Russia jails senior defence official for 13 years in corruption trial
Russian former deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov was found guilty of corruption and condemned to 13 years in a penal colony on Tuesday, the harshest sentence yet in a series of graft cases against defence officials.
Ivanov was arrested in April 2024 on suspicion of taking bribes, and investigators added new embezzlement charges in October. More than a dozen people, including two other former deputy ministers, have been arrested in investigations into separate cases.
The trial was closed on grounds of state secrecy. Anton Filatov, a former logistics company boss on trial with Ivanov, received a 12-1/2 year sentence.
State media reported that the total sum embezzled was 4.1 billion roubles ($48.8 million), mostly in the form of bank transfers to two foreign accounts.
Ivanov, who pleaded not guilty, was stripped of all state awards and the court confiscated 2.5 billion roubles worth of property, cars and cash from him.
Russian media said he and his wife owned a luxury apartment in central Moscow, a three-storey English-style mansion on the outskirts of the capital and an extensive collection of classic cars including a Bentley and an Aston Martin.
Russia's "Z-bloggers", an influential group of war correspondents, have voiced outrage at the scale of corruption reported in the defence establishment while young Russians are dying fighting in Ukraine.
One blogger, Alexander Kots, said 13 years was a long sentence but corrupt defence officials should be put on trial in wartime as "traitors to the Motherland".
SHOIGU DEPUTIES
Ivanov had since 2016 been responsible at the defence ministry for big logistics contracts including those related to property management, housing and medical care.
He was a deputy to Sergei Shoigu, who was replaced as defence minister last year but retains an important role as secretary of President Vladimir Putin's Security Council.
Two of Shoigu's other former deputies have been arrested in separate investigations. In April, the former deputy head of the army's general staff, Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin, was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
The prosecutions signal a drive by Putin to clamp down on graft, inefficiency and waste in Russia's huge military budget as it wages war in Ukraine. Defence spending accounts for 32% of the federal budget this year.
Ukraine has also moved to clamp down on military corruption. A deputy defence minister in charge of weapons purchases was sacked in January, while in April authorities accused five suspects of involvement in a procurement scandal. REUTERS
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Trump withholds nearly $8.9 billion for schools, with little explanation
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The withholding of dollars threw school district budgets into uncertainty, with only weeks to go before the start of school in many parts of the country. WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has declined to release nearly US$7 billion (S$8.91 billion) in federal funding that helps pay for after-school and summer programmes, support for students learning English, teacher training and other services. The money was expected to be released by July 1. But in an email on June 30, the Education Department notified state education agencies that the money would not be available. The administration offered little explanation, saying only that the funds were under review. It gave no timeline for when, or if, the money would be released, saying instead that it was 'committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the president's priorities.' The frozen funds are unrelated to the millions of dollars in cuts included in the domestic policy Bill that squeaked through the Senate on July 1. 'It's catastrophic,' said Ms Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, a group that works to expand after-school services for students. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World US Senate approves divisive Trump spending Bill World Trump escalates feud with Musk, threatens Tesla, SpaceX support Singapore A second chance to excel: 3,800 private candidates taking O- and A-level exams in 2025 Multimedia Right on track: Meet the new JB-Singapore RTS Link train Singapore 'He fought till the end': Man who survived acid attack as a baby dies of cancer at 26 Business Binance to keep hundreds of staff in Singapore despite crackdown, sources say Opinion US strikes on Iran: The impact ripples on, from Baghdad to Beijing Asia Thai PM's suspension could spell end of Shinawatra clan's era of political dominance She estimated that the federal dollars for after-school and summer-school programs – about US$1.3 billion annually – support 1.4 million students, mostly lower income, representing about 20 per cent of all students in after-school programmes nationally. The move is likely to be challenged in court and has already been criticised as illegal by Democrats and teachers' unions, who emphasised that the money had been appropriated by Congress and was approved by President Donald Trump in March as part of a broader funding Bill. 'This is lawless,' said Ms Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. The administration has taken an aggressive approach to cutting back the federal government's role in education, including plans to eliminate the Education Department entirely. Though only Congress can abolish the department, the Trump administration has taken an axe to education staffing and funding more broadly as it seeks to whittle down the department. The administration has suggested that it may seek to eliminate the nearly US$7 billion in frozen funding. Mr Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week that the administration was considering ways to claw back the funding through a process known as rescission. The administration would formally ask lawmakers to claw back a set of funds it has targeted for cuts. Even if Congress fails to vote on the request, the president's timing would trigger a law that freezes the money until it ultimately expires. 