Latest news with #RussiaUkraineWar
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Abramovich business associate Eugene Shvidler fails to overturn UK sanctions
A business associate of the oligarch Roman Abramovich has failed to overturn sanctions imposed on him after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, after a supreme court judgment seen as a test case for the UK's sanctions regime. Eugene Shvidler served on the board of companies owned by the former owner of Chelsea football club and now lives in the US. He was placed under sanctions by the UK government in March 2022 as part of measures to target Russia-linked oligarchs and officials after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Shvidler, who was born in the USSR in 1964, grew up in Moscow but is now a British citizen, had challenged his designation at the high court in 2023 and then appealed against that decision last year. He argued the measures caused disproportionate hardship and discriminated against him as a Russian-born person, while also claiming he was not closely associated enough to Abramovich to justify the Foreign Office's move. On Tuesday, a majority decision of four supreme court justices to one dismissed the businessman's appeal, saying that sanctions had to be tough to be effective. The judgment stated: 'Sanctions often have to be severe and open-ended if they are to be effective. The object of the designation in relation to Mr Shvidler is that he should so far as possible be disabled from enjoying his assets and pursuing his wealthy lifestyle.' The judges added: 'We accept that [the government's] evidence establishes that there is a rational connection between the designation of Mr Shvidler and the aim of this sanction … as the courts … correctly recognised in Mr Shvidler's case, the effectiveness of a sanctions regime depends on the cumulative effect of the measures imposed under that regime. The imposition of sanctions in relation to Mr Shvidler contributes to that cumulative effect.' However, in a 20 page dissenting judgment, Lord Leggatt said he disagreed with the majority's decision that the sanctions were lawful, describing it as 'Orwellian' and arguing he did not consider the government had shown a rational connection between the freezing of Shvidler's assets and the objective of sanctions. 'I do not consider that the reasons relied on by the government come close to justifying such a drastic curtailment of his liberty,' he wrote. Shvidler said: 'This supreme court judgment brings me back to the USSR, which I left as a stateless refugee 36 years ago, seeking sanctuary in the US. Back then, individuals could be stripped of their rights with little or no protections and that is how I feel about this judgment.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The UK government imposed sanctions on Shvidler on grounds including that he was associated with Abramovich, who in turn had obtained a benefit from or supported the government of Russia. The Foreign Office argued the men were associated because Shvidler was a long-serving director of Evraz, a steel and mining company in which Abramovich was a leading shareholder. It said he had also served as chair of Millhouse LLC, the Moscow-based arm of the UK company that managed assets for Abramovich and Shvidler himself. In a related case, the judges unanimously dismissed an appeal by Dalston Projects Ltd, a St Kitts and Nevis company that owns a luxury yacht that has been detained at a London dock. The ultimate owner of the yacht is Sergei Naumenko, a Russian citizen and resident who said he had been prevented from earning substantial income from chartering the vessel.
Mail & Guardian
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
Reporting from the West: A return to reason?
The tide is slowly turning on uncritical pro-West reporting on issues such as Russia's war on Ukraine (above) or Israel's genocide in Gaza. Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP In the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an already shrill pro-Western network in South Africa spanning NGOs, academia, and sections of the media took on a hysterical tone. This became frenzied when South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice. Conspiracy theories — such as the claim that Iran bribed the ANC to bring the case — were circulated as fact, and people offering rational and evidence-based critiques of the often propagandistically pro-West network were dismissed as conspiracy theorists, radical economic transformation types or patsies for Russia, China or Hamas. A number of people were slandered in what became a witch-hunt. In this environment, disinformation — a very real issue — was no longer a matter of truth or falsehood: it became a label selectively wielded to discredit critique of the West. Disinformation has never been the exclusive domain of Russia or China. The United States has a long history of covert influence, regime change and strategic propaganda — from Latin America to Africa, the Middle East and beyond. The 'weapons of mass destruction' and ' Yet for some years influential actors in parts of the media, NGO and academic establishment in South Africa echoed Western narratives without scrutiny, treating unevidenced US claims as fact and dismissing dissenting voices as dupes or foreign proxies. On the media front, the Daily Maverick, under Branko Brkic, led the charge. In the NGO world, it was the Brenthurst Foundation under Greg Mills. And in the academy, the leading figure was Herman Wasserman, who, in an article co-authored with Dani Madrid-Morales and Saifuddin Ahmed, declared critical attitudes toward Nato to be the result of 'strategic disinformation narratives' crafted by Russia. Other significant players included BizNews, amaBhungane, the Institute for Race Relations and figures such as RW Johnson, Tony Leon, Franz Cronje and Helen Zille, among others. The effect of this hysteria, triangulated between the media, NGOs and the academy, was to delegitimise critical views and narrow the space for public debate. But the tide is turning. There is now a growing recognition that some of the loudest voices on the South African political and media landscape have, for years, been uncritically echoing the ideological and geopolitical priorities of Western powers. The legitimacy of this behaviour is now being challenged, and with that challenge comes the possibility of a more independent, democratic and principled public debate. The Brenthurst Foundation, once the most aggressive of the think tanks pushing a propagandistically pro-West line, has closed its doors in circumstances that remain opaque. The Daily Maverick, under new editor Jillian Green, no longer maintains the same hard pro-West line. It now includes a broader range of perspectives, including regular critiques of Israel. The publication's credibility took a serious battering in the final years of Brkic's editorship, but it is now in the midst of a clear and welcome restoration. One of the clearest signs of this shift is a recent video commentary published by leading South African journalist Redi Tlhabi in the Daily Maverick itself. Tlhabi delivered a scathing rebuke of how sections of the South African media have treated statements and threats by fringe American politicians as if they were major diplomatic developments. She singled out coverage of two proposed US House Bills targeting South Africa over its stance on Gaza. One had a single sponsor; the other had five — all Republicans — with no bipartisan support, no Senate version and no advancement to committee stage. 