexibility within their jobs has just created a very untenable, unstable situation for mothers, especially mothers of color."

These barriers have not only made it difficult for Black women to find meaningful full-time employment, but also to re-enter the labor force. The NWLC reports that nearly 30% of Black women who are unemployed have been out of work for six months or longer.

Hiring discrimination

Although the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the pandemic brought a renewed focus on diversity, equity and inclusion practices at companies, Black women – and other people of color – continue to experience racism and microaggressions in the workforce.

"Black women are still facing hiring discrimination, and if they've been unemployed for long periods of time, they could feel even more discouraged from applying to jobs," Tucker notes.

The barriers for securing a job are higher for Black women because "as a Black woman, you're facing all of the biases that go with being a woman, along with the biases that go with being a woman of color," Thomas explains.

Black women also experience more – and more acute – microaggressions than other groups of women.

In its annual "Women in the Workplace" report, Lean In and McKinsey & Company found that Black women are more likely than white women to be on the receiving end of disrespectful and "othering" behavior. About 17% of Black have been confused with someone else of the same race/ethnicity, compared to 4% of white women.

What companies can do to help

Employers can help mitigate this economic gap by reviewing their benefits, hiring and promotional practices and updating them to be more equitable for women of color.

Such meaningful changes could include including more women of color in the workplace planning and hiring process and broadening paid leave policies, as well as designing clearer, structured promotion and mentorship opportunities for Black women.

"A lot of companies don't truly know how many women of color they're hiring or promoting," Thomas says. "To make sure your hiring and promotion processes are fair, you need to track how women of color are moving through your organization."

While the past two years have spurred some leaders to pay closer attention to the challenges Black women face in the workforce, it's important to recognize that Black women have been dealing with these issues long before the pandemic – and it could take a long time to see sustainable progress.

"We like to find the silver lining, but the reality is, things have been really bad for Black women," Nikki Tucker, the head of social at Leanin.org, says. "The pandemic has just finally opened a lot of people's eyes to the things Black women have been going through all of our lives."

Racism in Youth Leaves Black Women With Lasting Risk of Depression

© Provided by HealthDay

MONDAY, Feb. 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Black women who often encountered racism before age 20 have an increased risk of depression, new research shows.

Of the 1,600 Black women in Detroit, aged 25 to 35, who took part in the study, nearly two-thirds said they'd been subjected to some form of racism during adolescence, and more than one-third had symptoms of depression.

"Looking across the life course from adolescence through the 20s, Black women with persistently high frequency and high stress related to racism had the highest risk for depressive symptoms in adulthood than those with persistently low frequency," said study co-author Anissa Vines. She is assistant professor of epidemiology in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Vines said the findings — recently published in the Journal of Urban Health — show how damaging racism is to the mental health of young people, and "echo what other researchers have been reporting on the implications of adverse childhood experiences on health in later life."

Her team also examined whether the amount of social support that the study participants received in childhood and adulthood affected the link between racism and depression.

"Though we hypothesized the social support would buffer the effects of racism, we did not find evidence to support this," Vines said in a university news release.

The data used in the study were collected between 2010 and 2012 — before more recent events that have brought overt acts of racism to the forefront of national attention in the United States.

The researchers also pointed out that the women faced a number of challenges, from Detroit's eroding economy to high poverty rates and low educational attainment.

"The health of women living in Detroit cannot be separated from the erosion of their physical, emotional, social, economic and political environments," the study authors explained.

Even so, they added, "the importance of early-life racism seen in this single geographic area may be broadly generalizable to young Black women in other geographical settings."

The findings further highlight that racism is a public health crisis that requires urgent intervention, because it can cause lasting damage to the well-being of people of color, the study team concluded.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about racism and health.

SOURCE: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, news release, Feb. 25, 2022

EU member state heads back fast-track for Ukraine joining bloc

By AARON REICH AND REUTERS 

© (photo credit: REUTERS/YVES HERMAN) 

A European Union flag flies outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 19, 2019.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky officially applied on Monday to join the European Union, with the application being on its way to Brussels for processing, Ukrainian President's Office deputy head Andrij Sybiha wrote on Facebook.

In response, the heads of state for eight different EU member states – Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic – pushed for vastly expediting Ukraine's admission into the bloc.

"We call on EU member states to consolidate highest political support to Ukraine and enable the EU institutions to conduct steps to immediately grant Ukraine an EU candidate country status and open the process of negotiations," the leaders wrote, as noted on the official website of the Lithuanian president.