'No decision has been made,' Mr Vought said. The withholding of dollars on July 1 threw school district budgets into uncertainty, with only weeks to go before the start of school in many parts of the country. Ms Heidi Sipe, the superintendent in Umatilla, Oregon, a low-income, rural district, said her district's after-school programme has traditionally gone until 4.45pm or 5.30pm, and was fully funded through federal dollars. 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One of the newest programmes, known as Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants, has been in place for a decade, supporting many services for issues like mental health and school technology. That law that authorised those grants received broad bipartisan support, including from Representative Tim Walberg of Michigan and Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, both Republicans who are now the chairs of the education committees in their respective chambers. But criticism about cutting funding for these programmes has largely been limited to Democrats. 'Every day that this funding is held up is a day that school districts are forced to worry about whether they'll have to cut back on after-school programmes or lay off teachers instead of worrying about how to make sure our kids can succeed,' Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat who is the vice- chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. NYTIMES
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
‘No hope on my salary': Young South Koreans turn to early investing
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox South Korea has one of the world's highest rates of elderly poverty among advanced economies. SEOUL - Twenty-eight-year-old Kim goes on a five-hour trip to Ulsan, or any other region, as soon as she gets off work on a weekday. Not for sightseeing or to visit friends, but for property viewing. 'I get off work at 6pm then head to Seoul Station to go for imjang - a Korean term for site visit or field research on real estate properties - in different regions,' she told The Korea Herald. But she is not looking for a home to live in - she is looking to invest. Over the past two years, Ms Kim has spent 10 million won (S$9,370) on investment courses. What she learned was simple, if sobering: With her current income, saving will never buy her a home. Investing is her only option. Among her preferred strategies is a method known as 'gap investment', which leverages Korea's unique jeonse lease system. Under a jeonse lease, tenants pay a lump-sum deposit, often 60 to 80 per cent of the home's value, instead of monthly rent. Landlords hold the deposit during the lease, usually to earn interest from a bank, and return it in full at the end of the contract. For investors, this opens a door: Buy a property by paying only the difference, or 'gap', between the property's market price and the jeonse deposit. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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To acquire what she has now, Ms Kim has spent every weekend walking over 20km each day to study neighbourhoods - their environments, schools, and proximity to public transportation and other facilities - all the elements that factor into buying a house. 'Using all my free time to study and go for imjang is exhausting. I'm sacrificing my youth so I won't suffer in old age,' Ms Kim said. 'And to have that stable life is absolutely impossible with my current salary,' she said. 'I earn 4 million won a month, and the apartments in Seoul cost over 2 billion. Even if I didn't spend a penny of my salary and saved it all, it would take over 40 years to buy a house, which by then would be much more expensive.' Strategic sacrifice Ms Kim is not alone. A growing number of young South Koreans are turning to aggressive investment tactics, seeking financial stability in the face of an uncertain future. 'This is hard to believe. We used to start property investment in our 40s and 50s. But now I'm taking an investment course with a 25-year-old,' said a 45-year-old surnamed Chae. Informal 'imjang crews' now walk neighbourhoods together, sharing information and strategies. This rise in financial self-discipline extends beyond courses and walking tours. Social media is fuelling the trend. The number of Instagram posts with the Korean hashtag 'investment' is over 2.3 million, along with property-related investment posts amounting to over 1.6 million. The online platform where Ms Kim learned her skills, Weolbu - short for 'salaried and rich' - has ballooned to over 1.5 million users in less than 18 months - 10 times its size in 2023. The company's profits more than doubled, from 18.3 billion won in 2022 to 50.8 billion won in 2024. 'Becoming a financially secure salaried worker is my dream,' said 30-year-old Choi Hyun-sik, who is currently enrolled in an investment course. 'I want to use my salary as a baseline and earn more through smart investments so I can afford a house and prepare for retirement.' a popular Instagram influencer who focuses on providing real estate investment strategies, particularly gap investment, has amassed over 70,000 followers - 80 per cent of them in their 20s and 30s. 