Czech spy agency says pro-Kremlin media ring targets European Parliament elections in several states

Czech security agency BIS detailed the Voice of Europe media platform's support for selected politicians as the European Parliament elections approach. / bne IntelliNews

By Albin Sybera in Prague April 2, 2024

A number of mostly far-right politicians across the EU member states have been promoted on the pro-Kremlin Voice of Europe media platform ahead of the European Parliament elections, according to documents from the Czech security service BIS seen by DennikN and other Czech publications.

Last week, the Czech authorities added Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ally and Ukrainian-Russian oligarch, Viktor Medvedchuk, and his associate, Artyom Marchevskiy, to its national sanctions list for their activities linked to the Prague-based Voice of Europe.

“As per the instructions of Viktor Volodymyrovich Medvedchuk, [Artyom Marchevskiy] is practically running Voice of Europe in a number of EU member states, secures financing of cooperation with journalists and covet financial support of chosen individuals among candidates to the European Parliament,” state the Czech security service documents quoted by daily DennikN.

Some of the politicians promoted in the scheme include Belgian separatist Filip Dewinter, European Parliament candidates from the German far-right party Alternative fur Deutschland Petr Bystron and Maximilian Krah, Dutch Thierry Baudet, Czech ex-cabinet members Cyril Svoboda and Jiri Paroubek, and Slovak legislator Erik Kalinak from Prime Minister Robert Fico’s ruling leftist populist Smer party.

The Voice of Europe platform is registered in Prague, and its official CEO is Warsaw resident Jacek January Jakubczyk. According to BIS, however, Marchevskiy is the de facto head of the platform.

“Activities of the company were run by Artyom Marchevskiy; it was he who dealt with content, represented the company and communicated with European politicians,” a source from the Czech Office of the Government was quoted as saying by DennikN.

DennikN and other Czech media wrote that BIS also documented specific politicians who accepted cash as part of the scheme but did not release any names. Czech media later reported that Bystron, an AfD politician of Czech origin, is one of the politicians who accepted cash payments in Prague.

Speaking to the Czech online news outlet iDnes.cz, Bystron said: “I was in Czechia at a conference, but the secret service accusation is nonsense. I only spoke to the journalists from this website” Voice of Europe.

Besides Paroubek, another former Czech prime minister, Vaclav Klaus, who is now a backer of the Czech anti-EU party SPD, has been promoted by Voice of Europe. Klaus and Bystron have reportedly been in regular contact in the past.

Director at the Vienna-based Centre for Democratic Integrity, Anton Shekhovtsov, wrote on his LinkedIn social media profile that the list of European politicians promoted at Voice of Europe since August 2023 also includes former Slovenian prime minister Janez Jansa, President of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska’s Milorad Dodik, Italians Francesca Donato and Matteo Gazzini, French Patricia Chagnon, Herve Juvin and Thierry Mariani, Croatian Ladislav Ilcic and Slovaks Jan Carnogursky and Miroslav Radacovsky.

Austria arrests ex-intelligence officer on suspicion of spying for Russia

Egisto Ott rejected the allegations but did not appeal his detention, says court spokeswoman

02/04/2024 Tuesday


A former Austrian intelligence officer has been arrested on allegations of spying for Russia, local media reported Monday.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the allegations against Egisto Ott, who worked for the now-defunct Federal Agency for State Protection and Counterterrorism (BVT), are serious and need to be dealt with thoroughly by the judiciary and other state agencies, the Austria Press Agency (APA) reported.

“We must prevent Russian spy networks from threatening our country by infiltrating or exploiting political parties or networks,” he said.

The Vienna public prosecutor's office said the spying allegations relate to “abuse of office” and were “detrimental to Austria.”

“Ott is said to have forwarded classified information - such as a strictly confidential memo from BVT and an inquiry from the FBI - from his work email address to his private email address. In the end they ended up - or so the suspicion is - with Russian intelligence services,” said APA.

Christina Salzborn, the spokeswoman for the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters, which imposed the pre-trial detention on Ott, said “the reasons for the detention were the risk of collusion and the risk of committing a crime.”

Ott denied all the allegations against him when questioned by the judge, she added, noting however that he did not appeal against his detention, so the pretrial detention order is legally effective.

'I called for my wife but there was no response': 3 die in China after strong winds blow them out of apartment building

The shattered windows of an apartment (left) and air-con compressors dangling from an apartment building (right).