This follows Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger telling Politico that Ukraine should have a "special track" towards EU membership.

“They fight for themselves, they fight for us — they fight for freedom,” Heger said told Politico. “We have to realize that they are protecting our system, our values and we have to be together with them. So there is no time to hesitate on this.”

© Provided by The Jerusalem Post Josep Borrell speaks at a news conference on the Russian military operation against Ukraine, at EU headquarters in Brussels on Sunday (credit: STEPHANIE LECOCQ/REUTERS)

Overall, support for Ukraine is strong in the EU, as noted in a recent op-ed in The Jerusalem Post by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

"This is a matter of life and death," Borrell noted. "I am preparing an emergency package to support the Ukrainian armed forces in their fight."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leye told Euronews Sunday that Ukraine is "one of us and we want them in the European Union."

Several European nations have already sent considerable funds and munitions towards Ukraine, as well as levying sanctions against Moscow, as have their allies abroad such as the US.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday morning that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had offered his country, which is under attack from its neighbor Russia, more support in the form of sanctions and weapons.

"In our call, Secretary Blinken affirmed that the US support for Ukraine remains unfaltering," Kuleba said on Twitter. "I underscored that Ukraine craves for peace, but as long as we are under Russia's assault we need more sanctions and weapons. Secretary assured me of both. We coordinated further steps."

Power grid

Another way the EU is helping Ukraine is through energy.

On Monday, energy ministers from EU countries agreed to urgently link a European power system to Ukraine's grid, a move that would increase its independence from Russia following Moscow's invasion of the country.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Europe's top gas supplier, has sharpened concerns of disruption to energy supplies and increased scrutiny of European Union countries' reliance on imported fossil fuels.

It has also raised concerns about Ukraine's own energy system, and EU ministers on Monday backed a long-planned link of Ukraine's electricity grid with Europe's.

"There was a broad agreement around the table. Based on this, we will move forward... to connect Ukraine's electricity system as quickly as possible," EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said after the meeting.

Ukraine disconnected its grid from a Russian system last week and has asked for emergency synchronization with a European system. That would mean Russia would no longer control technical aspects of Ukraine’s network such as grid frequency. EU officials said the link could be completed within weeks.

This is a developing story.

'A new Europe' united against Russia — even neutral Switzerland

Alex Seitz-Wald 


WASHINGTON — A continent that has spent most of the past millennium at war with itself has united against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Germany reversing its historic policy against sending weapons to conflict zones and even famously neutral Switzerland joining the rest of Europe against Moscow

.

Provided by NBC News

“It’s the rebirth of a new Europe,” said Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia. “I’m absolutely shocked, I want to tell you honestly. It’s a historic shift. I think this will have major consequences moving forward for the future of Europe, for the future of the transatlantic alliance, for the future of NATO — just when all of those things were fraying.”


The European Union, for the first time ever, agreed Sunday to directly finance the purchase and delivery of arms, with plans to send more than half a billion dollars worth of military aid to Ukraine as it battles Russian forces in what the president of the European Commission called a “watershed moment.”

Virtually all of European airspace is now closed to Russian aircraft, including private jets. The E.U. also banned Kremlin-backed media outlets and took steps to freeze Russian assets and cut off the country’s access to the global financial system.

French Ambassador to the U.S. Philippe Etienne said on MSNBC Monday that the united front was nothing less than “a turning point in the history of our continent.”

Sweden, which is not part of NATO and has maintained a policy of neutrality through both World Wars and the Cold War, announced Monday it will send 5,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.

The Swedish government said it is the first time the Scandinavian country has sent arms to a country at war since 1939, when it aided its neighbor Finland against a Soviet invasion.

Even Switzerland joined the fray.

Neutrality has been a survival tactic for Switzerland that kept the alpine nation independent since Napoleon. It is not part of the European Union nor NATO.

But bowing to public pressure from its citizens and every party in its parliament but the far-right, the Swiss government announced Monday it will join the EU’s sanction against Russia, bar entry to some high-level Russians with Swiss connections and close Swiss airspace to Russian flights.

The move is significant not only symbolically, but because Switzerland’s infamously secretive banks are a favorite of Russian oligarchs.

“We are in an extraordinary situation where extraordinary measures could be decided,” Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said at a press conference Monday, though he noted that Swiss neutrality remains intact since the country is not sending military aid or getting involved in the fight itself.