'I started this Instagram to help those in their 20s and 30s who don't have much money to put toward buying an apartment in Seoul but still want to grab this kind of opportunity,' he told The Korea Herald. attributes the current investment craze to the fear young Koreans experienced as the COVID-19 pandemic roiled the economy. 'In 2021, there was a surge in real estate prices in South Korea. Due to Covid-19, the government released a lot of funds for small businesses and those who lost their jobs. With the added liquidity, the value (of money) dropped and housing prices skyrocketed. 'The government put restrictions in place to contain the sudden rise, but people flocked to apartments that did not have restrictions, which led to demand soaring in those areas, and in turn to higher prices,' he explained. The psychological effect, he noted, was profound. 'Many in my generation felt an urgency: If we don't act now, we'll never catch up.' 'When the price of apartments soared, many people thought they would never be able to buy a house in their lifetimes. The sudden gap between those who own a house and those who don't widened, and many young people began to think they had to prepare for the future fast,' he explained. And it is not just any house people want to own — it's an apartment in Seoul, he added. For many, owning an apartment in Seoul is a symbol of success and security, an ultimate life goal in South Korean society. 'Seoul apartments carry enormous symbolic weight,' said 'They aren't just a place to live. They're a milestone - something that proves you've made it.' Unlike speculative cryptocurrency frenzies or meme stock booms, this investment behaviour is deeply rooted in structural fear - particularly about ageing. Anxious about the future Many young Koreans are more scared than ever about their future. 'Thinking about getting old, I get depressed. What would happen if I can't buy a home on my current salary? How can I have children and raise them? How will I take care of myself in the future with the pension crisis we face right now?' said a 28-year-old surnamed Choi, who works at a major conglomerate. South Korea has one of the world's highest rates of elderly poverty among advanced economies. According to the OECD, 40.4 per cent of South Koreans aged 66 and over lived in relative poverty as of 2020 - defined as earning less than half the national median income. That is nearly three times the OECD average and significantly higher than comparable countries: Japan (20.2 per cent), the US (22.8 per cent), and Estonia (34.6 per cent). For many young South Koreans, this is a harrowing glimpse of their own future. 'The fear is real,' said Professor Yoon In-jin, a sociologist at Korea University. He attributes the young Koreans' desperation to invest to structural and generational change. 'From a social structural perspective, from the 1960s to the 1990s, Korea was in the era of constant growth. So young people at that time were focused more on bigger causes like community, society and the nation. As they witnessed their lives getting better, they didn't fear what the future would bring,' Professor Yoon explained. Professor Yoon added that the phenomenon is the result of a unique feature of this generation. 'Young people today are more realistic, more individualistic. They know the economy isn't growing like it did in the past. They doubt pensions will still be solvent when they retire. They can't rely on the government or the system. So they turn to property.' Professor Yoon points to a shift in generational values. 'Their parents lived through high-growth decades. They (parents) believed that if you worked hard and saved, you'd be okay. That belief doesn't hold anymore. 'Today's young adults were raised in smaller families, often as only children, and they've grown up with strong parental support - but in a society that's no longer economically expanding.' This inward focus, while understandable, carries risks. 'I worry about where this hyper-individualism could lead,' Professor Yoon said. 'As young people focus on their own success, they sometimes end up with a growing hostility toward social minorities, such as immigrants, people with disabilities, women and lower-income groups,' he added. Though starting one's interest in finance and investment is crucial and is good for the economy, he said, that way of twisting individualism into resentment toward minorities is something to be cautious about. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
Straits Times
an hour ago
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Two contrasting cases raise questions of Pope Leo's actions on sex abuse
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Our Lady of Reconciliation, a parish once run by Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, in Lima, Peru. CHICLAYO, Peru – The contrasts are glaring. In one case, Pope Leo XIV – then known as Bishop Robert Prevost – sided with victims of sexual abuse, locking horns with powerful Catholic figures in Peru. He sought justice for victims of a cult-like Catholic movement that recruited the children of elite families and used sexual and psychological abuse to subordinate members. In another case, he was accused of failing to sufficiently investigate claims by three women that they had been abused as children by priests. The accused were two priests in cardinal Prevost's diocese in a small Peruvian city, including one who had worked closely with the bishop, according to two people who work for the church. As Pope Leo settles into the papacy, leading the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, his handling of clergy sexual abuse will be closely scrutinised, and the two cases have left him open to starkly diverging judgments: praise for helping victims in one, claims that he let them down in the other. In the first, victims have hailed as heroic his work taking on the ultraconservative group, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, which had grown more influential after Pope John Paul II gave it his pontifical stamp of approval. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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As he rose through the Vatican's ranks, cardinal Prevost kept increasing the pressure on Sodalitium, which was ordered to disband only weeks before he became the first American to lead the Catholic Church. In the second case, in the northern Peruvian city of Chiclayo, the three women and victims' advocates say, cardinal Prevost conducted a superficial investigation that led the Vatican to close the case relatively quickly. They also say that despite a church order prohibiting one of the accused priests, the Reverend Eleuterio Vásquez, from practicing amid the inquiry, he continued leading public Masses. Photographs and video posted on Facebook and verified by The New York Times showed Reverend Vásquez leading church ceremonies during the investigation, raising questions among some critics about what oversight, if any, Cardinal Prevost put in place to ensure that victims were protected from a potential abuser. Vatican guidelines discourage 'simply transferring' an accused priest to another parish while an investigation is ongoing. Cardinal Prevost also appointed a priest, the Reverend Julio Ramírez, to counsel the women. Reverend Ramírez warned them that they should not expect much accountability from Rome because their abuse had not involved 'penetration'. 'I don't want it to sound bad,' Reverend Ramírez told one of the women in a recorded telephone conversation, a copy of which was obtained by the Times. 'Nor are we defending him. But since it hasn't reached a situation – I know what you've experienced is traumatic – but it hasn't reached a situation of rape, it seems that they've given priority to other cases.' The Vatican says Cardinal Prevost followed church protocol after the women went to him with their abuse claims, conducting an initial investigation and sending his findings to Rome, where a final decision would be made. Mr Ulices Damián, a lawyer for the Chiclayo diocese, said it was 'false' that the bishop did nothing to help the women. 'He acted in accordance with the procedures,' he said. The Times also identified a second case of a priest accused of abusing a minor who was able to continue his clerical duties for years while Cardinal Prevost led the diocese in Chiclayo – even after the church ordered the priest to cease work in his parish while an investigation was conducted. The Vatican has struggled to rebuild trust after years of clergy misconduct and what advocates for abuse victims say has been a woeful response by church leaders. The Vatican's existing rules to protect children, even if the pope followed them when he was in Chiclayo, are one of the fundamental problems, advocates say, failing to provide full accountability or justice. Activists have asked for changes that include a universal zero-tolerance law, which would permanently remove from ministry clergy who are found guilty by a church tribunal of abuse or covering up wrongdoing. Currently, only Catholic authorities in the United States have imposed such standards. The law would also mandate independent oversight of bishops handling abuse cases. In Pope Leo's past, some see a man who will take strong steps against abuse. Some of Sodalitium's victims say the criticism of his actions in Chiclayo has been exaggerated and amplified by forces favorably disposed to Sodalitium, as an act of retaliation. 'He was never at all an indifferent, indolent or cowardly bishop,' said Mr Pedro Salinas, a journalist and Sodalitium abuse victim. But others look at the pope's time in Chiclayo and see a man who will push few boundaries when it comes to rooting out abuse. 'Survivors don't trust him,' said Mr Peter Isely, a founding member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. 'He's going to have to prove his trust and he's going to have to bend over backwards to prove it.' 'Half monk, half soldier' The reporting stunned the Catholic establishment. Just as Cardinal Prevost took over as leader of the Chiclayo diocese in 2015, two Peruvian journalists released a book containing shocking details about Sodalitium, which was founded in 1971 by a layman, Luis Fernando Figari. The book, Half Monk, Half Soldier, by Salinas and Paola Ugaz, said the group evolved into a fanatical far-right movement with a culture of sexual abuse. In a subsequent independent inquiry, investigators, including a former FBI official, found that Figari would use a whip with metal points to punish members, make his dog bite them, burn them with a lit candle and make them wear a belt that caused electric shocks. In interviews with the Times, several survivors said few church leaders in Peru were willing to take their claims seriously. Of those who did, 'the most important was Robert Prevost,' said Mr Oscar Osterling, who recalled Figari summoning him as a youth, making him strip naked and filming him. Dozens of victims eventually came forward. Sodalitium members included Archbishop José Antonio Eguren, a powerful church leader in the north-west city of Piura, a three-hour drive from Chiclayo. In 2018, Cardinal Prevost helped organise a meeting in Lima, the capital of Peru, between senior clergy and Sodalitium victims, helping them obtain mental health counseling and financial payments, victims said. For a bishop in the Peruvian church, taking such measures was trailblazing. For years, prominent Catholic clergy opted to look the other way even as victim after victim came forward with harrowing tales of sexual, physical and psychological abuse by Sodalitium's leaders. 