PHOTO: Weibo

PUBLISHED ONAPRIL 02, 2024 

By LIM KEWEI

One moment, they were asleep. The next, they were falling to their deaths.

Three people in China died in the early hours of Sunday (March 31) morning, after strong winds swept them out of their apartments, reported Chinese media.

Residents of a high-rise apartment building in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, were jolted awake when the thunderstorm struck at around 3am, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to the city.

A total of four people were killed and over 10 were injured after the storm, reported China Central Television (CCTV).

Those who had fallen to their deaths are said to be a 64-year-old woman and her 11-year-old grandson who lived on the 20th floor of the building, as well as a 60-year-old woman who lived on the 11th floor.

Photos of the incident started circulating on Chinese social media on Monday, showing shattered windowpanes and air-con condensers dangling from the affected residential complex.

A resident named Xu, who had lost his mother and son in the tragedy, told Chinese media that he was awakened by a loud noise, and rushed to check if his family was safe.

When he went to the room the pair was sleeping in, he discovered that they had gone missing, and the window and mattress had been blown away.

Xu and his other family members took refuge in their bathroom till the strong winds subsided.

He then went downstairs to check on the situation — and found the bodies of his mother and his son.

The husband of the third victim, surnamed Wan, said he had woken up to the sounds of a thunderstorm, and saw that the living room was in a mess.

Wan showing reporters the frame where a window had been.
PHOTO: Screengrab/Weibo/Star Video

"I immediately ran to my wife's room and called for her, but there was no response," he recounted. His wife was nowhere to be found in the apartment.

"When the wind slowed down, I noticed that the window was gone and heard cries from downstairs. My mind went blank," said Wan.

The Nanchang City government confirmed the two incidents where three individuals were blown out of their apartments by the strong winds, reported Shanghai Daily.

According to the China Daily, the cause of the fatalities remains unknown, and local authorities are investigating.

The authorities issued another weather alert on Monday afternoon, warning of another severe convective weather expected to strike the city this week.

WAR IS ECOCIDE
Russia thwarts Ukrainian drone attack on one of biggest oil refineries

A general view shows the Taneco refinery complex, which is part of Russia's oil producer Tatneft group of companies, in Nizhnekamsk, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia,

PUBLISHED ONAPRIL 02, 2024 

MOSCOW — Russia on Tuesday (April 2) repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on one of Russia's biggest oil refineries, nearly 1,300 km from Ukraine, Russian officials said.

Russian electronic warfare defences intercepted a Ukrainian drone near Tatneft's Taneco refinery, one of Russia's biggest, in Nizhnekamsk.

"It was neutralised by the electronic warfare system," Ramil Mullin, the mayor of Nizhnekamsk, was quoted as saying by Russian news sites. "There were no casualties or damage."

It was one of Ukraine's deepest drone attacks into Russian territory.

The Taneco oil refinery is one of Russia's largest and newest. Its production capacity stands at around 360,000 barrels per day.

There were reports of casualties in other parts of the city.

"This morning, the republic's industrial enterprises in Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk were attacked by drones. There is no serious damage, the technological process of the enterprises was not disrupted," Tatarstan's head Rustam Minnikhanov said in a post on his Telegram channel.

Two drones attacked a dormitory on the territory of the local Special Economic Zone, it said on Telegram, adding that two people were injured.

The TASS news agency said, citing emergency services, that six people had been injured.

WAR ON TERROR REDUX

World must prepare for Isis 2.0, former Iraq foreign minister warns

Hoshyar Zebari, who was foreign minister when Isis seized parts of Iraq in 2014, warned that there was a 'viable environment' for the terror group to return

Isis fighters parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces vehicle in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq, in June 2014 (Photo: AP)

By Molly Blackall

Global Affairs Correspondent

April 2, 2024 

A new terrorist organisation could emerge from the remnants of Isis despite the group’s military defeat, the former foreign minister of Iraq has warned.

A decade since Isis stormed to power in Iraq and Syria, before being ousted in 2017 and 2018, former minister Hoshyar Zebari warned that the “root causes” of the terror group had still not been addressed and there was a “viable environment” for them to return.

Last month, the group returned to international prominence when its affiliate, Isis-K, claimed responsibility for a massacre at a Moscow concert hall which left more than 130 people dead.

“Isis as a caliphate was destroyed, but as an ideology they’re still active,” Mr Zebari told i. “It came out of the isolation of the Sunni community, feelings of injustice, that they had been pushed aside. They had no hope for the future, especially the youths, and Isis fed them an ideology of ‘pure Islam’, and the need to purify the world. They have also been very effective on social media.”