'You can't pass a law based on the signatures of five people out of a Congress of 535,' she said. Tlhabi noted that the media manufactured hysteria over 'non-issues' in US-South Africa relations, while failing to scrutinise the political identities, funding sources and actual legislative relevance of the individuals involved. One of those individuals was Representative Ronny Jackson, a far-right Republican from Texas closely aligned with US President Donald Trump. Jackson voted against certifying former president Joe Biden's election, and received more than $125,000 in funding from pro-Israel lobbying interests, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Tlhabi pointed to this as a clear example of how US and Israeli-aligned networks effectively use minor figures in the US and gullible journalists abroad to shift public discourse. 'A lot of money goes back and forth as people try to capture public perception,' she said, naming think tanks such as the Hudson Institute and its relationship with local political actors, as players in a coordinated effort to reshape public debate in South Africa. 'We [the media] must not become players in these political games and machinations,' she warned. 'We must discern and analyse and listen to a plurality of voices.' That this critique appeared in the Daily Maverick is significant. It implicitly marks a rupture with the publication's previous editorial line. It signals a break from a moment in which serious questions about the conduct of Western powers, and about elite alignments in South Africa, were reflexively cast as Russian propaganda, or as a result of machinations by China, Iran or Hamas. It is fascinating to see how a line of critique that until recently was aggressively dismissed as conspiracy theory or 'disinformation' has now been articulated in the mainstream media by one of our most respected journalists. It's often said that Gandhi once remarked, 'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.' The quote is misattributed. It actually comes from the American labour lawyer Nicholas Klein, who told a room of union members in 1918: 'First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.' In reality, there isn't always a monument. Sometimes an idea or a position slowly becomes common sense. This is exactly what we are now seeing with the quiet return of reason to South Africa's public sphere. A once-hysterical conversation is giving way — slowly, inconsistently, but discernibly — to a more grounded one. If we are serious about defending truth and democracy, we need to be consistent. We must subject all global powers to the same level of critical scrutiny. That means acknowledging the ideological work done by US-funded think tanks, media partnerships and academic exchanges. It means recognising that disinformation is a global problem — and that when it comes from the West it is often cloaked in the language of freedom, democracy and human rights. A mature public discourse must be able to hold this complexity without collapsing into paranoia or propaganda. It is both possible and necessary to hold multiple critiques at once. One can oppose Russian aggression in Ukraine without parroting Nato or Western talking points. One can denounce Iranian authoritarianism while still rejecting US and Israeli propaganda. This is what a genuinely democratic and independent political culture looks like. Tlhabi and the Daily Maverick are to be commended for taking an important step forward in the restoration of the credibility of our public sphere after the years of uncritical pro-West hysteria. This advance will also be well served by a frank appraisal of the routine recourse to conspiracy theory in BizNews, which continues to poison our public sphere. Dr Imraan Buccus is senior research associate at ASRi and the University of the Free State.
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump shortens deadline for Russia to make peace deal with Ukraine
President Donald Trump discusses the Russia-Ukraine war with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a meeting in Turnberry, Scotland.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Russia's night attack on Kyiv leaves eight injured, including child, Ukraine says
KYIV, July 28 (Reuters) - A Russian overnight air attack on Kyiv wounded eight residents of an apartment building, including a three-year-old child, authorities in the Ukrainian capital said on Monday. Four of those injured in the attack, which took place soon after midnight on Monday, have been hospitalised, with one person in serious condition, the head of Kyiv's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said on the Telegram messaging app. Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that all of the people were residents of a multi-storey apartment building in the city's Darnytskyi district on the left bank of the Dnipro River. "The blast wave damaged windows from the 6th to the 11th floor," Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. The capital and most of Ukraine were under air raid alerts for several hours overnight following Ukrainian Air Force warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks. With the threat of missile strikes on western parts of Ukraine that border Poland - a NATO member - Polish armed forces scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace. The central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskyi came under an attack, regional Governor Andriy Raikovych said, adding that emergency services were working on the site and information about potential damage will be released later on Monday. The full scale of the Russian attack on Ukraine was not immediately known. Reuters' witnesses heard loud blasts shaking the city of Kyiv overnight in what sounded like air defence units in operation. There was no comment from Russia on the attack. Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strikes in the war that Russia started in February 2022. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
CTV News
2 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim rejects outreach by South's new president
This photo provided by the North Korean government, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, delivers a speech during a national meeting against the coronavirus, in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Aug. 10, 2022. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File) SEOUL, South Korea — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed overtures by South Korea's new liberal government, saying Monday that North Korea has no interests in talks with South Korea no matter what proposal its rival offers. Kim Yo Jong's comments suggest again that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end. 'We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with' South Korea, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media. It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June. In an effort to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea, Lee's government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier. Kim Yo Jong called such steps 'sincere efforts' by Lee's government to develop ties. But she said the Lee government won't be much different from its predecessors, citing what it calls 'their blind trust' to the military alliance with the U.S. and attempt to 'stand in confrontation' with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-U.S. military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the U.S. since leader Kim Jong Un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals. North Korea now prioritizes cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the U.S. and others say Russia may even give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs. Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn't publicly responded to Trump's overture. In early 2024, Kim Jong Un ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an 'invariable principal enemy.' That caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Many experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it as a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of national homogeneity. Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated Press