Experts say the most significant action, though, may be Germany’s.

The most powerful country in continental Europe has for years pursued friendlier relations with Moscow and refused to sell weapons to countries involved in armed conflicts as part of a post-World War II doctrine of pacifism.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement. “It threatens our entire post-war order. In this situation, it is our duty to do our utmost to support Ukraine in defending itself against Vladimir Putin’s invading army.”

Thanks to economic necessity and a sense of historic obligation to atone for the crimes committed by the Nazis, Berlin sought engagement instead of confrontation with Russia.

“There’s an exaggerated perception in German public opinion, I would say a misperception, that engaging with Russia during the Cold War led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Germany did more business with the USSR than other European countries,” said Charles Lichfield, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. “That has informed German behavior.”

As recently as last week, Germany not only refused to send its weapons to Ukraine, but it blocked other countries like the Netherlands from sending their own German-made weapons to Kyiv.

But Berlin dramatically reversed course over the weekend, announcing plans to send at least 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine, paving the way for virtually the entire continent to join the fight.

“There was a drive towards unity and Germany was an obstacle,” said Lichfield. “It is striking that once the German obstacle was lifted, the EU got in.”

Tobias Vestner, head of the security and law program at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, said the Swiss have long prided themselves on being a safe space for international organizations and dialog, like the summit it hosted last year between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But Swiss citizens are beginning to rethink their role in an increasingly globalized world, Vestner said, especially after a pandemic that did not respect international borders.

“This is something we’ve never seen before,” he said. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a change in the way neutrality is interpreted and applied.”

Kyiv Independent Site Surges From 20,000 Followers to 1.4 Million Since Russian Invasion

© Provided by TheWrap

The Kyiv Independent, a Ukrainian English media outlet, gained 1 million followers in the wake of Russia's invasion into Ukraine.

Anastasia Lapatina, a journalist with the Independent, tweeted the news Sunday.

The startup outlet, with a Twitter following now passing 1.4 million, came to be after a group of more than 30 ex-Kyiv Post journalists joined forces with the aim of regaining editorial independence and carrying on their values after the owner shut down the publication on Nov. 8, 2021.

The staff unanimously chose Olga Rudenko, former deputy chief editor at the Kyiv Post, who worked there for 10 years, to helm the new publication as editor-in-chief.

The Kyiv Independent says it was founded on principles that reflect the transition from the Post and that it will always be partially owned by its journalists and won't "serve a rich owner or oligarch." Its revenue will be derived from readers, donors and commercial activities.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022, after tension built up at their borders as a result of Russian troops being stationed there. Many well-known political figures and celebrities of Ukrainian heritage have issued statements about these events. President Biden aims to impose economic sanctions in order to get President Vladimir Putin's attention.

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Wayne Gretzky: Russia Should Be Banned From World Juniors Hockey Tournament In Edmonton

Wayne Gretzky is calling for Russia to be barred from playing in the World Juniors hockey tournament

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© Getty Images Wayne Gretzky

"I think international hockey should say, ‘We’re not gonna let them play in the World Junior Hockey Tournament,'" he said in an interview with "NHL on TNT" over the weekend. "I think we got to, as Canadians, take that stance since the games are going to be played in Edmonton." The rescheduled tournament is set to take place in Edmonton this summer after being put on hold due to rising COVID-19 cases in December.

Calling Russia's invasion of Ukraine a "senseless war," Gretzky says he has been in contact with Ukrainians in the country this week.

"I talked to a couple of guys this morning who are living in Ukraine. They are actually driving from Kyiv with their families 14 hours, dropping them off, driving back, and picking up rifles and guns so that they can protect their own cities," he says.

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is the body that makes decisions on any banishment from play. If it follows Gretzky's calls, the IIHF would follow in the footsteps of FIFA who banned Russia from playing a World Cup qualifying match.

Gretzky's Comments on Russia Go a Long Way

With his carefully-chosen words this weekend, Gretzky has supported the right cause. Hockey needs more people like that. He is known as the Great One for very good reason, but he just got a little bit greater.

© Provided by The Hockey News Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Adam Proteau

For many of us of a particular age, Wayne Gretzky was, is, and always will be the best hockey player of all time.

Growing up in the 1980s, there was no questioning his dominance, willpower, and creativity on the ice. But No. 99 was not a political animal; by the time he played his most famous games against the powerful Soviet Union team at the 1987 Canada Cup, the hockey battle for supremacy was all but over, and there was no debating which country was best.