“The root causes have still not been addressed – related to tolerance and education. There are still areas of disputed territory. This is a viable environment for the rise of Isis 2.0, or Isis B. [Resurgence] is a possibility.”

At their peak, Isis controlled around a third of Syria and 40 per cent of Iraq. But Mr Zebari said Isis would likely change their tactics or even morph into a new organisation.

“I don’t think it will be the same type of Isis. I think they recognise now that with superior technology, no matter how determined their fighters are, its impossible to have a caliphate state. They thought they could spread [their ideology], but then the world responded. I don’t think they will make that same mistake. But they may try to control pockets of territory,” he said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has called for the US-led military forces to leave Iraq, arguing that their presence is destabilising, but Mr Zebari warned that Isis would “try to capitalise” on a US withdrawal.

Asked if the international community needed to do more to tackle the threat of Isis, Mr Zebari said: “This is our fight … the international coalition is one essential element to prevent the rise of Isis 2.0, but political and social reform has to be done here too.”

It comes after i travelled to the former Isis heartlands of northern Iraq to discover the inside story of their bloody occupation from those who lived through it – and the impact still felt today.

New terror group ‘will inevitably rise’

Milo Comerford, director of policy and research at Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said that continual failings to address the root cause of terror meant the resurgence of Isis – or rebranding under a new organisation – was “inevitable”.

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“We have seen lots of cycles of these groups rising and falling and essentially a false dawn of thinking that the root causes have been addressed, and they never have,” he said.

“We had this in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, where after the defeat of al-Qaeda – the predecessor of Isis – there was an assumption that essentially the problem had gone away and the intervention had a success. Actually we’ve seen this again and again, where the base conditions remain the same, and there have been military successes but very little to suggest that either the underlying factors or the ideology that keeps the group together [has been addressed].

“So whether it’s called Islamic State or something else, just following the patterns of this history, this is something that will inevitably rise and adopt a new form, and will be able to appeal to a new generation.”

There are still ongoing questions over the fate of many Isis fighters. Across Iraq, more than 19,000 Isis fighters have been detained, 60,000 killed, and many more disappeared.

Thousands are also living in camps for internally displaced people – such as Hasan Sham U2 camp close to Erbil, where i visited and spoke to former affiliates – unable to return to their communities out of fear they will be killed in retribution for Isis crimes.

“I think the answer, honestly, is, that people don’t really know what happened to all of the fighters,” Mr Comerford said. “It does seem that this has not gone away, but instead is reforming and reformulating.”

While Isis numbers have dwindled since their defeat in Iraq and Syria, the US has also expressed concern that the group still poses a serious threat.

General Michael Kurilla, commander of the US Central Command, told Congress last year that Isis-K, the Afghanistan-based branch of the group which claimed the Moscow attack, was rapidly bolstering its ability to conduct “external operations” in Europe and Asia.

Isis likely to adopt new funding model

But Dr Antonio Giustozzi of defence think-tank Rusi said that the group no longer had the same levels of international funding, which may hamper any return to international prominence.

“One factor that is missing that was there years ago is the geopolitical element. In the past, there was a lot of big money coming in to support to Isis. That was an important factor, because you don’t set up an organisation of that size easily – its an expensive model to adopt. This is gone.”

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Inside the camp full of Isis recruits now too scared to return home

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“There will still be a few individuals in the Gulf who believe in the cause that Islamic State sponsors, but essentially the flow of money is much reduced and its not clear where the big money could come from. Of course the geopolitics could change, but for now, it doesn’t look like even the Gaza crisis has changed that.”

Dr Antonio suggested the group may move to a funding model of having “millions contributing little, rather than a few contributing millions”, and expected Isis to choose targets in order to garner the support of specific groups.

“They are trying to identify causes and grievances that exist across Muslim communities and do something agianst it, like an attack of revenge. In the case of Moscow, the target would be Central Asian migrants who feel often mistreated and underpaid and employed in humble jobs. There will be a certain frustration there, and any guys who are interested in taking revenge have Isis saying, ‘come with us’. This is a new model but this way they’re not going to raise the same kind of money.

He added, “Overall, I would expect some resurgence but not reaching the peak of the past.”

Return of terror

Following the recent attack in Moscow, Putin’s image as the guarantor of stability and security is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain

picture alliance/dpa/Tass | Vitaly Nevar

People bring flowers to a makeshift memorial. More than 130 people lost their lives during the attack on Crocus City Hall.


FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY 26.03.2024 | Lisa Gürth


Awave of grief has swept across the country: the terrifying and devastating attack on Crocus City Hall on 22 March, which claimed the lives of over 130 people, has shaken Russia to the core. This attack, which experts undoubtedly attribute to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), represents another unforeseen domestic political event in Russia in a short space of time. One that makes Vladimir Putin, who presents himself as the ‘guarantor of stability’, and the domestic political situation in Russia as a whole appear much more fragile.

Ten months after the Prigozhin revolt, the handling of the attack shows that unexpected events continue to pose major difficulties for the Kremlin when it comes to responding. Once again, Russian citizens had to wait almost 20 hours in a moment of national crisis for their newly elected president, who had been re-elected with overwhelmingly favourable (and, of course, falsified) results, to address the nation. This speech was postponed several times, only to remain surprisingly vague as to who was responsible for the attack. ISKP or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) were not mentioned at all, a connection to Ukraine was hinted at, but above all, Putin was concerned with invoking national unity regardless of ethnicity/nationality (Nationalnosti).
Image of a strong leader

Not without reason: the first decade of Putin’s presidency was characterised by the Second Chechen War and a whole series of major attacks. The attacks on residential buildings in 1999 with unknown origins, which ultimately helped Putin to become president and conveyed the image that Russia now needed a man with a strong hand in power, were just the beginning: they were followed by the hostage-taking at the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow, the hostage-taking in Beslan, which is still a national trauma not unlike the September 11 attacks in the US, as well as attacks in Moscow and St. Petersburg metros. The last major attack took place in the St. Petersburg metro in 2017 and claimed the lives of 14 people.

While the attacks initially took place primarily in the context of the Chechen War and other independence movements in the North Caucasus, the later attacks were mainly carried out by various groups that were being targeted as part of the global ‘war on terror’. During this time, Putin succeeded in positioning himself as the strong man who would fight such terror and bring stability and security to Russia. To this end, the Kremlin also repeatedly ‘flirted’ with nationalist movements and groups within Russia, further fuelling the already widespread racism against people from the Caucasus and Central Asia.


Contrary to the idea that Russia is a highly efficient police state, corruption and crime are increasingly widespread in the country.

The situation today is different: Russian society has grown unaccustomed to the threat of terrorism, and, in a certain sense, has also relaxed. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine (and, according to the Kremlin narrative, the entire West) is a national effort and requires maximum unity of society regardless of ethnicity. The current attack reveals the regime’s domestic political overextension: be it through conflicts that have only been resolved superficially or with immense violence, as in Chechnya, or through the realisation that Russia has increasingly become the target of radical Islamist groups such as ISKP as a result of its intervention in the Syrian war.

No state can completely protect itself from terrorist attacks. Contrary to the idea that Russia is a highly efficient police state, corruption and crime are increasingly widespread in the country. Especially since the beginning of the war, there has been a growing number of weapons circulating on the black market. The security forces are primarily occupied with the fight against ‘internal enemies’, which mostly include the liberal opposition. The LGBT movement and Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), for example, are considered extremist. A police force geared towards repression may be able to arrest peaceful protesters in the centre of Moscow, but it is not automatically experienced in preventing and defending against attacks. This prioritisation and increasing focus of the security authorities on maintaining regime stability and the war in Ukraine, whatever the cost, is simultaneously undermining internal cohesion, causing it to gradually disintegrate.
Fuelling hatred and instability

It was only on Monday evening that Putin clearly named ‘radical Islamists’ as the perpetrators of the attack. Immediately afterwards, however, he posed the cui bono? question — and following the regime's logic, there can be no other answer than Ukraine. While Putin and the Russian state propaganda are almost obsessively trying to identify Ukraine as the culprit, nationalist propaganda channels are pointing to the Tajik nationality of the accused, thereby fuelling hatred. This was quickly picked up on in the Duma: following initial calls the day after the attack to restrict the entry of migrants, on 25 March, a working group was already discussing the fact that there were ‘ethnic-national enclaves’ in Russia, consisting of migrants and people who have not had Russian citizenship since birth, which are a ‘serious factor in destabilising the domestic political situation’. Opposition media are already reporting the first attacks on people with (supposed) Tajik citizenship or origin.

