Russia ‘rigged elections' to ‘control' Georgia
Last year's election removed Salome Zourabichvili as president in Georgia.
The result cemented the Russia-friendly Georgia Dream party's control of the country, but saw widespread reports of vote-buying, ballot box stuffing and voter intimidation.
We discussed the complication of how for millions of Georgians, she is the legitimate president and what she is now doing in opposition to the current government.
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Reuters
27 minutes ago
- Reuters
North Korea's Kim vows unconditional support for Russia in meeting with Shoigu
SEOUL, June 5 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Russia's Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday, state media KCNA reported. Kim pledged unconditional support for Russia's position on Ukraine and other international issues, the report said on Thursday. "Kim Jong Un affirmed that the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will, in the future, too, unconditionally support the stand of Russia and its foreign policies," it said, using the North's official name. North Korea will responsibly observe the articles of the treaty between the two countries, Kim was quoted as saying. The two men also discussed strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership and mutual cooperation in different fields. The treaty was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Pyongyang last year and a summit with North Korea's Kim, and includes a mutual defence pact for immediate military assistance if either faces armed aggression.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Kremlin and Trump aides raise nuclear war fears after Ukraine drone strike
As Vladimir Putin pledges to retaliate against Ukraine for last weekend's unprecedented drone attack, Kremlin advisers and figures around Donald Trump have told the US president that the risk of a nuclear confrontation is growing, in an attempt to pressure him to further reduce US support for Ukraine. Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund and an important intermediary between the Kremlin and Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, called the Ukrainian drone strike an attack on 'Russian nuclear assets', and echoed remarks from Maga-friendly figures warning of the potential for a third world war. 'Clear communication is urgent – to grasp reality and the rising risks before it's too late,' Dmitriev wrote, adding a dove emoji. Ukraine claimed that the strike damaged more than 40 Russian planes, including Tu-95 and Tu-22M heavy bombers that have been used to launch cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities throughout the war, killing thousands and damaging crucial infrastructure that delivers heat and electricity to millions more. But those planes can also carry weapons armed with nuclear warheads, and are part of a nuclear triad along with submarine and silo-based missiles that form the basis for a system of deterrence between Russia and the United States. After a phone call between the two leaders on Wednesday, Trump said: 'President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.' Ukraine voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994, in return for security assurances from the US, the UK and Russia. Those skeptical of US support for Ukraine are seizing on the risks of a nuclear confrontation to argue that the conflict could possibly spin out of control. Maga (Make America great again) influencers such as Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk have openly condemned the drone attack, with Bannon likening the strike to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and Kirk writing: 'Most people aren't paying attention, but we're closer to nuclear war than we've been since this began in 2022.' But more centrist advisers within the Trump camp – including some who have closer links to Ukraine – are also warning that the risks of a nuclear conflict are growing as they seek to maintain Trump's interest in brokering a peace. 'The risk levels are going way up,' Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told Fox News. 'When you attack an opponent's part of their [nuclear] triad, your risk level goes up because you don't know what the other side is going to do. And that's what they did.' Kellogg also repeated rumours that Ukraine had struck the Russian nuclear fleet at Severomorsk, although reports of an explosion there have not been confirmed. He said the US was 'trying to avoid' an escalation. Other current and former members of the administration skeptical of US support for Ukraine have also vocally opposed the drone strikes. 'It is not in America's interest for Ukraine to be attacking Russia's strategic nuclear forces the day before another round of peace talks,' said Dan Caldwell, an influential foreign policy adviser who was a senior aide to Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon until he was purged amid a leaking scandal last month. 'This has the potential to be highly escalatory and raises the risk of direct confrontation between Russia and Nato,' he said. 'US should not only distance itself from this attack but end any support that could directly or indirectly enable attacks against Russian strategic nuclear forces.' It is not the first time that concerns over Russia's use of a nuclear weapon have been used to try to temper US support for Ukraine. As Moscow's forces were routed near Kharkiv and in the south at Kherson in September 2022, Russian officials sent signals that the Kremlin was considering using a battlefield nuclear weapon, senior Biden officials have said. National security officials said they believed that if the Russian lines collapsed and left open the potential for a Ukrainian attack on Crimea, then there was a 50% chance that Russia would use a nuclear weapon as a result. Ukrainian officials have responded by saying that Russia has embellished its threats of a nuclear attack in order to blackmail the US from giving greater support to Ukraine.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Are the surprise airfield attacks a turning point for Ukraine?