Four years after Gretzky, fellow leviathan Mario Lemieux, and an all-time great roster was finished with the Soviets at the Canada Cup, the Soviet Union collapsed, and a more European-friendly vibe emerged at hockey’s top levels.

Since then, Gretzky has, for the most part, steered clear of politics, both Canadian and international. However, that changed Saturday when, as part of a hockey panel on the TNT Network, he spoke out in favor of banning Russian players from the upcoming International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, currently scheduled to take place in Edmonton in August.

With Russian athletes in many sports now facing bans from participating because of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s heinous war of aggression against Ukraine, Gretzky said he believes hockey’s gatekeepers must follow suit.

“I think international hockey should say, ‘We’re not gonna let them play in the world junior hockey tournament,” Gretzky said. “I think we got to, as Canadians, take that stance, since the games are going to be played in Edmonton.”

(The IIHF would later go on to ban Russia and Belarus from upcoming international events).

Now, you may say it’s easier for Gretzky to speak out than Russian players like Alex Ovechkin, but there’s two factors at play here that make it extremely commendable for the Hockey Hall-of-Famer to take a stance. For one thing, it’s true Gretzky doesn’t have direct family members in Ukraine or Russia the way Ovechkin does right now, but Gretzky’s family lineage stretches back to include links to the Russian Empire, Belarus, and yes, Ukraine. (And this is to say nothing of Ovechkin’s well-chronicled, enthusiastic support of Putin when it was convenient for him to do so. He cannot have it both ways, and expect not to be criticized at this moment in history.)

Secondly, the hockey community does not normally encourage its greatest players to be outspoken on matters outside the sport. “Go along to get along” is a philosophy most NHLers adopt from their earliest years, and those who choose to speak up about one non-hockey cause or another are labeled as troublemakers and/or distractions. That said, in speaking about Russia’s actions against Ukraine, Gretzky is neither of those two things. His opinion about Putin isn’t going to turn the tide of this war, but Gretzky has put himself on the right side of history by not choosing to remain silent.
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In many ways, Russian players and sports stars are innocent victims of Putin’s madness. We should never forget the humanity that binds us all, and acknowledge that millions of Russians want no part of this war. But the IIHF would be, and should be heavily criticized if they allow Russian participation in their events.

Solidarity with Ukraine is a must if we’re going to be a free and healthy, democracy-supporting group of nations. Russia has squandered any goodwill they may have had, and while it is unfortunate a collection of talented young hockey stars are going to pay a price for their homeland’s actions, they have nobody to blame but Putin himself.

With his carefully-chosen words this weekend, Gretzky has supported the right cause. Hockey needs more people like that. He is known as the Great One for very good reason, but he just got a little bit greater.

Russia boycott: Full list of countries refusing to play national team after Ukraine invasion

Jeorge Bird 



Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a host of national football teams have announced that they will refuse to play against Russia for the foreseeable future.

Poland, Sweden and Czech Republic, which were scheduled to face Russia in World Cup qualifying were the first to take the position. England, Wales and Scotland have followed suit, ruling out playing Russia at any level of competition.

After initially ordering Russia to play their upcoming games in neutral territory under the name the Football Union of Russia, FIFA is now set to oust the nation from World Cup qualifying altogether.

MORE: Is Chelsea's Russian owner Abramovich selling the club?

Here's a look at all the nations that have stated that they won't be playing Russia.
Poland, Sweden, Czech Republic

Poland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic are scheduled to play Russia on March 24 in a four-team World Cup qualifying playoff mini-bracket.

But all three teams released a joint statement saying they will not play Russia in the matches, leaving FIFA with a decision to make.

OŚWIADCZENIE FEDERACJI PIŁKARSKICH POLSKI, SZWECJI I CZECH. Więcej... https://t.co/fkNXQJIseH pic.twitter.com/Tc9o5POp02— PZPN (@pzpn_pl) February 24, 2022

High-profile players such as Robert Lewandowski and Wojciech Szczesny have also come out individually to criticized Russia with the reigning FIFA player of the year Lewandowski stating that "we can't pretend that nothing is happening."