'I can't stay quiet' Though he was called a champion for victims of Sodalitium, the three women from a working-class neighborhood in Chiclayo who claimed they had been victims of clerical abuse say they received very different treatment. It started with a visit they made to the future pope in 2022. As children, they told Cardinal Prevost, they had been abused by two priests in the diocese. One, Reverend Vásquez, had taken two of the girls to a mountain retreat on separate occasions, they later told a news outlet, Cuarto Poder, and he had gotten into bed with them. 'He started lifting me up and rubbing me on him,' one of the women told the television program. She was 11 at the time, according to the news report, and said she did not understand what was happening. One of the women, Ms Ana María Quispe, now 29, has since spoken out extensively on TikTok and Facebook and in Peruvian media, and said she had decided to go to Cardinal Prevost because she was haunted by the idea that her silence might have let an abuser continue to do harm. 'This could happen to my daughter,' she said on TikTok. 'I can't stay quiet – no more cowardice.' Ms Quispe said on TikTok that Cardinal Prevost told the women he believed them and even encouraged them to report the abuse to civil authorities, which they did. But then, Ms Quispe said, not much seemed to happen. The diocese claimed in public statements that Reverend Vásquez had been 'prohibited' from celebrating Mass amid an investigation. Social media posts reviewed by the Times, however, showed him continuing to participate publicly in Mass at least three times during the period the Vatican said an inquiry was being conducted. He was even photographed jointly officiating Mass with Cardinal Prevost. In abuse cases, Vatican guidelines instruct church leaders to conduct an initial investigation and send their findings to Rome. The Vatican suggests that leaders assemble testimony and establish basic facts, but gives them broad latitude in deciding what to report to higher-ups. A spokesperson for the Vatican, Mr Matteo Bruni, said Cardinal Prevost's investigation went 'beyond the requisites' and included receiving a written report from the women and searching the archives of the diocese for similar accusations against Reverend Vásquez. Prosecutors in Peru closed their civil investigation in 2022, according to the diocese, the same year the women went to Prevost with their accusations, because the claims went back so many years that they fell outside the statute of limitations. Prosecutors declined to comment. The Vatican closed its own investigation into the women's claims in August 2023, citing the decision by civil authorities and a lack of evidence. In the other case in Chiclayo identified by the Times, the diocese had ordered a priest, the Reverend Alfonso Raúl Obando, accused of sexually abusing a minor, to stop any clerical work in his parish. But more than a dozen Facebook posts identified by the Times, many of them from the period when Cardinal Prevost led the diocese, showed the priest continuing to work as a priest – often with children. In one instance, Reverend Obando used a church Facebook page to ask children to send him their photographs directly on WhatsApp. The Vatican recently stripped Obando of his clerical status, but he has continued working in Chiclayo. Obando did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comment. Disappointment and anger Ms Quispe was outraged over the handling of her case and, starting in November 2023, began speaking out on online, accusing church leaders of failing to deliver justice or accountability and laying part of the blame on Prevost. 'They always protect them,' she said on TikTok of accused priests, giving them 'total freedom to continue doing harm with no repercussions.' An intermediary eventually put the frustrated women in touch with the Reverend Ricardo Coronado, a priest with conservative leanings who had been photographed socialising with Sodalitium members. It was Reverend Coronado who connected the women with the news program Cuarto Poder, he said in an interview, which further amplified the critique of Cardinal Prevost. Reverend Coronado's involvement in the case was brief. After a few months representing the women, he was defrocked amid separate claims of misconduct. In the interview, he maintained that he was defrocked to remove him from the case. He also insisted that he had not acted on behalf of Sodalitium to represent the women. A lawyer for the women declined to comment. The church declined to make Reverend Vásquez available for an interview. A second priest accused by Ms Quispe has a degenerative illness, the diocese said in a statement, and 'is unable to defend himself, so no case can be opened against him'. In late 2023, citing Ms Quispe's decision to speak out, the Chiclayo diocese said it had reopened the investigation into Reverend Vásquez. With the case continuing, Reverend Vásquez recently asked to leave the priesthood, according to a person with direct knowledge of the case. The person asked not to be identified, fearing retaliation from the church. Reverend Vásquez is awaiting a decision from the Vatican. Reverend Coronado, the defrocked canon lawyer, said he believed the new pope had mishandled the women's claims in Chiclayo – not out of malice, but because of inexperience. 'The pope is another human being,' he said. 'He's not God.'