Three days on, and Ukraine is still digesting the full implications of Operation Spider's Web, Sunday's massive assault on Russia's strategic Wednesday, the agency which orchestrated the attack, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), released additional, vivid footage of the attacks in progress, as well as tantalising glimpses into how the whole complex operation was images that have emerged since Sunday, showing the wrecked outlines of planes sitting on the tarmac at the Olenya, Ivanovo, Dyagilevo and Belaya airbases, also help tell the story of the operation's unprecedented Ukrainian observers, the whole operation, a year-and-a -half in the making, remains a marvel."This can be considered one of the most brilliant operations in our history," Roman Pohorlyi, founder of the DeepState, a group of Ukrainian military analysts, told me."We've shown that we can be strong, we can be creative and we can destroy our enemies no matter how far away they are."It's important to note that almost all the information that has emerged since Sunday has been released by the SBU with its own success, it is keen to cast the operation in the best possible light. Its information campaign has been helped by the fact that the Kremlin has said almost to the media on Wednesday after handing out medals to SBU officers involved in the operation, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky repeated the claim that 41 aircraft had been damaged or destroyed."Half of them cannot be restored," he said, "and some will take years to repair, if they can be restored at all."Had a ceasefire been in place, he added, Operation Spider's Web would not have happened. Putin will seek revenge for Ukraine drone attack, warns TrumpSatellite images show Russian bombers destroyed in Ukraine attackHow Ukraine carried out daring 'Spider Web' attack on Russian bombers The latest four-minute compilation released by the SBU shows a number of key from the perspective of some of the 117 drones involved, we see Russian strategic bombers, transport aircraft and airborne warning and control (AWACS) being hunted can be seen raging on a number of stricken the first time, we get glimpses under the wings of some of the bombers, revealing that they were already armed with cruise missiles, which Russia has used to devastating effect in its air raids on drones, many flown remotely by a separate pilot, sitting far away in Ukraine, are carefully and precisely aimed at vulnerable points, including fuel tanks located in the of the resulting fireballs also suggest the tanks were full of fuel, ready for take off. One significant section of the video shows drones homing in on two Beriev A-50s, giant AWACS aircraft first produced in the Soviet all the aircraft targeted by Operation Spider's Web, the A-50, with its radar capable of seeing targets and threats more than 600km (372 miles) away, is arguably the most the full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia was thought to operate around nine A-50s. Before last Sunday, as many as three had been shot down or damaged in an earlier drone latest footage strongly implies that drones hit the circular radar domes of the two A-50s parked at the Ivanovo Severny airbase, north-east of since the video feed cuts out at the moment of impact, this is hard to completely imagery, which clearly displays the wreckage of numerous bombers, is inconclusive when it comes to the Russia's fleet of these crucial aircraft could now be down to as few as four."Restarting production of the A-50 is presently highly unlikely, due to difficulties with import substitution and the destruction of production facilities," defence analyst Serhii Kuzan told me."As such, every loss of this type of aircraft constitutes a strategic problem for Russia, one it cannot quickly compensate for." Earlier on Wednesday, the SBU offered a brief glimpse into another of Sunday's remarkable features: the use of specially constructed containers, mounted on flatbed trucks, to transport armed drones to sites close to the four Russian videos show a truck carrying what appear to be two wooden mobile homes, complete with windows and one video, roof panels are clearly visible. Reports suggest these were retracted or otherwise removed shortly before the attacks began, allowing dozens of drones stored inside to take not known when or where the videos were filmed, although snow visible beside the road in one suggests it could have been weeks or months another video, posted on a Russian Telegram channel on Sunday, a police officer was seen entering the back of one of the containers in the wake of the later, the container exploded, suggesting it may have been booby-trapped. How to assess the impact of such a spectacular operation?"From a military point of view, this is a turning point in the war," aviation expert Anatolii Khrapchynskyi told me."Because we have dealt a significant blow to Russia's image and the capabilities of the Russian Federation."A little over three months after Donald Trump berated Volodymyr Zelensky, telling him he had "no cards," Ukraine has offered an emphatic riposte."Ukraine has shown the whole world that Russia is actually weak and cannot defend itself internally," Khrapchynskyi that doesn't mean that Russia is about to change his latest conversation with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump said the two leaders had discussed Ukraine's attacks."It was a good conversation," President Trump posted on Truth Social, "but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.""President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields."