MORE: Champions League final moved from Russia

It is the right decision! I can’t imagine playing a match with the Russian National Team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues. Russian footballers and fans are not responsible for this, but we can’t pretend that nothing is happening. https://t.co/rfnfbXzdjF— Robert Lewandowski (@lewy_official) February 26, 2022

Juventus goalkeeper Szczesny, who has a Ukrainian wife, said that he is refusing to play against Russia. He wrote on Instagram: “Seeing the suffering on their faces and fear for their country makes me realize I can’t stand still and pretend that nothing has happened.”

Karl-Erik Nilsson, chairman of the Swedish FA, said: "The illegal and deeply unjust invasion of Ukraine currently makes all football exchanges with Russia impossible. We therefore urge FIFA to decide that the playoff matches in March in which Russia participates will be canceled. But regardless of what FIFA chooses to do, we will not play against Russia in March."

MORE: Football fallout after Russia's invasion of Ukraine

England takes a stand against Russia

The English FA released a statement condemning Russia's actions in Ukraine and said that they do not intend to play Russia in any international fixtures at any level for the foreseeable future.

The FA statement read: "Out of solidarity with Ukraine and to wholeheartedly condemn the atrocities being committed by the Russian leadership, the FA can confirm that we won't play against Russia in any international fixtures for the foreseeable future.

"This includes any potential match at any level of senior age group or para football."

Statement from The FA: pic.twitter.com/bz0CLR0rum— FA Spokesperson (@FAspokesperson) February 27, 2022

Ireland, Wales, Scotland join Russia boycott

Not only did the three nations announce their refusal to play against Russia, but Ireland and Scotland also offered support to the Ukrainian football federation with matches scheduled between the countries in March and June.
Ireland

The Football Association of Ireland announced its “full and unequivocal support” to the Ukrainian FA on Feb. 28. The decision was notable as Ireland is meant to play a pair of UEFA Nations League matches against Ukraine in June, drawn together in a four-team group with Scotland and Armenia.

MORE: Schalke cuts ties with Russian shirt sponsor

FAI president Gerry McAnaney and chief executive Jonathan Hill reached out to executives in Ukraine to inform them the FAI will be as "flexible and accommodating as possible" with regards to the two Nations League fixtures.

In addition, the FAI announced they will refuse to play Russia under any circumstances.

“In light of the current situation,” Hill said, “I can confirm that we will not consider any international fixture against any Russian side, no matter what the level, until further notice.”

Wales

Wales have also stated that they will not play any matches against Russia.

The statement from the Welsh FA read: "The Football Association of Wales (FAW) stands in solidarity with Ukraine and feels an extreme amount of sadness and shock to the recent developments in the country.

"The FAW expresses its condemnation for the use of force and the atrocities being committed by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

"The FAW has decided that Cymru will not play any international fixtures against Russia for the foreseeable future, at any level of the game.

"Our thoughts and support are with the people of Ukraine."
Сильніші разом. Together, we are stronger. Gyda'n gilydd, yn gryfach. 🇺🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 #TogetherStronger— FA WALES (@FAWales) February 27, 2022

Scotland

Scotland have also stated that they won't play against Russia in any venue.

The statement read: "The Scottish FA President, Rod Petrie, has written to his counterpart at the Ukrainian Association of Football to send a message of support, friendship, and unity.

"Football is inconsequential amid conflict but we have conveyed the strong sense of solidarity communicated to us by Scotland fans and citizens in recent days.

"We remain in dialogue with UEFA and FIFA regarding our men's FIFA World Cup play-off and women's World Cup qualifier and have offered to support our Ukrainian colleagues' preparations as best we can in these unimaginably difficult circumstances.

"Should the current circumstances continue, we will not sanction the nomination of a team to participate in our scheduled UEFA Regions Cup fixture against Russia, due to be played in August.

"This will remain our position should any other fixtures arise at any level of international football."

The Scottish FA send a message of support, friendship and unity to the people of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/hSckZTs0Xz— Scottish FA (@ScottishFA) February 28, 2022

United States will not play Russia

On February 28, the United States added itself to the growing list of countries boycotting Russia, announcing it will not take the field against Russia "no matter the level of competition or circumstance, until freedom and peace have been restored."

In the statement, the U.S. took a firm stance, saying "we will neither tarnish the global game nor dishonor Ukraine" by taking the field against Russia.

While it had already been widely reported earlier that morning that FIFA was likely to ban Russia from competition, the statement of intent by the United States was still a firm and meaningful move, with the increase in competitive nations boycotting Russia forcing FIFA's hand.

#WeStandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/spRVx7NZbr— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) February 28, 2022