The Kremlin cannot actually be happy with these developments. In addition to the popularised image of national unity in the war against Ukraine, Russia is also economically dependent on seasonal and migrant workers, particularly from Central Asia. It can therefore be assumed that attempts are being made to steer the public debate in a different direction — and to show a harsh reaction in a different way. The inhumane humiliation and display of the captured assassins, the search for blame with the West and Ukraine as well as the call for the reintroduction of the death penalty will therefore dominate state propaganda for the time being.

Putin, the president who brings stability and security to the citizens — this image is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. This security-focussed regime has so far avoided the trade-off between internal security and the simultaneous waging of a brutal war of aggression. The return of terror could now upset this balancing act.

Lisa Gürth

Berlin

Lisa Gürth is Deputy Head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Russia Programme.

CRIMINAL MONOPOLY  CAPITALI$M
Pair of Warner Bros. Discovery board members resign amid DOJ antitrust probe

BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO - 04/02/24 - THE HILL

Two members of Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) board have resigned amid an investigation from the Department of Justice into whether their presence on the body violated antitrust law.

Steven Miron and Steven Newhouse, both independent company directors, resigned from WBD’s board of directors Monday, the company said, after the DOJ made them aware they were under investigation.

Miron and Newhouse informed WBD that “without admitting any violation, and in light of the changing dynamics of competition in the entertainment industry, they elected to resign rather than to contest the matter.”

Miron is the chief executive of Charter Communications, and Newhouse is president of Advance, two of the largest media conglomerates in the country.

The DOJ had alleged the two executives’ presence on the board violated Section 8 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits the same person or company from serving simultaneously on the boards of competitors, subject to limited exceptions.

“Charter, through its Spectrum cable service, and WBD, including through its Max streaming subscription services, both provide video distribution services to customers,” the department said in a statement on Monday. “Representatives of the privately-held media company Advance Publications Inc. had designees on both Charter’s and WBD’s boards of directors.”

Miron and Newhouse were each appointed to the WBD board effective upon the closing of the merger between Discovery Inc. and WarnerMedia in 2022, and both were originally named by Discovery Inc. as two of its six designees to the WBD board, the company noted.

“Both Steve and Steven have been a great source of wise counsel and tremendous industry insight over the years, and they played an integral role in getting this new company up and running and on a path to long-term growth,” said David Zaslav, chief executive officer of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Egg Board says White House Easter policy existed under Trump after conservative attacks

BY NICK ROBERTSON - 04/01/24  - THE HILL

The American Egg Board and the Biden administration dismissed anger over the White House Easter Egg Roll and decorating contest Monday after conservatives criticized a decades-old policy banning religious symbolism.

A flyer for the annual White House egg decorating contest says participants “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.” The policy also bans any racist or bigoted symbolism.


Adding to GOP pushback to President Biden recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called the policy “appalling and insulting” to Christians, accusing Biden, a devout Catholic, of leading a “years-long assault on the Christian faith.”

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) was also among the politicians who aired concerns.

“Christ is King,” Collins wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in response to a Fox News post about the policy, which falsely claimed that it was new for this year.

But the American Egg Board clarified Sunday that the policy is part of the group’s standard requirements for public events and has been in place for decades.

“The American Egg Board has been a supporter of the White House Easter Egg Roll for over 45 years and the guideline language referenced in recent news reports has consistently applied to the board since its founding, across administrations,” CEO Emily Metz said in a statement.

The White House also shut down the criticism, with the first lady’s communications director Elizabeth Alexander dubbing the controversy a “misleading swirl.”

“The American Egg Board flyer’s standard non-discrimination language requesting artwork has been used for the last 45 years, across all Dem & Republican Admins — for all WH Easter Egg Rolls — incl previous Administration’s,” Alexander wrote on X.

The Trump campaign and conservatives also dinged Biden for recognizing Trans Day of Visibility, with some accusing Biden of pushing aside religion. Trans Day of Visibility falls on March 31 every year, making this year’s confluence with Easter a coincidence.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates responded to that criticism from former President Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and others Saturday.

“As a Christian who celebrates Easter with Family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American,” Bates said in a statement.

“Sadly, it’s unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric. President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit.”

Toplum TV – latest victim of Azerbaijan’s persecution of journalists



Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the arrests of five more journalists in Azerbaijan on trumped-up charges of “foreign currency smuggling,” on which they face up to eight years in prison. The five journalists with Toplum TV, a YouTube news channel, were serving the public interest with their reporting on corruption, says RSF, calling for the release of the three still held.

The five Toplum TV journalists are the latest victims of the harassment of independent media by the Azerbaijani authorities. They include its director, Alasgar Mammadli, who has been held since 8 March and whose provisional detention was extended for at least four months on 15 March although he has early-stage cancer requiring regular treatment. The police claim that they found 7,200 euros in cash at his home. On 25 March, his lawyer asked the European Court of Human Rights to rule that he is the victim of arbitrary detention.

Two of the other four journalists, Ilkin Amrakhov and Mushvig Jabbarov, are also still being held since a police raid on Toplum TV headquarters on 6 March, while the other two, Elmir Abbasov and Farid Ismailov, have been released under police control. The police also claim to have found 3,100 euros in cash at Ismailov’s home.

All are facing between three and five years in prison on clearly trumped-up charges of “foreign currency smuggling” – a charge previously used in November 2023 against journalists with Abzas Media, who accused the police of planting the money in order to have a pretext for arresting them.

“The government’s aim is clear – to clamp down on civil society and crush all dissenting voices. After eliminating all forms of political pluralism, President Ilham Aliyev is now trying to force independent media to toe the official line. We call on Azerbaijan’s partners to stop turning a blind eye to the sharp decline in respect for press freedom in this country and to act accordingly.
Jeanne Cavelier
Head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk

Investigative reporting on corrupt elites

The 6 March police raid on Toplum TV took place just hours after the German TV channel SWR broadcast a report about corruption in Azerbaijan's gas and oil sector in which Toplum TV editor-in-chief Khadija Ismailova appeared.

Ismailova, who spent more than a year and a half in prison following her arrest in 2014 in connection with her investigative reporting, was not present when the raid took place and she has not been arrested since then. But she was subjected to several intense interrogations and has been banned from leaving the country.

At least three people linked to Toplum TV, non-journalistic employees, were also arrested after the raid. And Mammadli’s brother-in-law, Aydin Aliyev, was fired by the clinic where he worked as a radiologist for sharing a video of Mammadli’s arrest.

The SWR report highlighted endemic corruption in the national gas and oil sector at a time when the European Union is planning to double its acquisitions of Azerbaijani gas by 2027 to replace Russian gas. The report also implicated several Azerbaijani gas industry executives in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese journalist killed by a bomb placed in her car in 2017. Such claims clearly undermine the attempts by Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s authoritarian president, to promote his country internationally as a respectable and attractive partner.

All-powerful Aliyev

Azerbaijan has been steadily stepping up its harassment of the media. Since a very controversial media bill was signed into law in 2022, the state had become increasingly authoritarian, violating its own constitution and international treaties ratified by Azerbaijan.

Awarded another term in a February 2024 election that was marred by irregularities and whose result was determined in advance, President Aliyev enjoys unprecedented popularity after winning a war against the self-proclaimed authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist enclave populated by Armenians.

Toplum TV is the Aliyev government’s third independent media victim in the past six months. First, journalists with the investigative media Abzas Media were arrested in November and then journalists with the Kanal 13 YouTube channel were arrested in December. Two other journalists, with the Turan Agentliyi news agency and the JAMNews site, were also arrested.

Smear campaigns have also been organised by government allies claiming that independent media and organisations that defend them, such as RSF, are acting as mouthpieces of the United States, France, and the West and suffer from “Azerbaijanophobia.”

Gallant considering how to prepare Israel for war in the north

ZIONIST IMPERIALISM EXPANDS WAR TO MENA

Defense Minister to launch public campaign to explain what Israelis can expect in the case of a full-scale war with Hezbollah although officials debate its content; Gallant also concerned of Nasrallah reaction to such a campaign

Yosi Yehoshua|

Ynet can reveal on Tuesday, that a meeting was held last Thursday to present Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, with how best to prepare Israelis for a full-blown war against Hezbollah in the north.

Assuming Israel is responsible for the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, on Monday, there is a real need to prepare the entire public for a full-scale confrontation with Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons. 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
(Photo: Shahar Yurman)

Gallant instructed the officials to conduct a survey of how the public would perceive the possibility of war, to determine how best to present information in preparation for such an eventuality. There is consensus among officials about the need for a public campaign although what it would include is still being debated.
The Defense Minister was reportedly concerned not only of the Israeli public's response to the increasing probability of war, but also of the reaction of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to such a public awareness campaign.

Nasrallah is thought to be a compulsive follower of Israeli media and has often analyzed public sentiment in Israel in his speeches. He may therefore view such a campaign as an opportunity to intensify the military conflict with Israel. He has already achieved a strategic win in the evacuation of citizens from communities close to the Lebanon border, but has also suffered considerable losses in the months of fighting, his elite Radwan forces have been pushed back some five kilometers from the border, and there has been growing pressure within Lebanon to avoid war.


Hassan Nasrallah

The dilemma of the campaign has been haunting IDF's top brass since around 2006. Even if the media focuses on the precise number of Hezbollah missiles, the prevailing opinion is that most people either don't know or prefer to ignore the facts. For instance, Hezbollah can launch as many rockets in a day as Hamas did on October 7, namely 4,000.
"We need to hurry up with the campaign," summarized the informed source. "Citizens need to know exactly what we're preparing for. Not to panic, but to raise awareness. To prepare rather than procrastinate. It doesn't mean a full-scale war will break out tomorrow, but defense is critical because implementing preparedness saves lives. We see it with Iron Dome: the number of casualties on the home front is very low compared to the number of missiles fired at Israel. The public is receptive to guidelines and needs to act the same way in case of a full-blown confrontation with Hezbollah."

Balkan rivers: "Water is never just water"

The defence of rivers and water: a highly symbolic struggle which in recent years has successfully mobilised very different layers of the societies of south-eastern Europe, bringing to light both potential and contradictions. An interview

02/04/2024 - Marco Ranocchiari

The social movement for the defence of rivers, attacked by the "tsunami" of over three thousand hydroelectric power plants, is among the most complex and successful ones in the Balkan countries. These struggles have fuelled hope in a sustainable future for the environment and society throughout south-eastern Europe, including the heroic resistance of the women of Kruščica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, who occupied a bridge for 500 days; the protests in the Balkan mountains in Serbia which, after harsh clashes with the police, became the driving force behind the rebirth of depopulated areas; the Vjosa affair in Albania, where the first river national park in Europe is being created. Capable of mobilising very different groups, these movements are however far from free of contradictions. Ivan Rajković, an anthropologist at the University of Vienna who has studied them extensively in Serbia, called them "ecopopulists".

Ivan Rajković, the objective of these movements is apparently very concrete: to prevent intact river ecosystems, with which the local population still maintains a close relationship, from being compromised in exchange for poor energy yield. Yet, you argue that these struggles are much more universal. What is the symbolism of water and what role does it play in these mobilisations?

Water is never just water. While the protests explicitly state that all life depends on water, in fact the meaning attributed to it is as different as the people who participate in the struggles. I argue that water has become the equivalent of what Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe called the "floating signifier", an umbrella term for connecting many different social groups, to create a new form of community.

Can you explain some of these meanings?

Since it flows and cannot be stopped, water is seen as the ultimate limit to the privatisation that characterises our time. But its value extends to other injustices, to the right to remain and live in a place, it can mark a symbolic return to the original village of the families of those who protest, especially if they have become unemployed or precarious workers in the city. Then obviously there are those who directly depend on the waterways under attack to survive, such as farmers and shepherds who use them to irrigate and water their livestock. But there is also a highly educated and urban middle class, made up mainly of young people, who sees water as a symbol of the possibility of returning to their ancestral and rural lands after having experienced unemployment in an urban context. Or, more in general, as a symbol of struggle against the party in power in Serbia.

Referring to these movements, you defined them as ecopopulist. Why?

When I say populist, I don't necessarily mean something negative. The better word would perhaps be "popular", but populism remains a very useful term: it means that a certain social movement speaks in the name of the people, and claims that the underprivileged, the oppressed, are more representative of the entire population than their official representatives. In this case, ecology is a vehicle for achieving broader popular universality.

We are used to thinking of environmental movements as rooted in urbanised environments, with middle-class and liberal supporters...

So far these protests have been completely different: they have mainly affected people living in peripheral rural areas or smaller cities. Often these are older people, which disproves the prejudice that only young people want to change things. The fact is that we find ourselves in frontier terrain, the energy transition, some aspects of which are outsourced to different peripheries of the world. Including the Balkans, which for some are nothing more than a forgotten corner of Europe.

New mining excavations, new hydroelectric power plants and so on have often translated into new environmental injustices that have affected rural areas that have been in the throes of demographic decline for decades, and in this vacuum (or at least perceived as such) many investors thought they could easily realise their own projects. All of this has led to what some scholars have described as "poor environmentalism." It does not mean that those who participate are necessarily poor, but that they defend the environment because they actually depend on it, not because they perceive it as something beautiful to enjoy.

Later, another type of environmentalism arrived, that of "discontent": the struggles became the symbol of dissatisfaction with the current political regime, the growing inequalities, the unequal possibilities of social reproduction which determine the impossibility of living life to the full.

Different groups lead to different positions: as you argue, we are not all in the same boat...

Like everything else, environmentalism is not free from broader power relations. Conflicts exist, there are different voices. Highly educated people, whom we might call urban middle-class liberal ecologists, certainly have more symbolic capital to channel than other groups. In the countryside, trivially, there are those who have the money to start an ecotourism business born from the spirit of the protests themselves and those who don't. Employers and the unemployed. And even among those who live from the environment, there is a huge difference between those who have retired after a life in a factory and are trying to get by with a few sheep, and the large, wealthy farmers.

These movements were born from below, but an important role was also played by international NGOs, the academic community, and even brands, albeit environmentally conscious ones, such as Patagonia...

Consider, for example, on the one hand the women of Kruščica in Bosnia, who defended their river strenuously for months. And on the other hand, other women, members of environmental organisations, perhaps living in other cities or even other countries, who helped them with legal support and getting media attention, and tried to articulate their local struggles into something wider. The first group depends directly on the river, the second does not. I also include myself and other academics, you journalists, left-wing environmental groups and everyone who, in some way, is extracting value from what these people are doing. I don't mean to say that we have different agendas, but that how one makes a living influences the profound way in which one becomes an environmental actor. We must always consider the risk that the most powerful groups, which have some type of financial or symbolic capital, will take over the scene at some point.

Let's get to the concrete cases. The protests in defence of the Stara Planina, the Balkan mountains, play a decisive role in the history of these movements. What characterises them most?

I have been following the protests since 2018, in Pirot, and I was immediately struck by how positively the movement allowed differences to emerge. Each speaker spoke as if there were – let's say – fifteen people speaking: they underlined what was specific to them as a person and what characterised the place they came from, without neglecting the generation, class or place of origin, and everyone tried to connect with each other through the imagery of water.

Shortly thereafter, some of the toughest battles were recorded on Stara Planina, leading to historic victories. Topli Do, which we also covered, has become a national case...

When the Topli Do protests were organised, there was already a history of struggles against hydropower. In the village of Temska, along the same stream, there had been much fighting since the 1980s. And then in Rakita, in Vlaška, which are not located on the Stara Planina, but in any case in a neighbouring area, on the border with Bulgaria. The movement has been able to capitalise on those experiences, both in concrete discussions with investors and law enforcement agencies and in communication. Thanks to the work of activists on social networks, Topli Do has become a symbol of larger injustices. For most people, I believe, the events of Stara Planina had great resonance because it was one of the most neglected and depopulated areas, which reminded many of the villages of their parents or grandparents who were abandoned, and also for this turned out to be a victorious struggle.

Kruščica, Bosnia and Herzegovina-

 © Alem Sabanovic/Shutterstock

In the end, did contradictions emerge there too?

I am not a specific expert on Topli Do and I don't want to talk about micro-cases, however – despite it being one of the first victories – in my opinion the story of this village could give pause to other places in the struggle. In this village, in my opinion, after the victory there was a certain type of appropriation of the struggle. Attention soon shifted from the symbolism of water as a common good to the fate of Topli Do itself.

Since then the village has followed a different destiny from the surrounding ones: the rebirth has led to a sort of touristisation, and throughout the area we can already observe a notable increase in prices, which has begun to have an impact on the people, mostly poor, who had resisted depopulation. And an ideological revival of monarchist and capitalist values has also been observed, ideas in open contradiction to the original anti-privatisation sentiments against hydroelectric power plants. The insurgency has become a brand.

A nationalist turn which, from what I have seen, is not shared by the majority of people who participate or sympathise with these protests. What could be a way for these movements to overcome their contradictions?

I think we should stop avoiding these contradictions or, worse, sweeping them under the carpet. On the contrary, we should expose them. Otherwise you face a real risk: you are defending an asset from a large investor, until the fight brings everyone to an agreement. But then a smaller one arrives, who is not hostile or who comes from the same movement, and suddenly you realise that they are speaking on behalf of the others. And they also invest in something that benefit them.

If we want to carry out a new progressive policy of environmentalism we must not necessarily take one side or the other, but admit that we are unequal and that we come from very different positions and perspectives. Populism is not a bad thing, but it poses an inevitable challenge to any authentic pluralist liberation struggle.

This article was produced as part of the Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI ), a project co-funded by the European Commission. Responsibility for the contents of this publication lies with Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa and does not in any way reflect the opinion of the European Union. Go to the project page